What unpretty 🧝Galadriel!

I think that Peter Jackson's adaptation of Lord of the Rings was a decent one, judging always by the fact that it was the first attempt to adapt such a complicated book in a movie with actors ( there was the 1978's animated one of course that I watched back then too).
All three LoTR movies had their pros and cons but generally speaking and as a project in total, were close to the books, not that dark as the book is of course, but close enough.
The Hobbit movies though had for the exact same reason no excuses at all. It was the second attempt to adapt a Tolkien book and they were a complete and utter mess. Just to get an idea of how awful I found the three Hobbit movies ... I kept two of the fan edits ( Dastin Lee's one and David Killstein's one) and ditched the originals.
The messed up Hobbit movies is the reason why the Tolkien trust doesn't want to allow the adaptation of Silmarillion and I agree with them. Tolkien's books don't need Hollywood tricks and recipes to boost them. They have all the elements that are needed for a great cinema experience. They don't need any alterations or enhancement.

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

My objection, as usual, is to what Peter Jackson did to her: inventing a "scary banshee" version, one of several sequences that worked to plant the idea of a separate "Wraith-world" in the minds of a number of people, where it seems to have become permanently cemented.

Despite best efforts to dislodge it!

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Oh yeah. No explosion of darkness ever happened in the books. She laughed, nervously or not when Frodo tested her unconsciously. But that's about it, she didn't turn into an armoured monster.

I don't generally think of female elves as "voluptious" either. Generally they would have quite streamlined bodies as a race in my mind, something like the ballerinas'. Maybe some of them have more curves than the others just like humans do, but there wouldn't be any Pamela Andersons.

As for Galadriel, there's a certain way Sam described her to Faramir:

Faramir said: 'Yet there are among us still some who have dealings with the Elves when they may, and ever and anon one will go in secret to Lórien, seldom to return. Not I. For I deem in perilous now for mortal man wilfully to seek out the Elder People. Yet I envy you that have spoken with the White Lady.'
'The Lady of Lórien! Galadriel!' cried Sam. 'You should see her, indeed you should, sir. I am only a hobbit, and gardening's my job at home, sir, and I'm not much good at poetry - not at making it: a bit of a comic rhyme, perhaps, now and again, you know, but not real poetry - so I can't tell you what I mean. It ought to be sung. You'd have to get Strider, Aragorn that is, or old Mr. Bilbo, for that. But I wish I could make a song about her. Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes like a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white daffadowndilly, small and slender like. Hard as di'monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass with daisies in her hair in springtime. But that's a lot o' nonsense, and all wide of my mark.'

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Sam, you're underestimating yourself! As always. Any lady would be flattered for that.

It's been a while since I have read almost all of HoMe. But I have this dim memory of Galadriel once having been stated by JRRT as being 6'4" tall. That's 1.93 meters! I believe they tried to do something in the tallness direction in TH the film by having Cate Blanchett wear some ridiculous plateau shoes that no one in their heyday (1970s?) would ever have thought of actually wearing. We have a problem in bringing to the screen in some way superhuman beings with human actresses or actors.

I have two actresses in mind who could have come close to portraying Galadriel as close as possible to JRRT's vision (um … as I understand it, anyway):
Katharine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall. But both were not available at a suitable age when the films were made. Hepburn died in 2003 at age 96 (!), Bacall in 2014 just short of 90 (!).

Halasían said:

I could think of a few others I would have rather seen cast as Galadriel at the time. Amy Adams for one.
Cate acted the part as good as the screenplay allowed, but her look was not really the Galadriel of my mind's eye from my rears of reading Lord of the Rings.

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Amy Adams would have been an interesting choice, for sure!


CL

I wonder if Nicole Kidman would have been any good. She's 5'11" and only two years older than "unpretty" (😆) Blanchett.

I didn't know any of the named actresses by name and so I searched a few of them and while I agree that they are closer to the standard of today's people of a pretty woman,none of them are necessarily any more beautiful than Cate Blanchett.
I think she has the voice of Galadriel though.

If you want tall. . . Elizabeth Debicki!
played Princess Diana recently

Elthir said:

If you want tall. . . Elizabeth Debicki!

played Princess Diana recently

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Yeah, I thought of her and should have mentioned her. She's listed as 6'2".

Radaghast said:

She's listed as 6'2"

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If she's 6' 2", she's standing at a 6' door, and the two fellows they've stood beside her to accentuate her height are only 5' 0" tall..!
An interesting way to bring 'perspective'.

Galadriel is my waifu, stop it you galaddrieslist!!!!! Waifus are perfectly normal stuff that people who don't now how to marry experience!!!! (joke)

Elthir said:

If you want tall. . . Elizabeth Debicki!
played Princess Diana recently

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THAT'S 6'2"??

Holy cow, I thought she was 6'6" before I scrolled down.

CL

Ent said:

If she's 6' 2", she's standing at a 6' door, and the two fellows they've stood beside her to accentuate her height are only 5' 0" tall..!
An interesting way to bring 'perspective'.

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She's wearing heels too, which add maybe 2".

CirdanLinweilin said:

Holy cow, I thought she was 6'6" before I scrolled down.

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Yeah, she likely is in that pic... as @Radaghast points out, she's wearing heels, and blowing up the pictuere I guess them to be 3" - 4" spike types.

Actually, IMDb.com lists Elizabeth Debicki as 6'2¾", so closer to 6'5". So, @CirdanLinweilin's estimate of 6'6" is not far off. She might actually be closer to that than 6'2¾" in that photo.