I'm sorry if my sentences seem less-refined (as if they weren't before) today, but my brain is operating in post-Prom sluggishness. However, this isn't to say that I haven't had any AP Lit experiences during that fun-filled Saturday night that was void of sleep. After we came back from Waffle House at an early 3:00 in the morning, we decided that maybe watching a dull movie would quiet our senses and lull us to sleep--that, of course, combined with a game of Cards for Humanity (an adult spin-off of Apples to Apples...definitely R-rated). We chose to watch the first of the three-part story The Hobbit, which ended up being the best/worst decision I made that night. On one hand, it was a movie that practically spelled out all of these literary roles we give to characters in a classic hero's journey (it was written by the father of the hero's journey himself: Tolkien); this was the best part about it. The worst part was that it was a 3 hour-long movie and lasted us until the wee hours of the morning. Most of my friends fell like stones when the card game was over and they diverted their attention to the movie. That was when they usually noticed that they didn't actually have any attention left for the movie at all and fell right to sleep. However, I was encaptured by the story itself and my curiosity for the story unfortunately forbade me to go to sleep at all that night.
Many people view this movie as being slow to climax and overall a dull movie--ironically in line with the reviews for the book as well. But being the APLit Scholar that I am (a role that I can't leave behind because it's practically ingrained now), I honestly appreciated the 30 minute-long dialogues, the beautiful scenic shots of the dwarves roaming the countryside, and the ugly, frightening, yet comedic monsters that the company faces alnog the way to the biggest opponent of all: the dragon. If anyone wanted to learn anything about the rules and regulations in creating a hero's journey, one needn't look further than this movie. The development in each of the characters clearly points out the unlikely, yet brave hero (the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins) with his fatal flaw of pessimism; his trusty crew who help him along the way to his final battle (all of the dwarves); a wise old man to advise them in all their decisions (Gandalf); a journey into the deep unconscious where the crew is subject to evil desires they must avoid or conquer in order to be successful (trudging along the wild countryside and fighting fantastically grotesque monsters that can symbolize human ugliness. All of these components contribute to the classic hero's tale, all in an effort to, as Gandalf put it, "change you to be a dfferent man when you return home from your journey."
I will agree, to some extent, that the movie is quite lengthy. The book itself isn't at all like any of the Lord of the Rings books; it looks like a regularly-sized novel. However, the content of the book is so heavy that the director split up a 400-page novel into 3 movies, something that I'm still having trouble believing. However, after watching the first movie I understand a bit better the detail that goes with making a great interpretation of Tolkien's famous book, and I'm super nerdily excited for the next two movies to see how it all plays out.
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