worldwide gross of almost three billy

December 16, 2021 9:45 AM

Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of “The Fellowship of the Ring” with some special guests.

Bonus link: Lords of the Rhymes, the old school original.

posted by skycrashesdown (53 comments total)

(I thought about making a bigger post about the 20th anniversary, but honestly just wanted a excuse to post “Lords of the Rhymes“, one of the best things the Internet has ever produced.)
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:46 AM on December 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

(I thought about making a bigger post about the 20th anniversary, but honestly just wanted a excuse to post “Lords of the Rhymes“, one of the best things the Internet has ever produced.)

You weren’t kidding… that slaps.

Did anyone see Viggo in the Colbert video? I couldn’t pick him out.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 10:27 AM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Did anyone see Viggo in the Colbert video? I couldn’t pick him out.

Wasn't he the one rapping in Elvish?
posted by Avelwood at 10:46 AM on December 16, 2021

I think Viggo shows up briefly in a still photo, grinning to show the knocked out tooth.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 10:46 AM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

The one rapping in Elvish was Hugo Weaving in a puffy jacket and a distractingly-Graham-Norton-esque beard.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 10:47 AM on December 16, 2021 [7 favorites]

The one rapping in Elvish was Hugo Weaving

Oh. I see now. That makes more sense.
posted by Avelwood at 10:50 AM on December 16, 2021

#1 trilly?

what about the Mick Travis Trilogy?
posted by philip-random at 11:19 AM on December 16, 2021

Stephen Colbert seems to be threading the needle between having a nerdy appreciation of Lord of the Rings, and being defined by his nerdy appreciation of Lord of the Rings.
posted by MrGuilt at 11:31 AM on December 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

In re: "he broke two toes", a Tik Tok for all of you who, like me, have to stop yourself from yelling out trivia from the DVD commentaries/making of every time you watch it.
posted by damayanti at 11:36 AM on December 16, 2021 [23 favorites]

I clicked on Colbert's number one trilly blind last night as I often do before bed and found it much more delightful than I expected or it had any right to be.
posted by wierdo at 11:39 AM on December 16, 2021

There was no live Viggo. The video was fun. But I can see why he wouldn't want to do that.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:39 AM on December 16, 2021

the 20th anniversary of the release of “The Fellowship of the Ring”

Man, I can't believe that movie came out all the way back in 1980!
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:48 AM on December 16, 2021 [40 favorites]

Random Anna Kendrick is gold.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:50 AM on December 16, 2021 [10 favorites]

I'm glad they got the Hobbits there - but damn, nothing holds a candle to the lord of the rhimes
posted by rebent at 12:05 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

The sword punch of JarJar at the end was timed really well...and weirdly cathartic. I think I'd been holding in some anger I didn't even know was there.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 12:16 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

skycrashesdown: “(I thought about making a bigger post about the 20th anniversary, but honestly just wanted a excuse to post “Lords of the Rhymes“, one of the best things the Internet has ever produced.)”

Special Agent Dale Cooper: “You weren’t kidding… that slaps.”

Elvish singing is not a thing to miss.
posted by ob1quixote at 12:43 PM on December 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

I want Anna's t-shirt!

Hmm, I just found a way to break my wife's fixation on trying to find a watchable Christmas movie. "I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it". Extended editions marathon, coming up!
posted by Ber at 1:05 PM on December 16, 2021 [6 favorites]

When did Orlando Bloom merge with Pedro Pascal?
posted by The Tensor at 1:43 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

Stephen Colbert spoke at the RSA Conference in 2014. If you know someone who has read the Silmarillion, Colbert is even more of a Tolkien fan than that. I would not be surprised if he can recite it from memory.
posted by tommasz at 1:51 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

The biggest problem with the trilogy is that Fellowship is just so much better than the other two. Two Towers and Return of the King are solid films, unlike the two Matrix sequels, but Fellowship is just put together so well that it's hard to not feel a little bit disappointed by the others when they're watched back to back.
posted by wierdo at 2:06 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]

Hey Ber, do you and/or your wife like non-traditional Christmas movies? Either of you by chance Terry Pratchett fans? Got an Amazon Prime or Tubi account? If any of those sound like you or you're just willing to take a chance, give The Hogfather a try. It's available on Prime or Tubi free with membership and for $3 on Youtube.
posted by Lynsey at 2:15 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I can do Pratchett but my wife is less so. She watched Good Omens and it didn't really move the needle. Too much whimsy for her.
posted by Ber at 2:33 PM on December 16, 2021

Fellowship is just put together so well...

