Peter Jackson will be taking the world back to his vision of Middle Earth with the prequel to The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit. After his wonderful production of The Lord of the Rings, that pretty much became a cultural phenomenon, I’m excited and hopeful about The Hobbit. I trust Peter Jackson with this story.

The Hobbit was the first fantasy novel I remember reading, way back circa 1981.  My introduction to Middle Earth, and to the fantasy book genre in general, coincided with my first getting into Dungeons & Dragons. So it sits comfortably in a nice little second breakfast nook in my heart. I recently read the book to my boys.

The Hobbit – Behind the Scenes

The film won’t be released until some time in 2012, but Peter Jackson is giving us a video blog of the filming. I found it not just interesting, but endearing.

Bullgrit

I am excited and apprehensive.

The movie website.

Captain America is my greatest hero. I respect him above any Star Wars or Star Trek character, and above any other superhero. This movie could be awesome, or it could be terrible. Sadly, from what I’ve seen produced by Hollywood in the past decade, I don’t give awesome a 50/50 chance. I don’t trust Hollywood with this kind of character.

I almost don’t want to even talk about this. Such is my great fear of it being total crap, and being a total rape of the Captain America story. As much as I would love to see a well-done Cap’n A movie, I also very much would tell Hollywood, “Don’t you dare put your shitty little hands on this icon.”

But it’s too late for that. It’s done. We’ll see what the result is in July.

Bullgrit

Continued from here.

It’s been right many years since I’ve seen The Sons of Katie Elder, but I could remember most of it. Strangely, though, I couldn’t remember how it ends. Turned out I did actually remember the ending, I just didn’t realize the John Wayne Western ending I remembered was for this movie. They’ve all kind of gotten a bit jumbled in my memory over the years.

Before the movie started, Calfgrit10 asked me about Westerns:

“Is that where they have the guns that they have to click to make them shoot?” he asked.

“Yes, they have to pull the hammer back before they pull the trigger to shoot it.” I explained. “It’s called single action. . .” and I explained how they work.

“And they use those rifles with the handle underneath?” he asked. He sort of mimed the action of a lever under a rifle.

“Yep, that’s called a lever action,” I explained, and I described what that action does mechanically.

He was remembering the time I took him out shooting guns with my father and brother, (and brogrit’s girlfriend).  He shot my dad’s single action revolver that day.

I inherited that .357 revolver, as well as a lever action .30-.30, when my dad passed. They’re up hidden in my office now. While Calfgrit10 and I were discussing the weapons of Western movies, I had the urge to go get the guns and show him. I wanted to say, “You know, I have a couple of those kinds of guns. Let me show you.” But, that’s too close to, “Hey, you wanna see my dad’s guns?” But those words are dreadfully dangerous. So I put the thought away. I could show him in a more appropriately reverent and calm moment some time later outside the excitement of movie time.

We watched the movie, and he seemed to enjoy it. He didn’t get up from the sofa with me, and he didn’t talk about other things during the scenes. That’s signs that he was engrossed in the experience, just like me.

Afterward, he said he liked the movie, and would be interested in seeing another Western with me some time. Great. I wish we could have watched the movie with my dad, and had three generations of us men loving a Western at the same time. That would have been cool. My dad would have really enjoyed that.

Bullgrit

I survived my bout with whatever bug was ravaging my body this week. I went back to work Thursday. Since all I do at work is sit in front of a computer, I only need a clear mind, not a strong body. And with the fever gone, my mind was clear. My body can just catch up while I’m productive.

Sick days ain’t as fun as I remember they used to be. I remember sitting on the couch, watching TV, taking naps, and generally relaxing on sick days. This time, though, my sick days sucked.

I spent most hours of the day in misery. But even for those few hours, (in the morning), when my temperature dipped down below the delirious level, I was too freakin’ exhausted from the high-fever tossing and turning and trembling and not sleeping to do anything rambunctious like getting out of bed and walking down the stairs to the couch and big TV. Hell, it was an effort to lay in bed and click the remote for the little* TV in our bedroom.

There was nothing of any interest to me on TV during the day, anyway. I swear, cable gives us hundreds of channels, (of which I only ever tune into maybe a half dozen over a month’s time), but I ended up spending a couple hours in a row literally just surfing through the channels, maybe stopping on one for just long enough to determine, no, this show ain’t actually going to get interesting.

On Wednesday, Calfgrit10 stayed home from school because he said he wasn’t feeling good. We immediately thought he might have picked up whatever I had, (we’re a sharing family), but he never actually got real sick. And I was just starting to move into recovery from my nasty bug. So while Calfgrit6 went to school, (as “unfair” as he said it was), and Cowgrit did her volunteer thing at the school, my oldest boy and I were left to our own pathetic devices.

It shows just how tired and worn out I was that my first thought wasn’t that we could sit and watch some movies together that day. It took a few hours, nigh on to lunch time before the idea came to me. When the light bulb did go off above my head, I started mentally going through the list of my** movies I had tucked back in the TV cabinet.

There are several in my stash that immediately jump right out at me as obvious, and that I definitely want to watch with my boys, (Spaceballs, Ghostbusters, Aliens, Hawk the Slayer). But then I remembered a set of John Wayne DVDs that I recently brought home from my dad’s house. My dad and I were both big fans of The Duke, and we used to love watching his Westerns together. I decided this might be a fun tradition to introduce to Calfgrit10, who had never before seen a Western. And this sick day together is the only extended period of time we’ve had with each other, (without the littler boy), since he’s become old enough to watch with me. So I pulled out The Sons of Katie Elder.

To be continued. . .

Bullgrit

* “Little” — my how times (technology, economics) change. Our bedroom TV is a 26″ flatscreen up on top of the chest-o-drawers. When I was young, if we had a TV at all in a bedroom, it would have been a 12″ black and white CRT, (with NO REMOTE!).

** “My” — My movies are a collection of the really cool stuff that Calfgrit6 isn’t yet old enough for, Calfgrit10 hasn’t had time with me without his little brother to see, and Cowgrit doesn’t at all care about. These are separate from the family movies that Cowgrit exclusively picks out.