After being a prey to conflicting hopes and fears, I award
The Hobbit a healthy 8, perhaps 8.5, out of ten.
The complaints first: like the films of The Lord of the
Rings, some of the vertical scenery is impossibly exaggerated,
and there is a feeling a little too often that things have gone
over the top.
These include the battle of the storm-giants and the size of the
vast underground Goblin city, which seems to hold a population the
size of that of New York at least. Even in Middle Earth, every
precipice does not have to be about 1,000 feet high. On the other
hand, can one really complain about this?
Where the book of The Hobbit tells us that Goblins can
“tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves,” in
the film the Goblin city is all a crazy, Heath Robinson affair,
which tends to diminish the Goblins into comic figures.
Later, when the Hobbit and the Wizard Gandalf take refuge up a
tree, from goblins and giant wolves, the tree has to be poised
precariously on the edge of an unfathomable precipice. The scene in
the book, where this happens in an evil glade in a wood, is quite
tense enough.
It is a pity that at the beginning the exact wording of Bilbo’s
proposed contract with the Dwarves to join them on their hunt for a
dragon-guarded treasure (Gandalf has led them to mistakenly believe
that the Hobbit is an expert burglar) is left out. In the original
it reads with, for the reader, sardonic humor and a glimpse into
Dwarvish business practices that any funeral expenses will be met
“by us or our representatives, if the matter is not otherwise
arranged for” – translated, as soon as Bilbo thinks about it, as:
“You and we may all die and also be eaten.” Perhaps a few more
pauses in the action to take in the marvelous New Zealand scenery
would also be a good idea.
Apart from this, there is very little to complain about: the
wizard Radagast, who is hardly mentioned on the books, gets a
somewhat bigger role, and one that fits well into the story, as do
the appearances of the chief Wizard Saruman and the Elf Queen
Galadrial, who in the books do not appear at all until The
Lord of the Rings.
The misery of Gollum, the hobbit ruined by long possession of
the accursed Ring, sneaking about the slimy lake below the Goblin
tunnels to seize fish or any unwary goblin he can come upon from
behind, is well captured, and hints at the pivotal role he will
unexpectedly play in The Lord of the Rings.
The early scenes in the Shire and Bilbo’s snug little
Hobbit-hole capture the atmosphere of rustic peace with which the
story opens perfectly. Gandalf at first appears as a wandering,
eccentric conjurer, only very gradually transforming into a figure
of power and awe.
The Dwarves are a creative triumph. When I first read The
Hobbit I imagined them as all rather alike and rather comic.
In fact, they show a great range of personalities and appearances,
and no one could mistake the leader, Thorin Oakenshield, for
anything but a grim and proud warrior. While I was glad a few
Dwarvish songs have been preserved from the book, I was surprised
by their gentle, wistful note.
The ruins of Dol Guldur, the ancient fortress now occupied by
evil spirits, have an appropriately ghastly look, especially set
against the Hobbits’ Shire and Rivendel, one of the last surviving
fortresses of the good people.
Two crucial moments in Bilbo’s “growing up” are well done. The
first when, the morning after having adamantly refused to join the
Dwarves on their mad adventure, something in him stirs and he
flings everything aside and runs to follow them. The second is
when, for the first time, he draws his new sword alone against a
hideous enemy. After all, the Wizard had sent him on this adventure
because he had found to his dismay that Hobbits had become greedy,
fat, and complacent, and in no shape to survive the storms that
were about to beat upon the Earth.
The battle scenes, as in The Lord of the Rings, are
magnificent, though some may find them overly violent for
children.
We hardly see Smaug the dragon yet, but I have a feeling that
this will not be the case in the succeeding films.
Overall, The Hobbit lifts the heart, shows evil can be
defeated, and, like its great successor, makes one’s belt feel a
little light without the weight of a good sword on it.
