Looking-out-of-the-window weather has arrived, and here's the perfect accompaniment. Bouncing between Renaissance madrigals and Late Romantic pre-post-modernism, Stephen Oliver's 1981 score for the BBC's radio adaptation of Lord of the Rings sounds like the kind of thing Benjamin Britten might have come up with if given the gig, and feels to me a lot more like the inside of Tolkein's head than Howard Shore's risk-averse brass and whistles. They soar above the scenery. Oliver's score is harder on the shoe leather. This was the first tape I ever put into a walkman. It's good walking music. Sure, some of the "elves" sound a bit flat, but apart from that, a perfect compliment to raindrops.
The Radio adaptation is better in every single regard; story, actors, music, but I'll never get over the falsetto 'seek for the sword that was broken' and 'frodo 9 fingers/praise them' bit. Injurious to the ear. But hey, it's still better than what they did to Faramir in the film.
ReplyDeleteOh god, I'm still angry about film!Faramir.
DeleteWhat did they do to Faramir?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great soundtrack, thank you for the recommendation. Makes me wonder if I should give the radio adaptation a listen as well. (I see Ian Holm was Frodo in that one, which is yet another strong argument in favour.) And if there's one thing I remember about reading the book, it's the feeling of wearily trudging through the endless miles of changing scenery along with the characters, which makes any suggestion of soaring above it all a bit like cheating, now that I think about it.
ReplyDelete(I cannot speak for VB, but the way I see it, Faramir is one of the 'noblest' characters in the entire book - a man of honour and kind to a fault, not to mention the fact that in the original text he swears he won't take whatever it is that is in Frodo's keeping, and then stands by it when it's revealed that thing is actually the One Ring. In the film he's pretty much reduced to Sad Guy Whose Father Hates Him, and apparently that's motivation enough for him to take Frodo and Sam on a scenic detour of Ithilien before coming to his senses right in the middle of the besieged ruins of Osgiliath, and letting the two hobbits go at long last, just as we're all about to die of old age/boredom. Just to make the second film even longer and more pointless than it already was, and push back so much of the plot that there was no way it could all possibly fit in the third film. And to think that The Fellowship of the Ring was such a good film in my book - pun entirely intended, if it even qualifies as one, that is.)
You should defnitely give it a listen. I always felt Faramir was both a man of honour and a Sad Guy Whose Father Hates Him, so much so that I always misremembered Eowyn rejecting him in the books. I think it's harder to visualise moral quandries outside of a book, so I was okay with the films' drawing out of Fararmir's temptation. I preferred it to all the crying.
ReplyDelete100% agree with Lothiriel. Nothing to add at all. He, along with Sam, was the purest character in the book. Sought no fame nor glory, did the right thing every time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you haven't heard the R4 adaptation oh boy are you in for a treat. Almost wholly following the book, spectacular voice cast, brilliant.