so, about those two towers....
Nov. 19th, 2003 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakHere’s the first fine careless rapture of watching The Two Towers in the extended version. (So far, I watched the film itself, and two and a half documentaries, with all the commentaries and more documentaries yet to go.) Cut for spoilers. The unspoilery version would be: what are you waiting for? Go out and get it!
The new scenes: whether it’s Pippin being brave while in Orc captivity or Eowyn being stunned at learning Aragorn’s true age, I loved them all. But there is no question as to which ones are the undisputed highlights, the jewels of the crown: a) the Faramir/Boromir/Denethor flashback and b) Faramir’s little speech (which I think comes from a moment of Sam wondering about the dead Mordor fighter in the book, but it’s been a while and I’m not sure) which in essence introduces him to the audience in the Extended Version. That kind of introduction, letting Faramir grieve for a slain enemy, at once establishes him as a good, kind and thoughtful man, living in a time which doesn’t permit him to be the man of peace he obviously longs to be. Now I as opposed to many didn’t have a problem with Faramir in the theatrical release (more about the Faramir changes in a moment), but there’s no question that this scene is just perfect. It conveys Faramir’s essential goodness from the start in a way which does not destroy all the build-up for the ring. (Which as Philippa Boyens puts it in one of the documentaries his not being tempted at all and sending Frodo and Sam away “after a nice cup of tea” would have done.)
Also, it’s the very first moment where we see Sauron’s forces given, literary, a human face, an individual face, instead of them consisting of exchangable Orcs and Uruk-hai plus Saruman and Grima. Faramir and the dead soldier of Mordor had almost a World War I feeling to me, as if they had strayed out of an Wilfrid Owen poem, and considering Tolkien’s background, I regard this as very fitting.
And the flashback. Ah, the flashback. Some fanfiction writer called them “Middle-Earth’s most dysfunctional family” and this they certainly are. You can see how both sons suffer under Denethor’s favouritism – Faramir because he’s eternally found wanting and Boromir because in his heart he believes he can never match his father’s expectations. Thankfully, though, the favouritism didn’t make the brothers into enemies which it easily could have done; instead (something which comes right out of the appendix about the Stewards of Gondor) they are shown as loving each other dearly, being allies, with Boromir defending Faramir to Denethor. As a sucker for sibling affection, I just melted when they hugged.
I wonder, though, whether the purists will object to Denethor (btw, John Noble is great in the part) as good as ordering Boromir to come back with Isildur’s bane. Obviously the pressure this puts on Boromir works well as additional psychological motivation. Oh, and the fact that Denethor uses the phrases “a mighty gift” and “a chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to show his quality? I think not” first gives Faramir’s use of the same phrase later in the movie a bitter, longing twist.
The Gollum documentary is terrific (the one on the theatrical version was really just a taste) and leaves you even more impressed with Andy Serkis and the various special effects people who put so much work into bringing Gollum to life. As with the last minute casting of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn you have to count it as an incredible stroke of fortune that PJ & Co. hired Serkis to voice Gollum because I doubt another actor – originally hired only to do the voice, and nothing more would have thrown himself in the role in such a way, volunteering a physical performance which hadn’t been asked for, which in turn inspired PJ and the animators to use him all the way and essentially redesign Gollum around Andy Serkis. (Hence, for example, the difference between the brief glimpse of Gollum’s face we catch in The Fellowship of the Ring which was the original Gollum design, and Gollum’s look modelled on Andy Serkis in The Two Towers. The Gollum documentary also included a glimpse at the scene with Sméagol and Deagol – in which Serkis is made up as pre-ring Sméagol and really looks like a prehistoric hobbit.
The from script to screen documentary mostly revolves around the changes they decided to make. Taking Shelob out and moving her to the start of RotK was the first one, because, as Philippa Boyens puts it, intercutting between Shelob chasing Frodo and Sam and Helm’s Deep would have been overkill and nixed each other. But then Frodo and Sam had to face another obstacle, which was one of the reasons for Faramir’s temptation being drawn out, the other reason being the one mentioned above. “You’re established the ring as one of the most evil things in the world,” Boyens says. “You’re showing it slowly destroying your central character in this very film. You’re showing another leading character being already destroyed by it. And then along comes a new character, says “I would not pick up this thing if it lay on the way”, and rushes our heroes on their way after a nice cup of tea? You’ve just completely destroyed the credibility of the ring.”
One change they ultimately didn’t go through with was having Arwen at Helm’s Deep, and yes, here we see some footage. In the end, they said they decided it didn’t work out, so they went back to the “Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” in the appendices and used the flash forward, plus some Rivendell flashbacks, to give her a presence in the movie instead.
The shooting documentary which I just watched the half of contains the actors being their usually funny and charming selves (with Orlando Bloom looking weird in his Troy heir), with Dominic Monaghan singling out Viggo Mortensen for ribald jokes in particular. Can’t wait to hear the actors’ commentary, though I will watch the writers/director commentary first. So what am I still doing here? Away, away!
The new scenes: whether it’s Pippin being brave while in Orc captivity or Eowyn being stunned at learning Aragorn’s true age, I loved them all. But there is no question as to which ones are the undisputed highlights, the jewels of the crown: a) the Faramir/Boromir/Denethor flashback and b) Faramir’s little speech (which I think comes from a moment of Sam wondering about the dead Mordor fighter in the book, but it’s been a while and I’m not sure) which in essence introduces him to the audience in the Extended Version. That kind of introduction, letting Faramir grieve for a slain enemy, at once establishes him as a good, kind and thoughtful man, living in a time which doesn’t permit him to be the man of peace he obviously longs to be. Now I as opposed to many didn’t have a problem with Faramir in the theatrical release (more about the Faramir changes in a moment), but there’s no question that this scene is just perfect. It conveys Faramir’s essential goodness from the start in a way which does not destroy all the build-up for the ring. (Which as Philippa Boyens puts it in one of the documentaries his not being tempted at all and sending Frodo and Sam away “after a nice cup of tea” would have done.)