One of the very best moments in terms of cinematography/effects is the 'cave troll' fight in Moria. I recall watching the scene several times before I finally realized what made it so engrossing: there's no music! It may be the only action sequence in the trilogy without scoring. All you hear is the sound of the fight and the troll. A subtle bit of tension raising brilliance!
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:57 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

The Fellowship was better, because it was all new to us. Ian McKellen as Gandalf!!! I thought the Two Towers was great, and only RotK was lacking.
posted by Windopaene at 2:59 PM on December 16, 2021

tommasz: "If you know someone who has read the Silmarillion"

Um… hasn't everybody read it? What did you do as a teenager, "date"?
posted by signal at 3:01 PM on December 16, 2021 [20 favorites]

Twenty years was SO LONG AGO that I can remember feeling uncomfortable peeing in front of the life-sized Legolas standee in the ladies’ room of Blockbuster Video.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:16 PM on December 16, 2021

RotK was lacking

The 'wax on-wax off' with the undead army was foreshadowing for the horrors to come in Hobbit.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 3:39 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I can say without hyperbole that this is the greatest video in the history of civilization.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:28 PM on December 16, 2021

If you know someone who has read the Silmarillion, Colbert is even more of a Tolkien fan than that. I would not be surprised if he can recite it from memory.

Hardcore!
posted by kirkaracha at 5:29 PM on December 16, 2021

RotK had like a billion endings. I get it; it's hard to wrap up a massive project like this, but... Ye gods, Peej, how many fade-to-black moments can an audience tolerate??

Fellowship is just better paced, honestly. It has a clear hero (Frodo, even though he's kind of a blob of a character) and all the beats of the hero's journey. Ends with Boromir's redemptive moment and death. Felt like a complete package.

My BFF in high school and I were basically obsessed with Fellowship when it came out. I can't believe it's been twenty years. Seems like just yesterday we were writing bad fanfic on Blogspot about what really went down at the Prancing Pony.
posted by basalganglia at 5:42 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

The biggest problem with the trilogy is that Fellowship is just so much better than the other two.

Fellowship was a much better book than the Two Towers and Return of the King so it makes sense that it's a much better movie too.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:11 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

>RotK had like a billion endings. I get it; it's hard to wrap up a massive project like this, but... Ye gods, Peej, how many fade-to-black moments can an audience tolerate??

I remember having to pee so bad in the theatre, and after one of the fakeout endings I was like, I just gotta go and left, and when I came back it was basically just in time for another fakeout ending.
posted by GoblinHoney at 6:20 PM on December 16, 2021 [6 favorites]

I loved this but it did need an appearance from Bret McKenzie. I'm going to pretend they asked him & he was just unavailable.
posted by edencosmic at 7:17 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

Fellowship is a true gem of a movie. One of those very very rare times where the images on the screen almost exactly matched the images I had in my mind when I read the book, and this happened over and over while watching the film. I've never felt so much like I was 12 years old again as I felt when I was watching that movie. Truly remarkable experience.

The entire trilogy is ridiculously great. They deviate from the books really significantly as the thing goes along, and the giant battle scenes are fun the first time but get tiresome after some rewatches. But I am one of the fools brilliant geniuses who did the full Extended Trilogy Marathon in the movie theater... TWICE. Something like 13 hours total, with hour long breaks between the movies and a unique "bring in outside food and drink" policy that was surprising. It's weird going into a movie theater at 10am and leaving close to midnight.

So maybe it's time for a rewatch. I overdosed on it at one point and haven't really revisited it for a while, so time to drag out the DVDs!
posted by hippybear at 7:20 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]

Stephen Colbert spoke at the RSA Conference in 2014. If you know someone who has read the Silmarillion, Colbert is even more of a Tolkien fan than that.

Okay so, Colbert references the Silmarillion all the time, but afaict he never, ever goes beyond it in nerdiness. I don't know if that's because he actually hasn't read the 13 volumes of notes Christopher Tolkien found in his dad's attic and published, or if it's a deliberate decision to keep it reasonably contained on his shows, but this question honestly consumes me.

