Gadget2 wrote:For instance, I too liked Grima
The movie's simplistic tone was that evil people LOOKED evil, and vice versa. Grima looked not only evil, but pure evil; meanwhile in the text, servants of the enemy seemed very fair and well-spoken whenever possible. Thus when Tolkien wrote of "a pale wizened figure," he didn't mean greasy black hair and white grease-paint, he meant a wise-looking counselor.
especially his scene with Miranda Otto's Eowyn.
What, when she rejected him? Grima wouldn't have been so overt; rather his words twisted her mind until she sought redemption and death in battle. The movie-Eowyn showed no such conflict, on the contrary she looked high on weed..
He may have been a little to overtly creepy, but frankly that is what always oozed out the pages of the book when I read it, and it works well in the movie context.
If you like simplistic black-and-white stereotypes with no hint of subtlety. In the book, Grima's evil nature became apparent only after Gandalf exposed it, though Eomer suspected him long before. Grima was trained by Saruman to appear fair and wise despite his treachery, and so he would.
I enjoyed the moth & eagle bit with Gandalf, after initially not liking it much. That was a nice bit of adaptation and excising Radagast (though, unfortunately it becomes overused and redundant in AUJ).
Just like Radagast in AUJ, who could have easily played a small cameo in FotR-- even coming to Frodo's house, to bring Saruman's summons, banging on the door and asking for "Baggins;" this would foreshadow the Black Riders coming as a stranger on horseback came to the door; but then Gandalf could have introduced him to Frodo, thus setting the stage for AUJ, with Frodo saying "oh yes, Bilbo mentioned you." And of course Gandalf would tell Radagast to send messages to Orthanc, as he did in the book, and Radagast would go off.
I enjoyed the charge of the Rohirrim at Pelenor, and the lighting of the beacons (even if the set up was a little silly).
The problem is that it was already done, in Eomer's charge at Helm's Deep. Here, the movie did NOT improve the book, which was one of Tolkien's most beautiful bits of prose:
But at that same moment there was a flash, as if lightning had sprung from the earth beneath the City. For a searing second it stood dazzling far off in black and white, its topmost tower like a glittering needle: and then as the darkness closed again there came rolling over the fields a great boom.
At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
With that he seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer, and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music, and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains.
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and the darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.
Can't improve much on that.
I kind of liked the non-canonical image of Saruman on top of Orthanc summoning the storm on Caradras.
But it didn't enhance the text; Saruman knew nothing, other than to watch the Gap of Rohan.
Much of the Shire was quite nice.
If you like green hills. Meanwhile there wasn't much to speak of otherwise regarding infrastructure, rural or otherwise, which Tolkien indicated via the farthings, Buckland etc.
The Balrog confrontation was epic, along with the image of Gandalf & the Balrog plunging into the subterranean lake.
Fire-demons are cliche; the balrog's true terror was its shadow, which we didn't see. Likewise, we didn't see the balrog's fire which ringed the hall, and suddenly went out when it fell. Also, Gandalf seemed scared witless, rather than a badass ready to kick it. Finally, the rest of the Fellowship did nothing to help him, thus questioning the term "Fellowship" if they hung back while one of their "fellow" faced danger on their behalf. In the text:
‘Over the bridge!’ cried Gandalf, recalling his strength. ‘Fly! This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow way. Fly!’ Aragorn and Boromir did not heed the command, but still held their ground, side by side, behind Gandalf at the far end of the bridge. The others halted just within the doorway at the hall’s end, and turned, unable to leave their leader to face the enemy alone.
‘He cannot stand alone!’ cried Aragorn suddenly and ran back along the bridge. ‘Elendil!’ he shouted. ‘I am with you, Gandalf!’
‘Gondor!’ cried Boromir and leaped after him.
Now
that is Fellowship!
Other changes, like a more sympathetic Boromir, I can understand why they did it and how it works well in the movie, but I feel undermines some of the themes of the story as well. There was a reason Boromir was the first to succumb to the Ring.
Several reasons:
Faramir:
‘Alas for Boromir! It was too sore a trial!’ he said.
‘And this I remember of Boromir as a boy, when we together learned the tale of our sires and the history of our city, that always it displeased him that his father was not king. “How many hundreds of years needs it to make a steward a king, if the king returns not?” he asked. “Few years, maybe, in other places of less royalty,” my father answered. “In Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice.” Alas! poor Boromir. Does that not tell you something of him?’
‘It does,’ said Frodo. ‘Yet always he treated Aragorn with honour.’
‘I doubt it not,’ said Faramir. ‘If he were satisfied of Aragorn’s claim as you say, he would greatly reverence him. But the pinch has not yet come. They had not yet reached Minas Tirith or become rivals in her wars.
In contrast, movie-Boromir accepts Aragorn as his king, at the last. He didn't in the book; but likewise he also didn't scoff at Aragorn in the Council, but rather said "the Sword of Elendil would be a help beyond our hope-if such a thing could indeed return out of the shadows of the past."
Gandalf:
‘Poor Boromir! I could not see what happened to him. It was a sore trial for such a man: a warrior, and a lord of men. Galadriel told me that he was in peril.
Sam:
Now I watched Boromir and listened to him, from Rivendell all down the road – looking after my master, as you’ll understand, and not meaning any harm to Boromir – and it’s my opinion that in Lórien he first saw clearly what I guessed sooner: what he wanted. From the moment he first saw it he wanted the Enemy’s Ring!
In the movie, he's much more rational, and his reasons understandable-- which makes sense, since the movie never carries the message that the Ring would corrupt anyone who used it; and accordingly, Boromir never claims, like he does in the book, that while Elves and wizards were subject to the Ring's power, that good Man would
not be corrupted-- which is partially true, since Men had greater power of choice, and accordingly shorter life.
In contrast, the movie claims that men are weak and stupid while Elves are all perfect... which questions why men are even in the movie at all.