1978 was an amazing year for films — especially horror movies. I’m stoked about posting a whole plethora of monstrous missives in October’s lead-up to Halloween. But tonight I’m in the mood for fantasy and I wanted to share this kick ass mash-up I recently added to my YouTube channel.

While you’re likely at least familiar with Peter Jackson’s live action Lord of the Rings trilogy, you might not realize that the first LOTR feature was a masterpiece of strange animation created by cartooning bad boy Ralph Bakshi way back in 1978. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with the latter as many people say it was the blueprint for the former.

The LOTR Wiki comes to the rescue…

Peter Jackson first encountered The Lord of the Rings via Bakshi’s film, and some shots in his live-action trilogy appear to have been influenced by it:

One such shot features Frodo and the other hobbits hiding from a Black Rider under a big tree root, while the Black Rider stalks above them. In his version of the sequence, Jackson uses a similar shot — although he films it from a different angle (in the book, Frodo hid separately from the other hobbits).
A second sequence features the camera slowly revolving around Strider and the hobbits, who stand in a circle as the Black Riders approach them on Weathertop. In his staging, Jackson also uses a similar shot — although his camera is much faster, and Strider is not among the hobbits.

A third similarity is the depiction of Gollum losing the ring in the prologue: both films show very similar events but the book had no such prologue and indeed it runs directly counter to Tolkien’s scheme for the storyline.

Another similarly staged scene is Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn’s discovery of Gandalf the White.
On the DVD commentary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Jackson acknowledges one shot, a low angle of a hobbit at Bilbo’s birthday party shouting “Proudfeet!”, as an intentional homage to Bakshi’s film.

By far the biggest “lift,” however, is the scene of the Nazgûl appearing in the hobbits’ room at the Prancing Pony and slashing the beds to ribbons thinking the shapes under the sheets to be the hobbits (but are actually pillows). This is almost identical to Bakshi’s version, which is significant, as the scene is not depicted in the book; a passage does appear that states that hobbit beds wind up slashed during the night, but the townsfolk of Bree are the perpetrators, not the Nazgûl.
Some of Sam’s interjections are also sourced from Bakshi rather than Tolkien.

Another idea used in both films is to depict Éomer as a late arrival at the Battle of the Hornburg, rather than the book’s Erkenbrand.
Indeed, the whole stricture of the first two installments is but Bakshi’s movie script plight in two and a little expanded with some episodes (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ends exactly where Bakshi’s movie ends: the end of the Battle of Hornburg and Gollum leading Frodo and Sam to Shelob – the Black Gate is presumably cut, since Gollum talks about his “secret way”, and Faramir could be as well, since the Hobbits are journeying through the Mountains of Shadow).

See for yourself right here…

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It’s a new year with a number of birthdays, anniversaries and notable dates to ponder. Yesterday we celebrated Elvis Presley’s birthday and today we’re noting that Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 guitar opus, Darkness on the Edge of Town, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2018. There will likely be more noise about the album when its official June birthday rolls around, but this disc is so essential for me that I’ll likely be posting about it here and there throughout the calendar year.

1975′s Born to Run marked the high point of the mythopoeic teenage soul that Springsteen crafted for his first three releases — early Bruce comes off like an American Van Morrison with funky horn breaks accenting his Dylanesque lyrics. But three years passed between Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town while Bruce fought a legal battle with his management, and by the time he emerged in 1978 his style had transformed into lean, mean guitar music fueling stories rooted in the concerns of the working class. Darkness on the Edge of Town is the gateway to the second act of Springsteen’s career, it’s his hardest rocking record by far, and it’s a wide-eyed witness to the dark side of the American dream.

Here’s a long interview with Bruce about the making of the record from The Promise documentary…

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Keith Moon “The Loon” was born on August 23, 1946. Moon was a flat-out genius, one-of-a-kind rock ‘n’ roll drummer who found a perfect home for his chaotic style in a little band called The Who. Moon was also the poster boy for excessive appetites, and one of rock’s most famous casualties.

From playing in the rubble of post-war London to demolishing his drum kits with his fitful, energetic attack, to his untimely death in 1978, here’s Living Famous: Keith Moon…

Stay Awake!

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While comic book mavens and Benedict Cumberbatch fan girls are anxiously awaiting the release of the new Dr. Strange film, here’s an all-but-forgotten take on the doctor from 1978. Here’s the skinny from ComicBook.com…

In the time of Nicholas Hammond as Spider-Man and Lou Ferrigno/Bill Bixby as the Incredible Hulk, Peter Hooten’s portrayal as Dr. Strange is sort of swept under the magic carpet.

Premiering on September 6, 1978, the Dr. Strange TV movie was the first attempt at bringing the good doctor to life. They did change around a few things here such as Strange works in the psychiatry department instead of neurosurgery and The Ancient One was replaced by actor John Mills as Thomas Lindmer, acting as his mystical guide.

Hooten’s costume definitely had a more oriental look and had the look of the times for Strange, but curious on how they would have handled Strange’s other enemies should this have ever been picked up as a series.

Here’s Doctor Strange, 1978…

Stay Awake!

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While George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was originally panned by critics in 1968, the film has gone on to wide acclaim — it jump-started modern zombie cinema, and also mixed-in dark social commentary about the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960′s.

Romero’s 1978 follow-up, Dawn of the Dead, didn’t suffer a sophomore jinx in the series — everything from the script to the acting to the production values are cranked-up. More importantly, this is the film that defines the zombie of today as a metaphor for American consumer culture run amok.

In keeping with my latest spook-tacular posts, I’m happy to point you to George Romero’s other classic, Dawn of the Dead. If you’ve seen the film before, enjoy it again. If you’re a newbie, get ready to see where the Zombie Apocalypse really began.

Stay Awake!

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