If I ever become an A-list celebrity it will be entirely for the sake of landing a Colbert interview and demanding he list the mother-names of the sons of Feanor.
posted by goblin-bee at 2:55 AM on December 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I remember seeing the very first trailer with my then-girlfriend and instantly calling out all the characters: "That's Gandalf! That's Frodo! That's Boromir!" and my GF just looking at me "How can you even being to know?"

I still think it's the best cast movie of all time.
posted by Harald74 at 4:03 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

But I am one of the fools brilliant geniuses who did the full Extended Trilogy Marathon in the movie theater... TWICE.

I’ve done this as well (albeit only once on the big screen) but actually did so a few days before the extended RotK was released on DVD. I was reflecting a few days ago on how far back that was... one of the people I attended with was my friend Sara, heavily pregnant at the time (November 2004), and her daughter has now just gotten her driver’s license.

The personal trivium which I cannot resist bringing up about the films is that twenty years ago this autumn there was an exhibit of the props and costumes in Toronto. So far as I know, it never was shown anywhere else, and I have no idea why Toronto of all places should wind up with the honour. I mean, I can’t even recall Peter Jackson ever even being there for the film festival or anything.

Anyway, the display was held in this massive stately home-turned-museum called Casa Loma, which many of us will have seen eighteen months earlier, in X-Men; how could any self-respecting nerd pass up the chance to go look at The One Ring in Professor Xavier’s mansion? In any event, I had no idea whether or not this trilogy idea was going to work. It was light on star power (I suspect they the most recognizable actors in the titular fellowship were Sean Bean and John Rhys-Davies), and outside the nine, Christopher Lee was well-known but after that... maybe Cate Blanchett, from Elizabeth a couple years earlier. Even Ian McKellen hadn’t been in much beyond art house fare.

The workmanship on everything was spectacular, and I recall looking at Theodén’s robes and noting that Bernard Hill had been wearing three or four layers of costume, with every layer meticulously crafted.

The one thing that sticks in my mind is one prop that I did not see onscreen later, despite looking carefully: in one high-ceilinged room were some of the larger pieces, including the two twisted tree trunks, rusted chains, and tattered banners that made up Sauron’s battle standard. Hanging amongst the chains, nine different corroded crowns.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:09 AM on December 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

The biggest problem with the trilogy is that Fellowship is just so much better than the other two.

as already noted by any-portmanteau-in-a-storm, I think Fellowship's the superior book. Maybe because so much of it concerns entry into Middle Earth, the casting of the spell. Who wants to ever leave ... even with all the orcs and balrogs and ringwraiths corrupted wizards?

But I am one of the fools brilliant geniuses who did the full Extended Trilogy Marathon in the movie theater... TWICE.

Haven't done it in a proper theatre but I have more than once done the full extended trilogy at a friend's place who has a full-on projection setup. What we did was break it down into a full week of viewing. Each of the extended movies came on two DVDs, so one of them per evening. And then we took one night off between Two Towers and Return of the King. It really works well this way. More of a miniseries than three movies. No fatigue. And the long version of Return of the King in particular is stronger than the shorter theatrical release when spread over two sittings. You need that extra time to really resolve things.

Speaking of this resolving, I do think it speaks to the biggest blunder of the Peter Jackson's adaptation. So much of what makes the final two movies clunkier than they need to be is stuff that the screenwriters added to the telling, that actually made things longer, more complicated. Aragorn's non-death for starters. But like a great prog rock epic that has perhaps more epic guitar solos than necessary, I love it all anyway.
posted by philip-random at 7:26 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Okay, I’ll give it a try:

MetaFilter: a great prog rock epic that has perhaps more epic guitar solos than necessary
posted by Ranucci at 8:07 AM on December 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I watched this like four times, it's great. Can't wait to hear Billy and Dom talk about it on their (hilarious!) podcast. I love that Stephen is a Tolkien nerd, and it was fun seeing things like them rapping about broken toes while pretend kicking something (which is how Viggo broke his toes - kicking an orch helm).

Haven't watched the films in ages now, given that I binged them over and over at one point. Might be time for a re-watch.
posted by gemmy at 9:23 AM on December 17, 2021

"Dumbledore was killed by a high school chemistry teacher" - I spit out Diet Coke on that one.
posted by Ber at 10:03 AM on December 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

I think rating the books of LotR is kind of weird? Despite calling it a trilogy, it’s not 3 separate books; it’s a long novel in 3 parts.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:38 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Okay so, Colbert references the Silmarillion all the time, but afaict he never, ever goes beyond it in nerdiness. I don't know if that's because he actually hasn't read the 13 volumes of notes Christopher Tolkien found in his dad's attic and published, or if it's a deliberate decision to keep it reasonably contained on his shows, but this question honestly consumes me.

