It's persisting down here.
I hate when people say that - so I'm not overly sure why I just did.
It's raining.
The rain is coming down.
It's wet and it's cold and I think that mother nature didn't get the "its summer!" memo.
I'm at work early - not because I am dedicated but because I cadged a ride into town that happened to be really early but really free with a breakfast of poached eggs on the side.
Work has a madness to it right now, an underlying insanity that whispers around the edges for anyone with the ears to hear it. Maybe that's not such a bad thing - they say you need to be a bit crazy in business to succeed and maybe if we could actually grasp the enormity of the change we are creating at the moment, we would be so paralysed with fear we wouldn't move at all. In our ingnorant confidence we are moving, one gulp of air at a time, towards either a glorious, magnificent success; or a beautiful, catastrophic implosion.
And now I have to say something about Lord of the Rings too. Return of the King. Peter Jackson told the story, and it's is beautiful, and showcases our country like nothing ever has before.. but it's not exceptional in it's scriptwriting or acting. It's well done. It's true [enough] to the original books to keep most fans relatively happy, and the story is told well enough for the rest of us to be engaged. (Except for Mike, who always falls asleep during them and wakes to ask "Who's that guy?" and you have to say "Arragorn." and he'll say "Oh." then look at the screen for a while before asking the next question "Who's Arragorn?" - interestingly enough, the inability to follow the story and the characters is a common thread through some of the people I've met and heard interviewed).
Hells teeth, I couldn't even read the books.. I ended up throwing Fellowship of the Ring across the room in disgust that Gandalf didn't stay dead. I never picked it up again. I was a sci fi/fantasy fan at the time - I just had the feeling that the books had had their day, and people had done a better job since - as they should.
I thought the Return of the King was a fitting ending to the trilogy and kept in tone of the movies that had gone before. They could have been renamed as: "Frodo's Starts", "Arragorn Carrys On", and "Gandalf's Turn".
I don't think there is any really great acting in there - they did a decent job and worked well as an ensamble cast. The script is well - not great =>"a diversion" (he is blonde, after all) <= The special effects are very good, superior even to the first two movies and the costuming and the scale of the production is "exceptionally bold" but in the end, its a job well done. So maybe another Oscar to Richard Taylor and the crew for Special Effects, and wow, why not an Oscar to Peter Jackson - I don't know what the criteria is for a Direction award - maybe it does include making 3 movies simultaniously - he is a storyteller and he managed that well. Maybe he should be getting a Life Time achievement Award but he's probably too young for that though he's earned it already. Maybe the award he should get is an Oscar for Bravery in the Face of Ingnorant Confidence . I hear people loving the soundtrack but I can't even remember it - is that a sign of a good soundtrack? Maybe. At least Celine Dion didn't sing anything. Do they have Oscars for Ensemble Casts? Oh, maybe an Oscar for Cinematography though if I never see a close-up of a muddy hand opening to reveal a gold ring, it will be too soon.
No one will be screaming louder at the television screening of the Oscars than I will - 1 Award or 5 Awards.
I'll tell you one thing that Mr Jackson did that he'll never get an award for - he managed to pull this country together to fell like a team. From the very first day he was including all of us - asking for people to send in their ideas for locations, hiring thousands of people as extras, introducing our country to the world in the best possible light and media form, and letting us make people feel welcome as if we were his personal designated hosts. You won't find any New Zealander who wasn't either in the film, or knows someone who was in the film. You'll hear stories about families running into camera crews filming in passes and walkways and mountaintops. People here felt so connected to the project that thousands lined the streets of Wellington for the Premiere, even more watched the events via webcams and television coverage.
I'm emensely proud that Peter Jackson is a New Zealander and that he did a good job with this project - on time, on budget, happy customers.