1994-08-26 Assigned to ENDOVASCULAR TECHNOLOGIES reassignment ENDOVASCULAR TECHNOLOGIES ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: COOPER, GEORGE M.
1994-08-26 Assigned to COOPER, GEORGE M. reassignment COOPER, GEORGE M. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: SAKURA, CHESTER Y.
A preferred embodiment of the anastomosis device comprises a cylindrical, radially resilient spring upon which is attached a number of outwardly extending barbs. The radial spring action significantly simplifies the anastomosis procedure and in addition allows the mended portion of the blood vessel to pulsate in a fashion similar to that of the pulsatile action of an unmended vessel. The barbs attach the device to the blood vessel thus maintaining its position securely. The disclosed anastomosis device is recommended for rejoining small blood vessels where a simple, reliable alternative to micro-suturing techniques is desirable. In the anastomosis method of the present invention a cylindrical, radially resilient spring is compressed and placed about one end of a vessel. The second end of the vessel is then placed about the spring and the compression is released.
This invention relates to anastomosis devices and methods of anastomosis and more particularly, though not exclusively, relates to the anastomosis of small blood vessels in the human body.
Accurate and complete anastomosis methods are necessary for successful microvascular surgery. It is often important that the anastomosis be performed in a minimal amount of time in order that tissue damage be avoided, that anaesthesia time is minimized and that the healing process be begun as soon as practicable. The anastomosis should provide a blood-tight seal, yet maintain good patency for blood flow. The presence of any material on the inside of the vessel should preferably be avoided as it can provide a nidus for clot formation. It is also desirable that the blood vessel have the ability to maintain a certain degree of its normal pulsatile action at the point of anastomosis. In addition, anastomosis must often be performed on blood vessels with diameters as small as one millimeter or less, therefore a successful anastomosis technique should be adaptable to such small dimensions.
The refinements of technique in microvascular surgery have developed in two directions. The first approach is the use of microsuture techniques. These surgical techniques have advanced with the aid of the development of operating microscopes, microsutures and microinstruments. They produce very accurate anastomosis and yield good patency. However, the techniques have not been widely used because they not only have the disadvantage of being time consuming, but they also have the disadvantage of requiring an extremely high degree of technical skill. The presence of suture material in the interior of a blood vessel can also present a nidus for clot formation.
The second approach has been in the direction of various mechanical devices or glues which attempt to circumvent the exacting skill and prolonged time required for the suturing techniques. The glues have generally been unsuccessful because of complications involving tissue toxicity and reaction. Stapling techniques have been cumbersome and have been difficult to use on vessels under 2 mm. in size. Other devices have included various tubes, flanges and rings. The rigidity of these devices has presented a problem of functional obstruction during pulsatile flow. The necessity for either everting one end of the vessel or stretching it over the rigid devices makes these anastomosis methods more difficult for smaller vessels.
Zack U.S. Pat. No. 2,453,056 is one such rigid anastomosis device. It is tubular in structure, has a longitudinal slot which permits partial compression and has ring-like clamps which slide over the structure to maintain the vessels in position. Upon compression, the longitudinal slot causes reduction in the surface of the cylindrically shaped device to occur only at the position of the slot and not uniformly about the cylinder. Moreover, the compression of the ring-like clamps may adversely affect the health of the compressed tissue. The Zack device does not have the capability of contraction and expansion during pulsatile flow. Lastly, the ring-like clamps can potentially slide off of the device and thus disrupt the anastomotic mend.
Brown U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,095 and Noble U.S. Pat. No. 3,221,746 are two more examples of rigid anastomosis devices. The Brown device is composed of absorbable material over which the ends of the vessels are stretched and has external clamps similar to the Zach patent. Noble uses hooks as a means for attachment. Both of these devices require the stretching of the ends of the blood vessels over the rigid devices and has considerable exposed surface area in the interior portion of the mended blood vessel. This exposure can provide a nidus for clot formation, can cause obstruction of normal blood flow and their rigidity prevents the vessel from pulsating normally.
Razgulov U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,662 is an eversion device and vascular stapling instrument. This device illustrates the state of the art in vascular stapling techniques for purposes of anastomosis. A portion of the instrument includes a rigid, slotted tubular structure (somewhat resembling the Zack device) that is used as a bushing about which the end of a vessel is everted.
Bucalo U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,528 is another rigid anastomosis device. It uses hooks as a means of attachment and, when in place, is entirely in the internal portion of the blood vessel. As with other rigid devices, this device has no ability to accomodate pulsatile expansion to any degree.
Some non-analogous prior art shows the existence of "s"-shaped metal wire, cylindrical tension devices (see, e.g., Wilkening U.S. Pat. No. 2,293,450). Such devices would not be suitable for use as anastomosis devices even if they had been considered for a number of reasons: (1) They generally are not made of a material which is suitable for implantation into the body. (2) They generally are much too large, not only in diameter, but also in some instances, in the number of "s"-shaped loops. (3) They generally have an undesirable height to diameter ratio. (4) They generally do not have associated barbs which could serve to retain either a snare loop or blood vessels.
Wells U.S. Pat. No. 1,672,591 is a nostril dilator that is essentially a lateral spring mechanism comprising a series of loops. Although it is a spring-like device, this patent is considerably different in structure from the preferred embodiment of the present invention in that it is not radially resilient and is comprised of loops instead of "s"-shaped elements. In use of the Wells device, the outward pressure supplied is only in two directions and the Wells device itself would be much too large to be used with a blood vessel. The Wells device also does not have associated barbs which could serve to retain either a snare loop or blood vessels.
Broadly described, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is a cylindrical, radially resilient spring having "s"-shaped elements of resilient wire. Barbs are attached to the spring and project outwardly for the purpose of securely attaching the device to the blood vessel.
There are numerous advantages which this device has over previous anastomosis techniques. It does not possess the disadvantage of requiring an extremely high degree of technical skill to be utilized effectively, which is a problem with micro-suturing techniques. Nor is it time consuming which is another problem with micro-suturing as opposed to the various stapling techniques. This device can be used effectively on vessels of extremely small diameter.
Because of its radial resiliency, the preferred embodiment can be easily applied to small vessels without excessive stretching of the vessels.
The ready resiliency of the preferred embodiment will allow the device to contract and expand with the pulsating action of a mended vessel. This is a significant aid in avoiding stenosis and blood flow obstruction. It is a significant advance over the prior art devices which are rigid in nature and thus present a functional obstruction during the pulsatile flow of the vessel.
The preferred embodiment of the invention can be used effectively where only a small portion of the vessel to be mended is exposed.
Because the preferred embodiment of the invention has no exposed surfaces in the interior of the blood vessel, it does not create a nidus for clot formation in the intima portion of the mended vessel.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention showing the spring structure and outwardly projecting barbs.
FIG. 2 is an isometric perspective view of the device of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a side view of a surgical snare loop which is a preferred means of compression of the device of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the end of the snare loop of FIG. 3 loosely in position about the device of FIG. 1.
FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the end of the snare loop of FIG. 3 tightened about and in a position ready to compress the device of FIG. 1.
FIG. 6 shows the device of FIG. 1 compressed by the snare of FIG. 3 about the end of one vessel and the beginning of eversion of the end of the vessel over the device.
FIG. 7 shows the completed eversion and attachment of the end of the vessel to the device, and beginning of placement of the end of the second vessel over the combination.
FIG. 8 is an external side view of the completed anastomosis produced by the steps shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7.
FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the completed anastomosis of FIG. 8.
The preferred embodiment 10 of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. It comprises a continuous filament 11 of resilient dental wire which generally runs in an "s"-shaped pattern about the circumference of a cylinder. The "s" shaped pattern is used because it easily compresses radially and it does not have sharp edges that could cause tissue damage. The continuous filament 11 is loop-free because loops would have a tendency to pinch tissue when the device compresses and expands. The exposed surfaces of the preferred embodiment must be compatible for implantation into the human body. Dental wire is used because of its compatability and because it can be easily shaped into the desired configurations of the preferred embodiment.
Barbs 12 are attached to the spring and project outwardly at an angle of about 30°. These barbs act as a means of attaching the device to the vessels and are angularly directed toward one end of the preferred embodiment. A second set of barbs 13 are set at a longitudinal distance from the first set and project radially outward at an angle about 90°. The barbs 13 are used as an aid in compressing the anastomosis device. They act as a guide for a snare loop 20 and thus prevent unintentional slippage of the loop off of the spring.
FIG. 2 is an isometric perspective view of the preferred embodiment, showing portions that were not exposed to view in FIG. 1. The diameter is 4 millimeters, which is within the range of diameters of the human blood vessel. The device is well suited to be made with a diameter of from 0.5 to 2 mm. which is a size for which there are limited alternative anastomosis techniques. It is preferred that the diameter be slightly larger (i.e. 25%) than the size of the vessel to be mended. Diameters greater than one centimeter are impractical, because vessels of such a large diameter are rare and those that do exist are easily mended by other anastomosis techniques such as suturing.
In the preferred embodiment there are twelve portions which run generally in a longitudinal direction. The number of longitudinal portions may vary, depending upon the relative size of the vessel to be mended, however in most practical applications the number will be at least 6 but not more than 32.
The diameter to height ratio of the preferred embodiment is approximately one. Ratios greater than three tend to produce an unstable device that would have a tendancy to accidently release its compression.
