I love movies based on books and comics and other original scripts of grand speculative fiction. For me, movies are the only other place where I can occupy a different space and feel connected to a larger story. It alters me and seeps into my subconscious and connects me to a larger myth. Sometimes, I walk out of a movie, appropriating one of the characters in my head (not necessarily the leading one) and inhabiting a different perspective. That’s why I love those large, sumptuous, visual feasts which makes books more visually accessible, even though it is the director’s version of the story and not the one I imagined as I read the book. Both versions can exist. Or something sci-fi based, out of a writer-director’s own imagination. We can all get along, inside my head that is. The only other place where I can simply “be” and shut down my critical faculties is when I’m hiking through a wilderness under deep forest canopy or over deserts or hip-deep in calm or roiling water.
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Watching a movie where the story unfolds in a large forest or on a desert or near water enhances the story line. It resonates in my heart. It makes the myth more powerful. In that spirit, I was reading up on Star Wars before I go and see it. The reviews had pictures of forests and deserts. The picture of the forested background made me curious if it was a cgi or real. Well, dear reader, it turns out much of it is REAL! You may already know this, but I did not. Of course, I became a virtual tourist of this forest. It is called Puzzlewood, in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, UK. And it’s beautiful!
Come, Lets fall in love with these Woods which was also believed to have been the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth in “The Lord of the Rings.”
It is an overgrown, mossy dark green forest and is a part of the Forest of Dean. It is an emerald gem.
In the 1800, a nearby landowner laid down paths and cleared some of the overgrowth so his children could play there. In the 1900’s the forest officially opened to the public and has basically remained the same.
The forest has a section of old Roman ruins. It was once iron mining operation under the Romans. Roman presence was determined after a treasure hoard of over 3000 Roman coins were found, dating back to 3rd Century AD. It was found in an earthen jar, in a cavity.
The ore mines are open pit and also caves . The area has many caves due to an old Carboniferous limestone layer from 330 million years ago. In the Late Triassic the place was a hot desert which occasionally received torrential, prolonged rain storms which dissolved the mineral from the dry surface. The ore rich water ran into those old limestone caves and became neutralized and formed deposits. Later, millions of years passed, and the area experienced an uplift and two rivers formed and eroded the caves exposing the ores, hence mining.
The place known as Puzzlewood is really the same Roman open pit ruins which have being overtaken and grown over by the forest. Some of the caves are still operated by small, independent miners of coal and ore. The term used for the entire system – ore deposit, uplift, mining, overgrowth, natural pathways is – Scowles.
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Since I have not seen the movie, I cannot say which segments were filmed there, however, it is reported that a key scene was filmed there.
Puzzlewood and the Forest of Dean has also been used as a scenic backdrop for Dr. Who, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Merlin (tv show), The Huntsman and many others.
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One more —
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I can’t wait to see the movie!
What about you – have you seen it?
What are your feelings about the movie?