Today, we release my full interview with Critical Drinker. Join me as I seek to destroy Matt Walsh and his insanely stupid take on “Lord of the Rings.” - - - Today’s Sponsor: Home Title Lock - Go to https://hometitlelock.com/shapiro and use promo code SHAPIRO to get a FREE title history report so you can find out if you’re already a victim AND 14 days of protection for FREE! And make sure to check out the Million Dollar TripleLock protection details when you get there! Exclusions apply. For details visit https://hometitlelock.com/warranty
Chapter 1: What is the focus of the interview with Critical Drinker?
Well, folks, since I'm off, I thought that you might enjoy the full interview that I did with Critical Drinker. It's an awesome interview, it's really enjoyable, and it's a nice break. So we've had a literary take on why Lord of the Rings is great and not too long. And now I need a movie expert's take on why Matt Walsh is wrong.
Because if we're going to fisk somebody, we're doing it in a comprehensive fashion here. Joining us on the line is the critical drinker to analyze Matt Walsh's hot take that Lord of the Rings is bad because it is too long, among other critiques. Good to see you. How are you doing? I'm good, thank you. How are you?
You know, I'm doing well, except I just, I can't deal with the fact that there's a person who works for our company who has such stupid thoughts about Lord of the Rings. So I need to get your take on Matt's take.
I mean, Matt seems like a nice guy, but man, he has some bad takes on media and I think this is up there with the worst of them. His primary complaint seems to be that the films are too long and therefore they are bad. And I've never held with that complaint about any movie. It should be as long as the plot dictates. And in this case, there is an awful lot of plot to get through.
Chapter 2: Why does Matt Walsh criticize Lord of the Rings?
So these movies deserve to be as long as they are. In fact, the theatrical cuts aren't even long enough. It's the extended cuts that you really want for the proper experience.
I mean, I have exactly the same issue with Matt's take. I mean, I think it's actually his second worst movie take after The Dark Knight is super overrated. It's his other horrifyingly bad movie take. But the whole point of the—unlike The Hobbit, which is way too long because the plot does not justify the length of those films. And the book itself makes this clear.
Chapter 3: How long should a movie be according to Critical Drinker?
I mean, the whole series of—so The Hobbit itself is about a 300-page book. The entire series of Lord of the Rings is over 1,000 pages. I mean, it is a very, very long book. And the movie doesn't even cover everything that's in the book, and it's still long, and it moves quickly. I mean, it's one of those movies where you finish Fellowship, and you're surprised that it's over already.
Chapter 4: What makes the world of Lord of the Rings so immersive?
Absolutely, yeah. And I think part of the issue is that it's a fantasy novel, or it's based on a fantasy novel. And fantasy stories stand or fall based on the world that they create. It's got to be a living, breathing, believable world that's got depth to it. And that's the thing that the Lord of the Rings movies do so well. It really gets you invested in this world.
And it helps you to understand that what you're seeing is just one small story in a much grander saga that's been going on for thousands of years. There is so much history there, there is so many different cultures, so much that's going on outside the scope of this narrative.
It conveys all of that and I think that's what allows people to get so immersed into these movies so effectively and of course it takes a lot of time to do that.
Chapter 5: How does religion influence the story of Lord of the Rings?
One of the things that I also find weird about Matt's take on this is that obviously Matt is a very Christian person. The entire Lord of the Rings saga is filled with Christian symbolism and Christian imagery. And it's replete throughout the series. But Matt is a very literal-minded movie watcher, I think.
I mean, Tolkien himself was a Catholic and obviously raised in a very different time when religion was still extremely prevalent in British culture. And when he set out to make this, his whole goal was to create a mythology for England, which I think he did superbly. And he brought in elements of...
paganism, of various religions, Arthurian legends, the story of Atlantis, and the faith-based aspect, some of his Catholicism, all brought together into this beautiful epic story. So it's a superb piece of work.
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Chapter 6: What are the risks of home title theft?
The methodology that Jackson used in making Lord of the Rings holds up better than much of the CGI that is currently being made today.
Absolutely, yeah. I think, as you say, they used CGI sparingly and they used these enormous models of fortresses, cities, all that stuff, and then just composited in the CGI on top of it. And I think these movies just came along at that perfect time when perhaps CGI...
hadn't developed to the point where it was ubiquitous and so you had to rely on to an extent older fashion methods with a bit of that cgi mixed in and you got the perfect balance and yeah they did loads of location shots that a lot of the if you watch the behind the scenes stuff shooting especially fellowship it was miserable like they were slogging through uh snow rain muds
But it creates this beautiful, believable world. Again, it gets you immersed in it. If it was done now, it would be done on a soundstage at Marvel, and they'd have a volume screen around them. And it would just be such a flat, uninteresting, uninvolving experience.
So I think these movies are where that combination of great storytelling and gradually increasing, improving technology, they just reach that apex of success. where it was just perfectly balanced. Now we're skewing far too much in favor of technology, and storytelling has suffered a great deal because of that.
MARK MANDELMANN, So this analysis is really useful, but I need more dunking on Matt. So you said that you've seen a lot of Matt's hot takes. On the list of hot takes, where does this hot take fall?
This has got to be up there. I mean, if you're going to make fun of any movie trilogy and be a detractor for it, the worst target you can possibly pick is the Lord of the Rings. I mean, it's like universally beloved. So the only thing I will side with him on to some extent is the Army of the Dead in Return of the King was a little bit of a deus ex machina.
In the books, they're not as involved and a lot of the things that they do kind of happen off screen. So yeah, they do kind of come in and save the day a little bit and it oversimplifies the battle of the Pelennor Fields, sadly, but it's what you have to do. Otherwise, the movie would be like 10 hours long.
So I have to ask you also, we talked with the Tolkien expert who literally looks like a hobbit living in a hobbit hole about the Lord of the Rings books. You obviously are familiar with the books. You're familiar with the movies. Which do you prefer, the movies or the books?
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