It is preferred that anastomosis devices according to the invention be compressible to at least about 80% of its original uncompressed diameter without being deformed to the extent that it will not return essentially to its original uncompressed size. Radial resiliency is required (1) in order for the anastomosis device to be easily implanted (2) in order to make the anastomosis blood tight, (3) in order to make the anastomosis larger than the parent vessel itself (to minimize the possibility of constriction and clot formation) and also (4) in order to allow the anastomosis device to contract and expand with the pulsatile action of the vessel after it has been implanted. The preferred embodiment can be compressed to 50% of its original size without permanent deformation.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a surgical snare loop 20 which is the preferred removable means of compressing and releasing the tension of the preferred embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 illustrates the manner in which the line 21 of the snare loop is wrapped about the preferred embodiment. FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the surgical snare loop 20 that has been tightened about a preferred embodiment and thus is in a position whereby it can compress the device.
A specific example of the preferred embodiment of the anastomosis process is as follows. After a snare loop is placed about the anastomosis device of FIG. 1, the device is then slipped around the end of a first vessel. The spring is then compressed by the snare loop and the end of the vessel is everted and placed around the device. This compressing simplifies the anastomosis by minimizing or eliminating the need to stretch the vessel ends. To accomplish this, the anastomosis device is compressed to at most 80% of its original uncompressed diameter. FIG. 6 shows the preferred embodiment in its compressed state about the blood vessel 30 and the end of the vessel 31 in the process of being everted about the device. The everted cuff of the vessel is then attached to the barbs 12 on the device. The end 32 of the second vessel 33 is next placed around the combination of the device and the everted end of the first vessel. FIG. 7 shows the completed eversion and attachment of the first vessel and the beginning of the placement of the second vessel end around the combination. The second vessel end is then attached to the barbs 12 of the device. The compression from the snare loop is released and the snare loop line removed thus allowing the device to expand to approximately its original size. FIG. 8 illustrates the anastomosis after the snare line loop has been removed.
FIG. 9 illustrates a cross-sectional view of the completed anastomosis. The vessel ends 31 and 32 are attached to each other by the barbs 12. The device 10 is positioned between the exterior of the first vessel 30 and the first vessel's everted cuff 31, thus no portion of the device is exposed to the lumen of the mended vessel. Because of the device's radial resiliency, it contracts and expands with the pulsatile action of the vessel.
Thirty-seven femoral arteries in nineteen dogs were sectioned and repaired by the above described procedure. The vessels ranged in diameter from 2.5 mm. to 3.8 mm. Seven of the anastomoses were followed for 1 month, ten for 3 months, fourteen for 6 months, and six for 1 year.
The arteries were examined for thrombosis or narrowing. There was only one occlusion found in the thirty-seven operated arteries. No negative tissue reaction was discovered. Bursting and shearing tests were performed on two of the anastomoses. Using a spring strain gauge as a tensilometer, the breaking points of the two anastomoses were 800 and 1500 grams. The bursting pressure test, performed with a mercury manometer, showed the anastomoses to withstand pressures up to 1000 mm/Hg.
(b) a plurality of barbs joined to and extending outwardly from said spring.
2. The anastomosis device of claim 1 in which the spring comprises at least 6 but not more than 32 portions that each runs generally in a longitudinal direction.
3. The anastomosis device of claim 1 in which the spring includes a series of "s"-shaped elements.
4. The anastomosis device of claim 1 which also comprises a removable means of compressing and releasing said spring.
5. The anastomosis device of claim 1 in which the spring can be compressed to 80% of its diameter without preventing it from resiliently returning to its original uncompressed size.
6. The anastomosis device of claim 1 in which said plurality of barbs are angularly directed toward one end of the cylinder.
7. The anastomosis device of claim 6 which also comprises a second plurality of barbs joined to and extending generally radially outward from said spring and positioned at a longitudinal distance from said first plurality of barbs.
8. The anastomosis device of claim 7 in which said first plurality of barbs project outwardly at an angle of about 30° and said second plurality of barbs project outwardly at an angle of about 90°.
9. The anastomosis device of claim 1 in which said spring comprises a resilient filament.
10. The anastomosis device of claim 9 in which said filament is a metal wire.
11. The anastomosis device of claim 9 in which said filament is dental wire.
12. The anastomosis device of claim 9 in which the spring comprises at least 6 but not more than 32 portions that each runs generally in a longitudinal direction.
13. The anastomosis device of claim 12 in which said filament is a metal wire.
14. The anastomosis device of claim 13 in which said plurality of barbs are angularly directed toward one end of the cylinder.
15. The anastomosis device of claim 14 in which said spring can be compressed to 80% of its diameter without preventing it from resiliently returning to its original uncompressed size.
16. The anastomosis device of claim 15 in which said wire is continuous and forms a series of "s"-shaped elements.
17. The anastomosis device of claim 16 which also comprises a second plurality of barbs joined to and extending generally radially outward from said spring and positioned at a longitudinal distance from said first plurality of barbs.
18. The anastomosis device of claim 17 which also comprises a removable means for maintaining radial compression and releasing radial compression of said spring.
19. An anastomosis device comprising an essentially cylindrical, loop-free, radially resilient spring made of a resilient filament having at least 6 but not more than 32 portions that each runs generally in a longitudinal direction, the exposed surfaces of said spring comprising material that is compatible for implantation beneath the skin of the human body and said spring having an uncompressed cylindrical diameter of not more than 1 cm. and having a diameter to height ratio of not more than approximately 3 in the uncompressed state.
20. The anastomosis device of claim 19 in which said filament is a metal wire.
21. The anastomosis device of claim 20 in which said spring can be compressed to 80% of its diameter without preventing it from resiliently returning to its original uncompressed size.
22. The anastomosis device of claim 21 in which said wire is continuous and forms a series of "s"-shaped elements.
23. The anastomosis device of claim 19 in which said wire is continuous and forms a series of "s"-shaped elements.
(c) after said placing of said second vessel, releasing the radial compression on said spring.
25. The process of claim 24 in which said radial compressing is done with sufficient force to result in a reduction in diameter of the spring to 80% or less of the uncompressed diameter of the spring.
26. The process of claim 25 in which said everting is done to an extent that the first vessel extends completely over the radially compressed spring.
(d) after said placing of said second vessel, releasing the radial compression on the spring.
28. The process of claim 27 in which said radial compressing is done with sufficient force to result in a reduction in diameter of the spring to 80% or less of the uncompressed diameter of the spring.
29. The process of claim 27 in which said slipping of the second vessel is done to an extent that the second vessel extends completely over the radially compressed spring.
EP0407425A1 (en) * 1988-03-09 1991-01-16 Harrison M Lazarus Artificial graft and implantation method.


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Tetris made using jQuery

If you'd like to play, go to http://users.aalto.fi/kalmit1/#/portfolio/tetris , or simply download all the files and open the tetris.html document with your browser. The game doesn't require any additional Internet connection.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Check Out This Disgusting Anti-Piracy Campaign from Universal Music
By Alex Hudson
Here's an anti-piracy campaign that's almost as gross as the warning labels on cigarette packets. Some sleuths have dug up a series of gory ads from Universal Music, apparently rolled out in Brazil in 2007, that attempt to get their point across in rather extreme fashion.
The campaign features the slogan "Stop Destroying the Band You Like: Say No to Music Piracy," which seems like fairly straightforward stuff. The accompanying images, however, are truly bizarre. They show bloody, dismembered body parts (a finger, an ear, and eye) wrapped up in crumpled bits of paper.
The implication, obviously, is that stealing an artist's music is akin to chopping them up into pieces (i.e. "You wouldn't steal their finger, so why would you steal their music?"). There's even a skull-shaped ring on the finger and earrings in the ear, just to make it extra clear that they're from badass musicians. It was apparently made by the F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency in Sao Paolo.
See the images down below. And next time you think about illegally downloading music, imagine your being watched by your favourite artist's disgusting, blood-caked, disembodied eye.
Thanks to Digital Music News for the tip.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Our Forecasters
Joshua Feldman
Jackson Dill
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4 Things to Watch
Tropical Storm Barry Forms; Potential Hurricane
Invest 92L Could Become Barry Soon
What's Next for WeatherOptics?
Severe Weather to Target Northeast Thursday
New Blast of Arctic Air Plows In
By Jackson Dill January 12, 2018
Following a brief but very welcome January thaw, where temperatures were as much as 50 degrees above average and broke several records, another round of significant cold will continue to move in and will affect the entire eastern two-thirds of the nation by the end of day Saturday. The main reason that you could blame for the unease of the Arctic air is the transition to a positive Pacific-North American Pattern. This type of pattern represents a ridge of high pressure centered over the Western US. What goes up must come down, so downstream from this monster ridge will be a trough over the Eastern US, as shown below. So what exactly does this pattern change translate to in terms of temperature? In general: very cold. On Friday, high temperatures from eastern Montana to northern Minnesota, which is known as the "Icebox of the Nation" (and rightfully so), will be below zero. To the south, across the remainder of the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, most locations will experience highs between zero and ten degrees. The South will get in on this cold as well, although it won't be as severe due to moderating temperatures. The Central US, Mid-Mississippi Valley, and Ohio Valley will feel temperatures between 10 and 30 degrees, which is up to 20 degrees below-average. Now east of there along the East Coast, the cold front, which is what's ushering in the colder air, has not arrived yet. Therefore, temperatures will continue to be very mild, with many locations in the 50's and 60's in the Northeast and in the 60's and 70's across the Southeast. Enjoy that while it lasts!
