His performance as Gandalf...
was legendary.
shareI disagree. Gandalf was supposed to be the greatest wizard of the age and the part needed to be played by an actor with an imposing physical presence. In that regard McKellen would have made a better Saruman and someone like Charles Dance would have been a much better choice for Gandalf.
But I think that Gandalf preferred to appear to 'ordinary folk' as an elderly man, bent on his staff, with a twinkle in his eye. He could appear commanding and imposing when required - such as the early scene in the first film where Bilbo refuses to give up the ring - but for the most part, he did not want to be someone who turned heads when entering a room.
I think that both McKellen and Lee were perfectly cast in their roles.
I don't agree at all. Christopher Lee was much too old to play Saruman and although he had that magnificent voice he was so physically stiff it was uncomfortable to watch. And again McKellen is a great actor but he is no Gandalf. He has a better look for a lesser wizard like Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit.
I kind of agree re Lee... I do think they got away with it because his voice was so magnificent and by not having him move around too much, but he did look awfully old, that's for sure. I do enjoy him in the films very much, though - largely because Christopher Lee elevated most films he appeared in (including the bad ones, of which there were of course many).
I think McKellen has a lot of gravitas which would not really suit Radagast. Then again, I would have been happy had Radagast never shown up in the franchise at all (his portrayal in The Hobbit was cringe-worthy).
Well LoTR was the adult version and The Hobbit was a story for children. Although the book Radagast was nothing like the film Radagast which was played purely for laughs.
I suppose what I'm getting at is that to my mind Gandalf was an aristocrat and Ian McKellen looks like the sort of character you might see down a coal mine.
Well the reason the elves named him Mithrandir, meaning Grey Pilgrim, is because he wandered Middle Earth basically dressed in rags with a dirty beard! But I like your coal mine analogy. Personally, I think McKellen fits with earlier portrayals of the character - a diamond in the rough, statesmanlike and wise but with his authority masked by the grubbiness. Certainly, when I read the books for the first time - many years before the films - the Gandalf in my mind looked acceptably similar to the way McKellen would later portray him.
But it’s good and correct that we should all have our own mind’s interpretations of great fictional characters. That’s the beauty of literature... and the reason film can never truly surpass it.