Also, it’s the very first moment where we see Sauron’s forces given, literary, a human face, an individual face, instead of them consisting of exchangable Orcs and Uruk-hai plus Saruman and Grima. Faramir and the dead soldier of Mordor had almost a World War I feeling to me, as if they had strayed out of an Wilfrid Owen poem, and considering Tolkien’s background, I regard this as very fitting.
And the flashback. Ah, the flashback. Some fanfiction writer called them “Middle-Earth’s most dysfunctional family” and this they certainly are. You can see how both sons suffer under Denethor’s favouritism – Faramir because he’s eternally found wanting and Boromir because in his heart he believes he can never match his father’s expectations. Thankfully, though, the favouritism didn’t make the brothers into enemies which it easily could have done; instead (something which comes right out of the appendix about the Stewards of Gondor) they are shown as loving each other dearly, being allies, with Boromir defending Faramir to Denethor. As a sucker for sibling affection, I just melted when they hugged.
I wonder, though, whether the purists will object to Denethor (btw, John Noble is great in the part) as good as ordering Boromir to come back with Isildur’s bane. Obviously the pressure this puts on Boromir works well as additional psychological motivation. Oh, and the fact that Denethor uses the phrases “a mighty gift” and “a chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to show his quality? I think not” first gives Faramir’s use of the same phrase later in the movie a bitter, longing twist.
The Gollum documentary is terrific (the one on the theatrical version was really just a taste) and leaves you even more impressed with Andy Serkis and the various special effects people who put so much work into bringing Gollum to life. As with the last minute casting of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn you have to count it as an incredible stroke of fortune that PJ & Co. hired Serkis to voice Gollum because I doubt another actor – originally hired only to do the voice, and nothing more would have thrown himself in the role in such a way, volunteering a physical performance which hadn’t been asked for, which in turn inspired PJ and the animators to use him all the way and essentially redesign Gollum around Andy Serkis. (Hence, for example, the difference between the brief glimpse of Gollum’s face we catch in The Fellowship of the Ring which was the original Gollum design, and Gollum’s look modelled on Andy Serkis in The Two Towers. The Gollum documentary also included a glimpse at the scene with Sméagol and Deagol – in which Serkis is made up as pre-ring Sméagol and really looks like a prehistoric hobbit.
The from script to screen documentary mostly revolves around the changes they decided to make. Taking Shelob out and moving her to the start of RotK was the first one, because, as Philippa Boyens puts it, intercutting between Shelob chasing Frodo and Sam and Helm’s Deep would have been overkill and nixed each other. But then Frodo and Sam had to face another obstacle, which was one of the reasons for Faramir’s temptation being drawn out, the other reason being the one mentioned above. “You’re established the ring as one of the most evil things in the world,” Boyens says. “You’re showing it slowly destroying your central character in this very film. You’re showing another leading character being already destroyed by it. And then along comes a new character, says “I would not pick up this thing if it lay on the way”, and rushes our heroes on their way after a nice cup of tea? You’ve just completely destroyed the credibility of the ring.”
One change they ultimately didn’t go through with was having Arwen at Helm’s Deep, and yes, here we see some footage. In the end, they said they decided it didn’t work out, so they went back to the “Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” in the appendices and used the flash forward, plus some Rivendell flashbacks, to give her a presence in the movie instead.
The shooting documentary which I just watched the half of contains the actors being their usually funny and charming selves (with Orlando Bloom looking weird in his Troy heir), with Dominic Monaghan singling out Viggo Mortensen for ribald jokes in particular. Can’t wait to hear the actors’ commentary, though I will watch the writers/director commentary first. So what am I still doing here? Away, away!
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 01:59 am (UTC)Getting the gift set for Xmas.
Good point.
Date: 2003-11-19 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 03:06 am (UTC)Faramir’s little speech (which I think comes from a moment of Sam wondering about the dead Mordor fighter in the book, but it’s been a while and I’m not sure) which in essence introduces him to the audience in the Extended Version.
It is originally Sam wondering about a dead soldier in the book, but I thought giving it to Faramir worked brilliantly (though there is a moment where Sam hesitates before following Frodo and I wondered if he was thinking it then). As you say it both introduces Faramir and humanises Sauron's forces, and of all the extra scenes in the EE this is the one that I wish they hadn't left out of the cinema version.
Some fanfiction writer called them “Middle-Earth’s most dysfunctional family” and this they certainly are. You can see how both sons suffer under Denethor’s favouritism
I was in ecstasies at that. You felt the sheer weight that dealing with Denethor's love, favouritism and expectations puts on Boromir.
I wonder, though, whether the purists will object to Denethor (btw, John Noble is great in the part) as good as ordering Boromir to come back with Isildur’s bane. Obviously the pressure this puts on Boromir works well as additional psychological motivation.
I thought it worked, but I was initially a bit bothered by it. Canonically Denethor does believe that Boromir *would* have brought it to him, "He would have brought me a mighty gift", so that is supportable. What bothered me more was the fact that he seemed to know about the ring when it should have been such a deep secret. You could say he got the information from his use of the Palantir, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with it.