Heading into Saturday, everybody east of the Rockies will be dealing with these colder temperatures. Most of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest will feature maximum temperatures below 10 degrees. A much larger area from the Central Plains through the interior Northeast will be feeling temperatures below 30 degrees. The freezing line will work as far south as Atlanta and Dallas. Temperatures for most areas across the East will be between 5 and 15 degrees below average.
Temperatures will be about the same on Sunday as Saturday. The Central Plains will actually warm up by 5 to 10 degrees, while the Northeast coast cools down further into the 20's. If you want to avoid the cold, escape to South Florida, where highs will only be in the 60's.
Looking ahead to early next week, an even more intense push of Arctic air will begin to move in, affecting the Northern Plains first and eventually areas to the south and east. With this new lobe of cold, temperatures will likely be 5 to 10 degrees colder than the peak of the cold this weekend. Meanwhile out west, the monstrous ridge will remain in place, keeping it warm and toasty—at least relatively speaking.
Looking past this cold, which will last through much of next week, warmer temperatures will likely finish off the month of January for the East as the pattern changes yet again. This month has been one of the most extreme on record, as temperatures have fluctuated many times from freezing lows to record highs. Stay inside if you don't like the cold. Just keep the positive thoughts of more warmth coming when looking ahead to at least the final week of January.
Author Jackson Dill
Jackson is Head of Content and Social Media at WeatherOptics. He is currently a student at the University of Miami, studying Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism. Dill produces forecast articles for the website and helps to manage the content schedule. He has also led the growth of WeatherOptics' social media accounts, working to keep them aligned with the company's evolving vision.
Snow and Ice to Close Out The Week
Midweek Snowstorm Threat Still Up In The Air
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Noah Prince
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HOBBITSES: or HOW EVERY GOOD STORY DESERVES EMBELLISHMENT (as Gandalf teaches us)
mark sinker • FT • 32 comments • 2,608 views
1: I saw this last night (2D/24fps) and here are my notes
2: which is to say SPOILERS and DO NOT READ IF YOU HATE MORE FvCKING ELVES and ABANDON DIGNITY ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE and — above all — BEWARE THE CAVE TROLL IN THE ROOM
3: bcz, in the sense that at the end I very much wanted straight away to be watching the next ep I clearly liked this one, despite there being plenty wrong with it also
4: anyway I am largely going to write a DEFENCE of the plot-changes (and reserve the main critique for stuff PJ also got wrong in the LotR trilogy?)
5: And it is very rough and note-form bcz Silmarillion
Let's set out the main issues.
a: a film of a book is like a cover of a song — a reworking, a conversation, an ARGUMENT, hence the collision of rival sensibilities, where differences and variations are less failings than clues and indeed content
b: anyone who makes a film of his works has explicit concrete beef with Tolk, who firmly argued (in On Fairy Stories) that cinema cannot do fantasy, a point he hammers away on at some length. The dragons of stage and cinema cannot, claimed Tolkien, possibly enchant (JRRT hated the rival Ring-cycle — some say he wrote LotR as a corrective — so possibly did not go see Fritz Lang's two-part silent-movie version, feat.FAFNER, who we cannot BUT adore today, soooo cuuuuute, except judging by "On Fairy Stories" Tolk wd have curled his lip mightily).
c: so this is someting — "enchantment" in Tolk's sense — that PJ is hot to prove cinema can too provide. But straight away there's a glitch. Tolkien never goes for full-on undiluted enchantment — he moves to it (and out of it) from its deflationary opposite, which is to say, from his sense of the absurd; his sense of humour. The EPIC is wound into the matter-of-fact everyday, the two not so much clashing as juxtaposing, irresolvable opposites underscoring both the necessity and the inadequacy of their counterpart. (Tolk was soft on elves and the causes of elves, but he knew that i. he was not an elf, and ii. nor were any of his readers — that in fact for one to imagine one was an elf, let alone to live as an elf, would drive one actually mad, were it not already prior proof of madness mad… Hobbitry is there to keep the books sane; elves and dragons, dwarves and orcs, trolls and spiders and wizards provide adventure, the escape from the staid timid wryly self-aware self etc etc.)
d: but PJ's sense of humour is very much NOT Tolk's, which ensures the tone of the book was probably never going to be a viewing option. Partly because verbal humour is not cinematic; partly because JRRT's dry narrational irony is very early-20th-century upper-middle-class English donnish, and doesn't easily travel. Indeed plenty of people are massively allergic to it. PJ favours a much more circus-like humour — amazing acrobatic stunts and broad-clownish pratfalls. These of course are paradigmatically visual, but allow of little observational content. Tolkien isn't Jane Austen, to be sure, but his wit (when it emerges) is amusedly social. PJ hands this entire element over to Martin Freeman and his face. Which is by no means a terrible decision, since Freeman turns out to be a great comic actor and deflationary straightman…
e: … and I very much liked Freeman's reading of Bilbo, though it departs (as the script requires it to) some way from the book's portrait. However, here we have to ask HOW SERIOUSLY IS THE BOOK'S PORTRAIT OF BILBO TO BE TAKEN. Recall: Bilbo is the AUTHOR of The Hobbit (or give or take translational shenanigans the book that The Hobbit is "based on"), and the source of its tone and humour and perspective and attitude and insight into the events at hand. He is NOT a reliable narrator, as LotR establishes more than once (not least since he's the Ringbearer, which eats into openness and honesty; but he's a talespinner and embellisher by temperament). Also cf "The Quest for Erebor" in Unfinished Tales: where (post Sauron's fall and Elessar's crowning) Gandalf tells his version to the gathered Hobbits in Minas Tirith: Gandalf says outright that not only did Bilbo seem utterly "fatuous" to the Dwarves, who were quite angry with the wizard — suspicious and prickly as ever, they thought he was poking fun at them — but he was quite unaware of what a ridiculous figure he was cutting. But nevertheless Gandalf was correct in this seemingly daft hunch and gamble (though he did not really know why). Some of this is — somewhat heavy-handedly — sketched in in the film, at various points: particularly Gandalf's sense of both certainty and puzzlement — why Bilbo? Why a hobbit at all? IT MAKES NO SENSE… but when asked directly he is so caught up in the puzzle that he is unaware of Galadriel TOTES vamping him, the massive witchy minx. In fact a strength (I would argue) of PJ's version is that Gandalf's unreliablity — or anyway anxious fallibity — is very much retained from the The Hobbit, where Gandalf (from Bilbo's shrewd POV) is simply a different kind of character to the towering, wise, masterful figure he becomes in LotR: viz a bit of a vain show-off, who likes praise and etc (indeed The Hobbit is often fairly catty about him). If Gandalf is certain that the destiny of Middle Earth needs Bilbo, but isn't at all clear why, then Bilbo presumably bring perspective and insight to the story, perspective and insight that Gandalf by himself can't deliver, despite his being wise and ancient and from the West and etc. And yet Bilbo (in The Hobbit = his book about himself) enjoys telling the tale his way — which includes presenting a somewhat mocking and sillified portrait of himself. In fact the film and Martin Freeman take Bilbo a lot more seriously than he does himself.
f: anyway my suggestion here is that, once you have bought into the post-LotR retcon of the Ring*, as a SIGNIFICANT ITEM OF POWER in VERY BIG STORY INDEED, then you are not only entitled but somewhat enjoined to recast the tale of the book through the lens of subsequent Tolkien development and evolution. Not only are several backstories (historical-genealogical) and blanks on the map (geographical-political) irrevocably filled in, but all kinds of balances and shifts take place, in meaning and perspective, that would significantly clash with unadorned Bilbo-POV and OG Hobbit tone. There's an issue of scale — you can move from Hobbit to LotR to LotR-embedded-in-Appendices and etc to Silmarillion, but it's much harder (I think actually impossible) to move coherently in the other direction. Having made the films in this order, PJ had three choices: just cut the links between Hobbit-world and LotR-world (but if you make this choice, you are surely required to return to the first-edition version of the Ring&Riddles section); film the quest entirely as from Bilbo's unreliable POV (as per tone and scale); and do much as he has done — which is to say, gather together all Tolk's writing on and discussion of and backstory towards this tale, and embed the quest-at-hand within the (much) larger story. Which necessarily balloons it enormously: Tolk's later view of the The Hobbit (or shall we say Bilbo's memoirs) is that they tell the story of one of the central epochal moments in the history of Middle Earth — viz the unexpected and unprecedented passing of the One Ring to the Halfling — only from Bilbo's own extremely limited, ignorant and sare we say somewhat self-satisfied POV. (Or rather, so I'm arguing, this is Gandalf's view…) *
*(In the first edition of The Hobbit, Bilbo wins the ring — no more than a minor if useful conjuring device — from Gollum by winning the riddling game)
**(The unavoidable problem with the question "Is it true to Tolkien" is: Tolkien when? He changed his mind. He rewrote. He switched modes — The Silmarillion may be his best known later work but it's probably his least loved: his actual best later books are the two very small ones, Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major: both books more in Bilbo comical mode than Gandalf the Grand mode.)
g: So anyway PJ opted for the third option in f., for good or ill artistically. What it's not is a betrayal of JRRT (exceopt insofar as ANY film was always going to be), or of Bilbo's "actual" character (as opposed to his character as variously perceived and delineated). And of course in key ways it plays to PJ's strengths. In particular, his immense capacity for taking pains with mise-en-scene detail: his fealty to Tolkien's world-building (invention of no less than five languages etc) is a vast feat of world-building via backdrops, props, costumes, settings, vistas and so on. And it's on his rendering of these — settings like levels in a computer game, the effect of their succession, which we're only a third through — that his translation of Tolkien stands or falls. He really can do stunning; and he can also do well-timed clownish deflationary absurd. So what does he get right and what does he get wrong?