I'm pretty sure he's gone beyond it; I can't find the clip but I do recall seeing him go off on someone who came in with some (weak) LOTR trivia questions about Gandalf and doing an extended rant about who Gandalf was and who he served/learned under in Valinor, and it definitely hit on some areas that I had no clue about as a Silmarillion reader. (I've tried to do Unfinished Tales, but failed).

I still love the movies, although I sat down with them again with one of my kids, who had never seen them. Fellowship is tight and solid, but we bogged down in The Two Towers - of the three, I think it is the one where Jackson did the most inserting, and it feels downright ponderous to me now. Interestingly, I was also listening to the audiobooks, and was finding the same thing - Towers is a ponderously slow book, expanding the scope beyond the tight focus on the Fellowship to show us the rest of the world. And it feels like everything, everything - in both books and films - is of dire import; it's all so serious, all the time. Which was something younger me never really noticed. And, as Honest Trailers noted, if the films are filled with walking, hiking, strolling, etc; the books are filled with singing. Everyone takes a turn breaking into song about one thing or another; it could be a musical.

Anyways, I guess I'm coming to a point where I have much love and fondness for Tolkien and Middle-Earth, but perhaps my time there is over.

This rap is fantastic though.
posted by nubs at 10:59 AM on December 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

it’s a long novel in three parts

Well, yes. The story is that the publisher (Rayner Unwin, was it?) thought it not feasible to publish it as a thousand-page tome but noted that Tolkien had handily divided it into six “books.” Any two of these were a reasonable length, so like Caesar with Gaul, he divided it into three parts.

I have read that the actual titles of the three volumes we all know were supplied by Unwin’s son, who had read the manuscripts and loved them. He was about 11 or 12 at the time and he was the trailblazer for decades of twelve-year-olds being floored by the book.

If true, there is a pleasing symmetry here: at age 10, young Rayner’s enthusiasm for The Hobbit manuscript helped persuade his own father to publish it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:07 AM on December 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

It's definitely cute and I think John Batiste is a national treasure. But man, it just brings home to me one of the significant reasons why I bounced out of these movies and the whole fandom in general--they have to bring in an actress from a random different trilogy just to have a female face in there. There were other things that drove me out, but that was a big one.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:50 PM on December 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I recently listened to the Silmarillion on audiobook, and it was fun, but… so many names… that don’t matter. It’s like playing a TTRPG where the GM has an awesome scene between two NPCs. Ugh.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:10 PM on December 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

This has me listening to Lords of the Rhymes again, and, friends, 20 years later, Black Riders is still a banger.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 7:02 PM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I’m Quickbeam with the master plan
And I’m Bombadil with the mic in my hand
We’re Lords of the Rhymes from a far-off land
And we’ll rock this joint with our hobbit band

Yo B! Yo Dil! It’s time to get ill!
So light up the mic like a Silmaril
Frodo’s on the lam with Pippin and Sam
But you can call him Underhill!
posted by moonlight on vermont at 7:05 PM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Colbert references the Silmarillion all the time, but afaict he never, ever goes beyond it in nerdiness.

Colbert had a bit role in the Hobbit. Apparently, there was a regular Tolkien trivia contest among the cast and crew, including Peter Jackson. Colbert beat them all.
posted by jb at 9:14 PM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Really enjoyed seeing a potato get some screen time.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:07 AM on December 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Bonus link: Lords of the Rhymes yt , the old school original.

Holy crap! That was amazing, and I had definitely never seen that! They do a REALLY GOOD JOB at mimicking the Beastie Boys in style, sampling, and rhymes. Super solid, and thank you!
posted by Snowishberlin at 4:04 PM on December 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Colbert had a bit role in the Hobbit. Apparently, there was a regular Tolkien trivia contest among the cast and crew, including Peter Jackson. Colbert beat them all.

he regularly challenges anyone that worked on LOTR to trivia contests on his show and beats them all until Billy Boyd stumped him by asking for the exact location within Fangorn Forest where Treebeard’s entmoot with Merry and Pippin took place (A: Derndingle). (Video)
posted by numaner at 11:57 AM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

For some more back story, read The Silmarilly.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:06 PM on January 7, 2022 [2 favorites]