1: The framing device at the start is opaque, to say the least: we see Bilbo and Frodo, during the preparations to the Party, and Bilbo writing up this tale, and saying something about finally telling all of it. Why does PJ feel he needs this? To hook us back into his LotR trilogy? (At most it reminds us that we're going to need to hook ourselves back into LotR: newbies will surely be quite baffled.) Or to hip us to the idea that Bilbo was the author of The Hobbit, and what we're going to be seeing is the REAL STORY (not his amusing because deflating, and somewhat misleading version). This makes more sense intellectually, but still doesn't actually justify the device in terms of stand-alone storytelling. Because basically it's quite boring and takes way too long, and…
2: … PJ's version of the Shire continues to be annoyingly dreadful, mimsy faux-celtic cartoon rusticana. Bearing in mind that the Scouring was never filmed — so the Shire as a whole doesn't get to redeem itself (on film) the way Bilbo and the Four Fellowship Hobbits of course do, demonstrating that their soft silliness as a culture (©Thorin) is actually a virtue. Fundamentally, the Shire is once again a bad place to start, and (as with LotR-on-film) Hobbit-on-film doesn't pick up speed till its first party.
3: The Dwarves. OK, I loved em, comical haircuts, strong characterisation, non-Hobbity sensibility. What PJ has to pull off is a longish comic scene with an undertow of mysterious romance: the second is done more with cutaways than dwarves telling amazing tales in your front room, but this is a movie. Tolk doesn't bring much vividness that I can recall to Dwalin, Oin, Ori and Nori or Bifur and Bofur. (Dori is decent and hangs back to help Bilbo several times; Balin is older than the others and warm and friendly to Bilbo soonest; Fili and Kiii are the youngest and come as a cheerful pair; Thorin is Thorin; Bombur is fat and doesn't like being last). Here I ended up with no clear memory of Oin, Nori and Bofur — though I think one of them uses a child's catapult? (Gloin is pre-established, as Gimli's dad at Rivendell in LotR1). Thorin is actually probably the least satisfactory recharacterisation: whereas in Tolkien he's generally like a mini-Gandalf in manner, perhaps a little haughtier, here he's more proto-Boromir, a proud and stubborn and patriotic warrior (he even sounds somewhat Beany). But of course the script and the screen demand that at least some of the dwarves be capable warriors. (Dour Dwalin with his tattooed head I loved.)
4: Moria backstory — very flubbed and bludged in this retelling, for questionable reasons. Maybe this will all be clearer in the Director's Cut, but if I was unable to distinguish Thorin's grandad Thror from Thorin's dad Thrain in these flashbacks, then newbies are surely going to be totally baffled. Azog is introduced, but merely wounded by Thorin, rather than — cf LotR Appendix B — decisively killed by Thorin's second cousin the young Dain Ironfoot. (I accept that the original backstory is unnecessarily complicated for speed-read exposition: but this substitute backstory currently remains way too cloudy, I'd say… ) (Will more emerge about Thrain in Hobbit 2: Electric Boogollum, and how Gandalf got the map and the key from him as a prisoner in in Dol Guldur? Other current rewrites seem to clash with this a little: see below.)
5: Getting Bilbo out of the house. He motivates himself here: he wakes happy that the horrible dwarves have all gone, then gradually realises he's missed the chance of adventure and wants it. Gandalf chivvying him out of the house removes Bilbo's agency to comic effect, but PJ wants a less omniscient wizard. I don't object to this change — in fact I think it's a good one, if cheeky.
6: The Mockney Foodie Trolls (or Jamie Trollivers if you will). Less verbal slapstick, more physical; more Bilbo-ish agency, less Gandalf. This is a stand-alone scene anyway — PJ amps up the grisly nastiness, which Tolk only really hints at.
7: Several significant cut-and-paste rearrangements ahoy. Goblins and Wargs abroad in Eriador, and Radagast also, having made a discover the book-Gandalf makes some 90 years earlier, that something is afoot in Dol Guldur. The White Council meeting in Rivendell: eg Galadriel and Saruman brought into the story. (They weren't in The Hobbit at all, but they ARE in LotR's Appendix B "The Tale of the Years" and Unfinished Tales's "The Quest for Erebor". Basically material from the other side of the Misty Mountains (meaning from Hobbit 2?) is introduced in Hobbit 1; as is material from long before the start of The Hobbit (viz the fuller Necromancer stuff). All this is brought in as current action (rather than being deployed as flashbacks). Given that an expansion of the Dol Guldur story is more than somewhat necessary to justify Galdalf's vanishment during the entire middle of the quest I don't begrudge PJ most of this cut-and-paste per se (though not all of it has been well written). Each part of the film has to stand alone in terms of dynamics (which has not really been achieved in Hobbit1), but the whole trilogy must also knit and cohere in respect of dynamics: this is sufficient rationale for the changes, whether or not they actually work. The Goblin-Dwarf war, for example, has become a personal long-running Azog-Thorin grudge match — but the latter is perhaps cinematic where the former is just lots more talking or even more longer birds-eye-view flashbacks.
8: As for the presence of goblins and wolves west of the mountains, well, there's precedent in the Hobbit (Golfimbul etc); and who — aside from Trolls — were the Rangers patrolling against? Aragorn's dad was killed by orcs somewhere round here, while patrolling with Elrond's sons, just ten years before the start of the story. We are after all "beyond the edge of the wild". On a technical structural level, the Azog hunting band somewhat undermines what would otherwise be the first appearance of Goblins, as primarily an underground people who dislike the sun. But it helps set that Goblins are on the rise all across the north — which is the deep backstory of Gandalf's worry about the dragon teaming up with Sauron, and the rise to joined-up govt of the Shadow. (Except of course the film's timing of Necromancer-anxiety now somewhat messes this deeper worry up, since Radagast only brings first news to Gandalf of new happenings in Dol Guldur after the Quest begins )
9: As many readers will crossly recall, Radagast is a character hugely underused by Tolkien. I loved loved loved PJ's expansion here — almost worth the price of entry on its own. And the "Blue Wizards" joke deftly put the ball home I think: Tolk left his goal wide open here.
10: Rivendell. Ugh. The tone was wrong in LotR and it's still wrong (even though I abstractly admire the care that's gone into the look of it, all the Arts & Crafts curlicues and such… ). Elrond remains a dud as a character: Jackson just can't work out what he wants to do with him, and the four-person White Council becomes a three-hander (or actually two two-handers: Gandalf vs Saruman and Galadriel ♥ Gandalf.) I enjoyed the mutual elf-dwarf disaffection and wariness.
11: The Stone-Giants. They're there in the book, deal with it.
12: The Goblin set-piece was fine really, half ugly danger, half slapstick. This is exactly what you hire PJ for, and in a cartoon (or Pirates of the Caribbean) you wouldn't blink an eye at any of it. As the Barnet Ape pointed out, neither orcs nor elves are big on guard-rails. ELF AND SAFETY: yes I went there.
13: Gollum. I actually thought this section was superb — a better rendition (and root for) of Smeagol's split personality than LotR managed. The predator — faced with a version of himself, rather than orc or fish — suddenly caught between piercing lonely memories of times long ago, and immediate greedy hunger (especially as he'd just eaten). This doubleness has sanction in the text, stretching a point (he remembers riddlegames with his grandmother, and the sun on the daisies).
14: and let's close there, in anticipation of part 2, just noting the following. LotR and The Hobbit are both books (importantly) about the drama and dialectics of scale: scale of geography, scale of event, scale of personality, scale of morality, even scale of mortality. What role can small persons play in the gale of the world? And PJ is also wrestling with just these problems, in a very different medium, with a whole bunch of legacy conundra from his earlier trilogy, and from the specific nature of his fealty to Tolkien. I don't think he get everything right by any means — and I'm agnostic on the worthwhileness of the whole exercise. Beyond the fact that I enjoyed watching it, and have enjoyed thinking about it.
Pete † on 1 Jan 2013 #
My biggest response, next day, was how it seemed like an amazing double snub to Christopher Lee (in a delicious way). Lee, being catty about being cut from, the widely agreed to be somewhat overlong, LOTR: Return of The King gets a nice bit of dialogue that is completely overspake by Gandalf and Galadriel. Best in joke snub ever.
Guardrails and first twenty minutes, and yet again the spectre of "if you can summon Roc's at will, why doncha" is raised as per LOTR. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would (historically being very underwhelmed by Freeman on screen), but the pacing is wildly wrong in the first half and not sure where they are plucking two more films from. Bonus for the kite though.
pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on 1 Jan 2013 #
OK I naughtily just made some minor edits and clarificatory rewrites after Pete's comment at 1, plus added the end-paper map which has the "Edge of the Wild" marked on it.
Film 2: Dwarves and Hobbit meet Beorn (partytime), Spiders in Mirkwood and Wood-Elvish Bondage. Much White Council action in Lorien: Gandalf persuades Saruman et al of necessity Sauron out of Dol Guldur. Dwarves and Hobbit reach Laketown and see Mountain up close (ends).
Film 3: Party in Laketown. Hobbits and Dwarves first beard Smaug. Death of Smaug (and Laketown). Hostilities between Wood-Elves/Men of Laketown over treasure. White Council and Lorien Elves assail Sauron in Dol Guldur. Goblins arrive at Erebor from Mt Gundabad; Dain's Dwarves from Iron Hills. Battle of Four Armies. Eagles arrive (Battle of Four Armies + 1); meanwhile down south Sauron is defeated. Death of Thorin. Extremely long extended multiple happy ending.
swanstep † on 1 Jan 2013 #
There's an issue of scale — you can move from Hobbit to LotR to LotR-embedded-in-Appendices and etc to Silmarillion, but it's much harder (I think actually impossible) to move coherently in the other direction. Having made the films in this order, PJ had three choices
But why can't, for example, a more artful PJ make The Hobbit films so that ultimately – by younger viewers and subsequent generations – they get viewed before his LOTR films? Your idea that the order of viewing that *we* have now is the one that has to be primary, is optional to say the least, and that this is so vitiates much of what you go on to say. Faithfulness to the revised Riddles in the Dark section of the Book does *not* require or recommend any let alone all of the LOTR-connecting and embellishing in which PJ indulges. And let's not forget that the boring deja vu-ness of TH:AUJ extends to utterly gratuitous details. It's characteristic of The Hobbit book that things just happen fortuitously, e.g., mountain Eagles that hate Goblins aren't called rather they just *happen* to notice things are up. It's enough for a kid that the world depicted turns out to be essentially richer at every point than he or she thought it was. PJ isn't satisfied with courting that sort of expanding wonderment, however, and so we instead get a re-run of the characteristically more tightly plotted LOTR idea that Gandalf summons the Eagles (and people who see the films Hobbit trilogy first will experience the LOTR as a boring re-run – nothing good can come of such micro-duplications I'd suggest).
I agree that Radagast the Brown as depicted is a good, even genius move by PJ, but it could have been shortened by half (i.e., his whole involvement with the orcs is unnecessary and ill-judged as is the whole orc-jeopardy sub-plot in my view. [And, for example, doesn't making Azog a super-duper mega-orc undermine the novel additional threat that the Uruk-hai are supposed to represent in the LOTR book and films?])
Tom on 2 Jan 2013 #
#2 Film #2 looks a little underweight there – since it's called "The Desolation Of Smaug" I expect a bit more Smaugian action, the cup-theft and subsequent reprisal at least, maybe even make the second film's setpiece/climax the Smaug-Bilbo conversation to mirror the Gollum-Bilbo one in the first (not that I've seen it yet)
Finetuned prediction: White Council action will include much detailed flashbackery, of the various issues rising = Smaug desolation and the shadow of Sauron and the threat of reoccupied Angmar and what's brewing in Moria and Mirkwood (and perhaps elsewhere). Gandalf's commitment to the assailing of Dol Guldur at this chosen moment was to offer at minimum a counter-distraction, so that the Necromancer did not intervene on Smaug's behalf.
I'm sure Smaug-Bilbo will be a key set-piece but it comes before the Battle of the Five Armies, and the latter is not going to be tiny. (Unless PJ goes totally rewrite crazy…)
Ed † on 2 Jan 2013 #
Peter Jackson's next project:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/christopherhowse/100001547/jrr-tolkien-and-cs-lewis-joint-work-discovered/
tom f'zel † on 3 Jan 2013 #
very pleased you mentioned the Tolkein rewrite of the riddle competition and ring section, which I didn't know, or if I did know, had forgotten. Went to see the film last night – this was easily the best bit in it, but when Bilbo picked up the ring I thought 'Wait that's not how he finds it'.
The Hobbit is the first book I remember reading – in fact what I remember most clearly is my dad coming home from work holding it in his hand and giving it to me. That's a very early memory, I must have been about five. The only other book I have a similar memory of my dad giving me is The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, I remember reading The Hobbit in the book corner at school, and the teaching reprimanding me for 'pretending' to read it because it was too hard.
Which is by way of saying that it's very bound up with me at some inarticulate level, which is why I was so unnerved when I got back home and downloaded it to my kindle, only to find that indeed that *was* how he found the ring.
I like the way the ancient but capricious ritual of the riddle competition is the place of the birth of the ring, and the way a deceit wins it for Bilbo seems appropriate. I can't remember the original answer – is it nothing? or hands? Nothing would be appropriate!
Andrew Farrell † on 6 Jan 2013 #
Radagast the Brown is also, from a tactical point of view, a farking liability – Lead them away from us! No, the other away!
The necessity of doing the films this way around does mean that it loses the less-remembered emotional link, that three of the dwarves that survive are among those that take back Moria, and whose deaths are recorded in the book. I am amused by the idea that PJ will go full Lucas and rerelease The Fellowship of the Ring with added blue glowing dwarf ghosts for that scene.
Also while rewatching it to see if they get named there (Balin yes, the others no), they do get some sport out of the pomposity of Gandalf by having him present theatrically his first two attempts to open the Gate of Moria, then get v. catty about his failure.
I'm also curious about what the decision to give Bilbo all his heroic journey in the first third (and to make it "finds his warrior spirit") does to the rest of the films.
"But of course the script and the screen demand that at least some of the dwarves be capable warriors." – see this is I think one thing that worked – when reading the books I'd assumed that all the dwarves were well hard because dwarves, while the film does a great job of making clear that this isn't a battle-toughened warband picked by Thorin so much as all the dwarves he can get to come along, like a dwarvish version of a stag do.
Just rewatched 2D/24fps with a whole gang (or "troop") of FT elf-fanciers. Will write up in the next couple of days, but a couple of tiny points first
1: very weird blooper when G is first good morning-ed by the pre-adventure bilbo (unless i'm being super-dim): bag end's front door faces east, towards the misty mountains — according to maps, tolk's pictures and the sense of direction the film gives you — yet the morning sun is here apparently shining from the west (if light on the trees on the nearby horizon are a guide)… why would bilbo not sit IN THE SUN when smoking his pipe of a morning? the next day this seems to have right itself
2: KING THRANDUIL ON A MOOSE: ISN'T IT DELICIOUS?
and adding 3: I put names to faces of all the dwarves this time, except I forgot to remember to note which is Fili and which is Kili (who I always think of as identical twins) (possibly bcz they have same-colour caps in the book), and I'm still not 100% certain which of Nori and Ori is which. My *guess* is that Nori is the with one the silliest (three-pointed) haircut, and Ori has a kind of flat haircut and uses the catapult in battles and wants chips in Rivendell. Obviously I could look this up but I didn't!
Sabina † on 7 Jan 2013 #
Ori is the catapult, Fili is the blond one. I trundled over to get out Appendix A and Kili is five years younger. Mysteriously, the movie is very insistent that Ori is the youngest of the lot… I feel like the Unexpected Party sequence succeeded at most of its goals except one, which is to lock in ALL the dwarves' intros, such that the names link up with faces/beards. It gets about halfway in, then throws up its hands and *food pr0n*.
Aza-azu-DIMRILL DALE (I'd written up comments for someone else): "In moviegoer terms it would have been difficult to explain why the dwarves were so incompetent as to muster an army *after* letting their king wander off by himself and get killed. (If you look at it through the lens of 21st century Earth logic, Thorin's company is the third time the dwarves do this in a row. It's depressing.) I also get why Jackson conflated Dain and Thorin, and Azog and Bolg(?) — same reason he conflated Glorfindel and Arwen in FotR, which riled me at the time but there you go. What I don't get is why he would write out the sub-plot whereby the Necromancer is responsible for Thrain's death, if the former is to be an onstage antagonist: it's the one demonstrable direct wrong the Necromancer commits against The Actual Heroes Of Our Tale. But maybe, given that Gandalf isn't supposed to know about Dol Guldur until "now," the timeline was too difficult to work out. Or Jackson didn't want to introduce the idea of the Dwarven Rings of Power at this late stage in the game (it doesn't come back into the story; and you have no idea what happened to the other six. Dwarves don't even wraith properly!)."
Radagast: the bit that drives me nuts is, how did he get from Dol Guldur to west of Rivendell on a rabbit sled in… well, the movie made it seem like one non-stop action?? Does Radagast have the power to warp between forest groves????? It also wasn't fully clear to me *where* Azog was — both times he seemed to be informed more quickly than distances should allow. But as you note PJ is good with scale and space in a completely different way from how Tolkien is good with scale and space; he's a level designer. In fact I think he's most effective when the story beat aligns with a single-level "gameplay goal," eg. escaping Moria in FotR, Gimli and Legolas' competition at Helm's Deep… "Out of the frying pan," here, is a beautifully economical example of "player nudging": without being obviously manipulative, the entire sequence is designed to put Bilbo, for a few crucial seconds, in the position of being the only person physically able to come to Thorin's aid (he's closest to the ground because retrieving his sword from the dead warg delayed him getting up the tree; Gandalf is tied up in making sure the others don't fall).
JRRT's dry narrational irony is very early-20th-century upper-middle-class English donnish, and doesn't easily travel. Indeed plenty of people are massively allergic to it. PJ favours a much more circus-like humour — amazing acrobatic stunts and broad-clownish pratfalls. These of course are paradigmatically visual, but allow of little observational content. Tolkien isn't Jane Austen, to be sure, but his wit (when it emerges) is amusedly social. PJ hands this entire element over to Martin Freeman and his face. Which is by no means a terrible decision, since Freeman turns out to be a great comic actor and deflationary straightman…
Really like this; gets to the heart of why I think Freeman is essential to the enterprise (per Jackson's story of watching Sherlock on his iPad and angsting and finally changing *his* schedule…). He embodies an element the LotR adaptation didn't need.
Galadriel and Gandalf: makes you wonder what had gone on way back when in the Blessed West, doesn't it?
Further quick Thrain-thorts (plus some others)
We don't yet know HOW Gandalf acquired the key and the map in the film, and will surely at some point learn this — either at Beorn's in H2 or in the Director's Cut of the Party at Bag End.
I'm wondering if
(a) Thrain escaped by the little thrush-door (we know Thror and Thorin didn't)
(b) failed to hook up with his dad or his son and wandered in the wilderness (he is not identified for us at Kheled-Zaram, though this may also be Director's Cut material-to-come)
(c) meaning Gandalf encountered him at his last lonely end SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN DOL GULDUR??
(d) … or else at Dol Guldur pre-ruin many many years ago. (Whose fortress HAD IT BEEN it in the film, and who ruined it? — I think more was probably said about this at the White Council than we saw post-edit.)
(e) You're probably right about the seven dwarvish rings going unmentioned, at least in respect of Thrain. Dwarves don't wraith up because they believe in reincarnation!
Getting Radagast across the Misty Mountains: in fact it's a big shlep for Galadriel also (unless she risked going across the Moria pass). Radagast at least does have TurboRabbits to take him down round the end and up past Isengard. Plus we don't actually know how many weeks/months in the past his encounter with spiders and the Witch King was — the cut to Rhosghobhel (?) may actually be a flashback.
First time we see Azog in now-time is at Weathertop, so he is west of the mountains. He is a Gundabad Orc, so pesumably can come down through Angmar etc. Unless he still shacks up in Moria with the Balrog.
wtf did Saruman actually call the White Council FOR?? I mean what was on the actual Agenda he sent to Galadriel when requesting her attendance? All we actually watched was the telepathic AOB.
And here's the dwarf-cheat:
Clearly identified bcz properly introduced at party:
Thorin: any fule kno
Balin: ditto, white hair, oldest by look
Dwalin: bald with tattooed pate, dour Scottish warrior
Fili and Kili: much younger, cheerfully not that bright but very brave, go round as a pair, Fili the blond one (thanks Sabina)
Not well identified at the party:
Oin and Gloin: Oin has unkempt white-grey hair and an ear-trumpet, Gloin is recognisable from LotR and has red hair
Dori, Nori and Ori are the Three Stooges, almost: Dori is a bit fey, has very braided white hair and beard and a blobby face, offers Gandalf first beer then a (teenytiny) glass of spiced red wine at Bag End party; Nori has the silliest haircut, with its three distinctive spikes; Ori has a kind of yokel flat-top, a catapult and likes chips — he is offended at the Bag End party when Balin suggests some of the party may be a little dim (he seems a little dim).
Bifur, Bofur and Bombur: Bombur is easy, he's the fat one. Bofur is JAMES NESBIT, Irish, hat with wayward earpieces, actually chats to (and teases) Bilbo most often. Bifur is I think the hardest to spot — he has black and white hair, braided into a pattern, looks fierce the whole time and iirc hasn't spoken (except possibly in backdrop chatter).
And I think Andrew is right: this is a VERY MIXED BUNCH of old Erebor lags, young nitwits, cranks, oddballs and outliers. This entire enterprise surely shows that Thorin is actually more than a little bit mad (and ditto Gandalf): Bilbo's version of the story doesn't get across how loopy it all was, how poor were its chances of success, perhaps because to do so would be to blow his own trumpet in ways he disliked (there remaining plenty of ways he liked to blow his own trumpet).
According to the press pack or similar, Bifur is quiet because he has a rusting Orc axe embedded in his head(!) and so mostly communicates in Khuzdul, the Dwarves' secret language.
I think we've probably escaped the seven rings, as their effects on sturdy dwarves are that they live longer and become obsessed with gold – it would have made some sense for Thror to have one, but then the psychic weight of the hereditary gold (and the Arkenstone) seems to be solely responsible for Thorin's own slide later on.
Gandalf's plan can be read as less mad (though a little chilly) in the books: distract Smaug (and if possible Sauron) for a window of opportunity to try an assault on Dol Guldur. Actually retaking Erebor not required.
Gandalf: "Who have you told about this?"
Thorin: "No one! Only what's in the press-pack!"
Mindless pedantry: In the book, when they're looking across the river in Mistwood (and I'm not sure what it is about that problem precisely that reminds me of Fighting Fantasy books…) Thorin calls out Fili, as the youngest, to have a look. But as p^nk sez, inconstancy thy name is John Ronald Reuel.
There's an intriguing suggestion that Galadriel is teleconferencing (vis the way she disappears at the end of the scene). Though IRL it was Christopher Lee who was spliced into the scene!
Gimli's genealogy is precise about the Thorin's Company dwarves: Balin, Dwalin, Oin, and Gloin are great nobles of the realm (in fact the line of inheritance goes from Fili and Kili the heir-and-spare, to Dain Ironfoot and descendants, to Balin/Dwalin, then Oin/Gloin; by FotR Gimli is probably the noblest Erebor dwarf not the direct heir who's young enough for the enterprise). Ori, Nori, and Dori are "more remote kinsmen," and Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur are Moria dwarves not of Durin's descent. PJ brings out the subtle class thing here: half of these dudes are in because they have direct stakes, the *oris are somewhat fatuous upper class types who've gotten an ideal into their heads, the b*urs are working class fellas (Bofur is clearly a miner) in either for the 1/14th share, or because Bifur insisted and evidently cannot be allowed to go by himself, being quite mad. (This would explain why Bofur, who's one of the more aware ones, takes to Bilbo.)
teleconferencing: if this then it's a VERY good connection: she brushes a strand of gandalf's hair back behind his ear :)
bcz ♥
Barry Freed † on 9 Jan 2013 #
Late to the party (again – and the dwarves have eaten all the food). You've really made me reevaluate the movie which I saw over the holiday with my nephews and mostly appreciated through their eyes. Last year one of them asked me for a story and I told them the Hobbit from memory, after that they asked me to read them the book and we were only able to get up to Beorn's cabin by the end of the summer. I'm definitely going to give it at least a second viewing if not a third and that's down to your write up here.
Your explanation of why PJ expanded the movie because of the larger framework he's working within makes a great deal of sense to me where I was very skeptical before.
I also like that Radagast was expanded (he was definitely underutilized by JRRT and he is such an intriguing character) but I didn't like the way he was characterized as more than a little bit loony. I get that he's a hermit type guy out in the woods doing his Dr. Doolittle thing but that bird turd encrusted face was just too silly for words and really put me off the character. I'd like to read your thoughts on that point especially.
Ugh, that old ugly Gravatar has followed me once again :(
sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome † on 9 Jan 2013 #
Hi Barry! Very quickly re Radagast and the bird-poo: this struck me as a lift from/"hommage to" Merlin's look in The Sword in the Stone (book not movie)? Merlin's skullcap and wizard's cape are (if I am remembering correctly) marked by Archimedes' er contributions (the owl spends a lot of time on Merlin's head). Not really a justification, but this is what I assumed was going on. Also worth recalling that the Wizards have been in middle-earth for some 2000 years — since c.1000 TA — so Rad has maybe spent QUITE a long time not mixing with people and caring only for animals and birds (with consequences for his attitudes to personal grooming).
Also well worth reading Sabina's post on reasons for the expansion (we came to similar conclusions independently, but she says things I didn't think of).
Tom † on 8 Jun 2013 #
Just finished watching – over several nights – w/my 6yo who I read the book aloud to (the film works pretty well as a mini-series) (also I am a Bad Parent as it's certificate 12 in the UK for its Xtreme Scary Orcs)
Nothing to add to this fascinating discussion except to pick up on something Swanstep said above about youngsters going from this to the LOTR trilogy – I expect this is how mine will do it, and it struck me how the additional material gives this a decent chance of working well (better I suspect than Star Wars, which is the obvious – only? – similar example). The big future-trilogy call-backs are:
– The Shire set-up: this is actually MORE pointless if you've seen LOTR – to our first-timer it's just framing the story as an old hobbit telling his young relative of his adventures.
– Ominous Saruman intro – I said to L, "That's Gandalf's Boss" and the rest of the scene made sense.
– Gollum/Ring/Gandalf realising something's up with the ring – Gollum gets a great introduction, the Ring is suitably spooky, and as long as Gandalf doesn't say too much in H2 and H3 this will tie up fine.
The main tip-off that PJ is assuming a familiarity with the LOTR films is the way major characters from them – Frodo, Saruman, and ESPECIALLY Galadriel – and a couple of concepts (Mordor!) get completely inadequate introductions. But I think despite that the film works as a first-of-six.
Ed † on 13 Jun 2013 #
Trailer for Part 2: The Desolation of Smaug, here: http://www.hollywood.com/videos/trailer/55017618/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-trailer
Looks like fun, but two immediate thoughts strike me:
1) Smaug is like Jaws: better when you can't see him
2) Is it just me, or does Legolas look disturbingly like King Joffrey?
swanstep † on 13 Jun 2013 #
@Tom, 26. Well, I guess the test for your little guy will be whether for him the LOTR ends up feeling like a re-run of The Hobbit or not. My worry, if you recall, was that introducing constant scary orc jeopardy to The Hobbit film not only bloated out the story and lost the more child-like tone of the Hobbit book, but also made it too similar to LOTR, a price that'll be paid later.
At any rate, An Unexpected Journey works better at home than in a movie theater. It's quite fun to dip into I've found, whereas seeing it in one go brought out the harsh critical knives from me. Treating it as a mini-series seems to me likely to be very productive.
As for Star Wars… I tend to think the following is the right order for young 'uns to watch 'em: 4, 5, 3, 6 (and just omit the dreadful 1 & 2 altogether – or perhaps use a few things like the pod-racing scene or the battle with Darth Maul as bonus scenes for more background on Annikin and Obi-wan). That is, treat Revenge of The Sith as one big explanatory flash-back immediately after the big revelation about Luke's parentage.
Ed † on 31 Dec 2013 #
Coming back here post-'Desolation' viewing to acknowledge my foolishness @27: Smaug is *fantastic* when you see him.
Overall, it's much better than the first film, I think: less of the added material feels like Jackson is clock-watching, and the action sequences are more ingenious and more thrilling.
Tom called it right about the structure @4, too. My question now is whether there's enough material left for the last one.
Tom † on 31 Dec 2013 #
I have plenty to say about TDOS (& said a bit on my Tumblr) but I am waiting in case Mark S blogs about it (esp. as his post has a very good title).
re. #15/16 above – PJ has now made the enterprise LESS Quixotic and doomed by rewriting the Arkenstone plot: without it the dwarves can't unite, so Thorin's plan now completely pivots on the burglary element – this also resolves & maybe even explains the suicidal lose-king-then-muster-army behaviour pattern Sabina identifies upthread. I like this retcon a lot – it keeps Thorin as obsessive, arrogant, tactically not terribly shrewd, willing to throw Bilbo under a bus when it comes to the Arkencrunch, etc. (all the traits we know and love!) but it significantly reduces the level of deluded idiocy his canonical plan A requires.
(In the book you get the feeling he's secretly hoping to turn up and find Smaug – who has not been seen for years – dead. Can't remember whether this figures in the films)
Am I the only person who always pronounced it Sm-OW-g not Sm-OR-g?
pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on 31 Dec 2013 #
uncle kicks it UP
lonepilgrim on 31 Dec 2013 #
Uncle rools
(except for B.Hateman etc.)
Bedtime Story Watch II: Beorn Again 5 Jan 2013 Reading The Hobbit to Lytton (just turned 6) - Beorn has just sent the party Mirkwood-bound and re-ponied, and this (plus recent Hobbit-discussion on here) seems a good place to…
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Read Harder Challenge (1 of 24): SIX TO SIXTEEN 15 Jan 2018 Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls by Juliana Horatia Ewing Read as part of the Book Riot Read Harder 2018 Challenge (Category: "A children's classic published before 1980") She's…
writer and editor bit by bit fashioning a history of the UK music press HERE https://www.patreon.com/marksink3r/posts
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ABBA – "Dancing Queen"
13 May 2008 #394, 4th September 1976 In my teens I read a science fiction novel with a startlingly elegant twist. (I won't mention the book's name in case you come across it yourself.) It was about a brilliant scientist who vanishes: the book's protagonist goes looking for clues to what happened, and becomes close to the scientist's […]
Manage A Team In The Pop World Cup 2014!
21 Nov 2013 So here we are. The 32 qualifiers for the football World Cup have been decided, which means it's time, once again, to get ready for the POP WORLD CUP. The point of this post is very simple. If you want to be a manager in the Pop World Cup, put your name in the comments […]
My Own Private Record Club*
10 Mar 2015 This is a post listing the records I'm listening to for my YEAR OF ROCKISM**, as outlined here (cut and pasted from Tumblr): I'm going to listen to one album on a once-a-day basis for a week, a different one each week. Not in order to write about them or anything, unless I decide I […]
The Magic Mill
23 Apr 2000 My first encounter with the exotic was on the Magic Mill at Thorpe Park, a South-East England theme park which from appearances had originally been based around a cramped zoo or city-farm set-up. At some point in the late 70s it had seemingly panicked, though, and parked itself up in order to survive. With its […]
Friday Poll Special – The Great Britpop Sorting Hat!
28 Jun 2013 We are now firmly into the BRITPOP YEARS on Popular, oh yes, so it's time to consider its musical legacy in the only language we truly understand, viz. a ticky-box poll. We have selected 32 bands who someone, somewhere, might possibly have once described as Britpop. Tick all the ones you like and by science […]
Pop World Cup 2018 Group E Match 1
25 Jun 2018 No, you've not missed any matches. We're putting this year's games up as we get the entries in, and so it's a big thankyou to the prompt Group E gaffers of Serbia, Brazil, Switzerland and Morocco. It's a group of veteran pop managers in the dugout this match, but only two can progress beyond the […]
I WAS A GOBLIN: Encyclopaedia Goblinica
25 Jul 2006 Or: Games I Have Known. For the sake of my patience and yours, I have mostly restricted this to games I either owned or played – ones where I read a friends' rulebooks and only dimly remember have been ignored, with a couple of notable exceptions. If you want to know more about any of these, […]


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I essay on classroom in the Satyabadi High School. I am a student of Class IX. Thirty boys and ten girls read with me.
All of us are about fourteen years old. Sri Sanatan Sahu is our class monitor. Sri Rajkishore Mohanty is the assistant monitor. Sri Benudhar Jena stands first in our class. Kumari Annapurna Mishra gets the second position.


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Dougherty is First Columbia Nursing PhD Student to Win Fulbright
Kylie Dougherty, BS, has received a Fulbright for her innovative informatics project that aims to improve maternal and child health in Ethiopia by helping facilities be better prepared for obstetric emergencies.
Dougherty, who started her PhD at Columbia Nursing in Fall 2021, is the first current PhD student at the nursing school to be awarded a Fulbright. Led by the U.S. government, the Fulbright Program supports international educational and cultural exchanges in partnership with over 160 countries.
"I will be traveling to Ethiopia in January and spending all of spring term (and maybe some of the summer) in country," Dougherty said. She will be working in both Addis Ababa, the capital city, and Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region.
Dougherty's first exposure to global health, during her sophomore year in high school, was on a medical mission trip to Mexico, and more global health experiences followed during her undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky. Her first global health experiences as a registered nurse were in Haiti and Honduras, each for three months. She decided to get her PhD because she wanted to conduct research to improve maternal and child health. "I wanted moms to have better deliveries and babies to have better births."
Working with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, through a partnership with Emory University, Dougherty will create an electronic dashboard to monitor facility readiness to handle obstetric emergencies. While the huge, sparsely populated country has an integrated pharmaceutical logistics system, Dougherty noted, the system struggles to ensure facilities remain fully stocked, for example stockouts of critical items such as magnesium sulfate and IV start kits are a common occurrence, and health care providers rely heavily on paper-based forms.
"The meat of it is upscaling to make it more usable and to include specific dashboards for the maternal side," she explains. "This is not going to be a real-time system; it's going to be getting closer to real time."
Dougherty is planning to conduct three rounds of data collection while she is in Ethiopia. "If it's successful, the platform could be scaled up to national usage," she said. The approach could also be adapted for use in other low-resource countries, she noted.
"I'm honored to have been selected as a Fulbright scholar and can't wait to get to Ethiopia and begin work on this project. I have amazing contacts on the ground and it's a really robust research team between Columbia, Emory, and Ethiopia that are going to ensure cultural competency and make sure we are doing things right."


Will you use your leadership skills and microfinance experience to impact children's lives and empower communities? VisionFund Myanmar is seeking a dynamic, hands-on leader who has experience of growing organizations in complex environments.We provide financial access on behalf of World Vision, a global relief, development and advocacy organization. Through small loans and other financial services, we aim to empower families to create incomes and jobs, which unlock the potential for communities to thrive and children to grow up having a brighter future.
•	Review micro-finance training documents, identify training needs and •	provide technical inputs in designing the training curriculum for both classroom and e-learning platform. •	Develop training future strategic organizational training plan/schedule •	through consultation with Training Manager and implement them. •	Maintain training records, prepare training reports and ensure •	availability of training resources and tools before the training.
•	Review micro-finance training documents, identify training needs and provide technical inputs in designing the training curriculum for both classroom and e-learning platform. •	Develop training future strategic organizational training plan/schedule through consultation with Training Manager and implement them. •	Maintain training records, prepare training reports and ensure availability of training resources and tools before the training.
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• Updated and developed activities of risk appetite statement • Ensuring the implementation of effective credit risk management • Prepared portfolio quality report • Analysing and measuring all critical risks of all departments • Provide essential risk management awareness and training to staffs • The purpose of this position is for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks that VisionFund Myanmar is exposed to new projects, emerging and existing risks.
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Across the GTA, the gap between rich and poor is widening while middle-income areas are disappearing, a United Way analysis of census data shows.
According to the 2016 census, the average individual income before taxes in the GTA in 2015 was $50,719. That is more than both Ontario's average of $47,890 and Canada's $46,885 average.
"What's sobering is that the majority of all the neighbourhoods in the GTA are segregated into either high- or low-income and the middle is vanishing. This is no longer just a Toronto or city issue," said United Way President and CEO Daniele Zanotti.
About 10 kilometres east in Scarborough, between Victoria Park Ave. and Pharmacy Ave., below St. Clair Ave. E. and above the Danforth, the average income was $18,759 — the low for any GTA census tract.
How does your neighbourhood stack up? Search our map by address or postal code or zoom in on your area.
Toronto is now majority visible minority. What about your neighbourhood?
Correction – November 9, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Scarborough is west of Victoria Park Ave. As well, the previous version referred to an area near Victoria Park Ave. and Pharmacy Ave. In fact, the article was referring to an area between Victoria Park Ave. and Pharmacy Ave.


In the program, hosts Wendy M. Wright and John O'Keefe discuss the life and legacy of St. John Chrysostom.
Chrysostom, who feast day is celebrated in the West on September 13th, is a doctor of the Church.
posted in Catholic Comments, Saints and Luminaries and tagged Catholic Podcast, Catholic Podcasts, Saints on September 12, 2011 by jokeefe.


"I Speak A Little Choctaw"
June 2013 - New! Hundreds Of New Lessons!
As you know, many languages have regional dialects, such as Cantonese Chinese and Mandarin Chinese. Here in America, regional dialects are abundantly available; northeast, southeast, deep south, central, northwest, southwest, west. People raised in Boston, Massachusetts speak a different dialect than those raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma and both different dialects than spoken by those raised in Los Angeles, California. Nonetheless, we have little difficulty understanding each other, with some odd exceptions, such as the beautiful "dragonfly" in the West, "snake doctor" in the Southwest and "mosquito hawk" in the South. I am unfamiliar with a word or words in Chahta for "dragonfly" with my best translation being shushi "bug" or lanla "a kind of bug."
On "things" which have no literal translation in Chahta, such as "dragonfly," you will discover as you read through these lessons, Chahta Okla "Choctaw Peoples" have simply beautiful and highly logical phrases to describe "things" such as objects, living creatures, direction and especially all things belonging to the realm of Mother Nature. Chahta is actually more descriptive, more precise and makes more sense than the Queen's Proper English. More on this later, especially in my section on how American Indian names are selected and why these names change with time or events in a person's life.
These regional dialects hold true for almost all languages, including Chahta. Dialects come about by thousands of years of geographic separation by distance, of once common tongued peoples.
Chahta displays a number of dialects with two primary regional dialects, Longtown and Sixtowns. Our anumpa isht hika "speaker" Charley Jones, makes use of Sixtowns dialect which is close enough in sound, to be understood by Longtown dialect speakers. These lessons you enjoy, mix both Longtown and Sixtowns dialect words.
To learn Choctaw, to speak Choctaw, you must forget the na hollo imanumpa "language of white men."
Choctaw, like all American Indian tongues, and like many other languages, save for English, makes use of good common sense and highly descriptive single words. English is basically illogical and highly complex requiring a lot of learning and development of an ability to "put together" coherent thoughts from a string of disjointed thoughts and actions. Chahta is not like this.
This is why you must forget English. In Chahta, a subject or topic, is always the first word. A subject is followed by a subject modifier or an adjective, adjective modifiers, then finally and always last, a verb. Announcing a subject first makes it very clear about what, you are going to speak; there is no confusion. To arrange your sentences or words otherwise, is a high insult within the Choctaw culture. This is analogous to deception, analogous to trying to confuse or evade a true topic.
"Trees sassafras green big three those"
Those three big green sassafras trees.
Verb Adjective Adjective Adjective Subject-Modifier Subject.
You can quickly surmise this illogic of English; you do not know the subject until the very last word, and a verb is first. You must remember, the verb, all adjectives, then apply those to the subject, which is last known. You are in a state of "unknowing" until the last word.
In Chahta, most logical. You know first, then modify with adjectives and finally a verb.
Forget English, learn to think and speak logically, like American Indians! Here are more reasons why you need to forget the na hollo imanumpa.
chitoh "He is large" in English.
If you know American Sign Language or are familiar with that language, you understand the logic and efficiency of American Indian tongues. Almost all of us assume the deaf sign words and sentences just as we do when speaking English. They do not! Not even close. Sentence structure is very much like American Indian sentence structure, and there is another similarity, which we use little in English but know well of it, hand gestures.
Hand gestures in American Indian tongues were more common long ago than today, but still play a very important role, just as hand gestures play a critical role in American Sign Language.
Standing among tall whispering pines, discussing matters of a spiritual nature, an American Indian might motion a hand in a horizontal sweep. This could impart a meaning, "All that we see before us" in conjuntion with conversation. A hand gesture replaces a slew of words in English. A single hand gesture, an arc encompassing the sky, can mean just that, "all of the sky." Two hand, beginning high, almost overhead, arcing down left and right, to form an all encompassing circle, could very well mean, "all that is" or in English, "the entire universe, all things and God." However, never assume there is only one spirit in American Indian culture. There are many spirits but only one Great Spirit, our God.
To review before you jump into language lessons, Chahta has many dialects with two primary dialects, Longtown and Sixtowns. Chahta sentence structure is Subject, Adjectives, Verb. One Chahta word can replace an entire English sentence. Hand gestures play an important role in discussion, when working with very traditional American Indian tongues. There is one God, but many spirits in Indian culture.
Ok! Click on my "next" button below to jump right into your first Chahta Language Lesson!


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« "A MONSTER CALLS": Between boy and man
"THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE": Bump in the night »
"HIDDEN NUMBERS": Racism with a tight smile
January 5, 2017 by butlerscinemascene
Octavia Spencer, Taranji P. Henson, Janelle Monae
"HIDDEN FIGURES" My rating: B+
127 minutes | MPAA rating: PG
A piece of fact-based historical uplift that flirts with sappiness but never succumbs, "Hidden Figures" is a late addition to the 2016 awards race.
The story it tells — largely unknown until the film's publicity drive kicked in a few weeks ago — is kinda jaw dropping. And the three lead performances instantly land on the list of Oscar contenders.
During the early days of the American space program — back when a mechanical computer took up an entire floor of an office building — NASA hired two dozen mathematically gifted African American women to perform complex calculations using nothing more than their brains and slide rules.
These women were referred to as "computers" — that was their official job designation.
Despite being second-class citizens both on and off the job, they made possible John Glenn's breakthrough orbital flight and gave the U.S.A. a fighting chance in the space race.
Writer/director Theodore Melfi (he was behind the sublimely funny Bill Murray starrer "St. Vincent") balances the private stories of three of these women against the grand historic sweep of those years. The film works equally well as a satisfying celebration of personal triumph and as a symbol of national pride.
The screenplay (with Allison Schroeder) wastes no time in illustrating the times. Three "computers" are on their long daily commute to their jobs in north Virginia when their car breaks down. The white highway patrolman who investigates their stalled vehicle at first exhibits the overt racism of the times. Only when he learns that the three are helping Uncle Sam beat the Commies to the stars does he drop the attitude and ensure they are sent safely on their way.
Once at work, the women must put up with more crap. The space program (it wouldn't take the name NASA for several years) and its white management practice what might be called "racism with a tight smile."
The African American women work in their own building separate from everyone else. There is minimal interaction between them and the engineers and scientists who daily shower them with mathematical problems. Like the field hands of a Southern plantation, they produce the wealth but get none of the credit.
Each of the three women has a particular challenge to overcome. Mary Jackson (K.C.'s Janelle Monae in yet another terrific performance) — the youngest and sassiest of the trio — wants an advanced engineering degree, but getting it means crashing an educational program that is not only all men but all white. A court order is required to get her into the class.
Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencder), the de facto leader of the black computers, is a programming genius. When not even IBM experts can get a huge new computer to operate properly, it is Dorothy who figures out how to prod the mechanical behemoth into action.
And then there's Katherine Johnson (Taranji P. Henson, in a 180-turn from "Empire's" scheming Cookie), who is so adept at instant calculations that space bigwig Al Harrison (an excellent Kevin Costner) gets her a desk in the throbbing heart of the progam's think tank where she can contribute to creating "math that doesn't exist yet…without it we're going nowhere."
Yet despite her importance to the project Katherine is required to drink coffee from a segregated urn and must race a half mile back to her old quarters because restrooms in the main building are "whites only."
She endures various levels of racial antagonism from her fellow workers — among them characters portrayed by Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons — but eventually becomes so essential to the operation (she had an uncanny ability to calculate trajectories, set launch windows and establish emergency back-up return paths) that Harrison has her sit in on top-secret meetings where she can give near-instantaneous answers to baffling mathematical conundrums.
The three women's working lives are contrasted with their private worlds of husbands and children. Henson's Johnson, a widow, finds herself being courted by a charming military officer (the seemingly ever-present and always-excellent Mahershala Ali).
What emerges from all this is a stirring story of sisterhood, racial and sexual empowerment, and can-do American determination.
It feels pretty damn good.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Hidden Figures", Janelle Monae, John Glenn, NASA, Octavia Spencer, space race, Taranji P. Henson, Theodore Melfi | Leave a Comment