Return of the King revisited
May. 26th, 2004 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI have the precious! Well, the theatrical release version of same. Again I couldn't resist and wait till November for the special edition. (Of which there is no trailer on this one, so see me pout a bit.)
Anyway, I just watched the film again and am full of the love for everyone concerned, from PJ, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (the most adorable trio of scriptwriting geeks ever - as proof I offer their audio commentaries on FotR and TTT) to the absolutely perfect cast to Howard Shore for the music to Ngila Dickson for the costumes to WETA for the effects... you get the picture. No, it's not that I think this film, or the other two, don't put a step wrong. In each installments, there were some things that rubbed me the wrong way. But these were never enough to distract me from the overall fannish devotion.
One the major achievements of the LotR film trilogy is, imo, the intensity of emotion it conveys. For which I credit the direction, the script and the performances equally. No matter whether it's a quiet moment, like Pippin's conversations with Gandalf on the balcony in Gondor or Theoden saying "I would have you smile again" to Eowyn, or one of those fierce outbursts, like Sam's "I will carry you" or Aragorn's "For Frodo", the sincerity and intensity of the feeling always carries me with it. And it's not just the major relationships which get the attention from script, direction and performances.
For example, a lesser director might have given us Frodo and Sam, but would not have bothered with Frodo and everyone else. In RotK, we have the poignant, tender and sad scene between Frodo and a very aged Bilbo, which reminds us of the affection we saw between them in FotR - and the fact that Bilbo's brief "Gollum" moment early in the adventure was the first time Frodo could see what the Ring was capable of doing to people. (And to someone he loved, no less.) When Bilbo asks Frodo about the Ring in RotK and Frodo replies "I lost it", Elijah Wood's face conveys the entire story - Frodo's realisation that the longing for the Ring really never does stop, despite its destruction, and that he and Bilbo both are damaged by it and can't remain in Middle Earth.
Each time I watch the brilliant intercutting between Faramir's suicidal charge, Denethor gorging himself and Pippin singing, I'm tempted to quote Wilfried Owen, because this is such a WWI moment, complete with the visual Saturn-eating-his-children/Abraham sacrificing his son associations Owen was so fond of. It's fascinating how Jackson manages to convey a very different emotion when Theoden leads his equally suicidal charge later. (Mainly, methinks, because Theoden tries to save lives and wasn't ordered to do this.)
A single illustration on the different way books and films work to achieve the same thing: in RotK of the novel, we have the "praise them with great praise" scene in which everyone celebrates the Hobbits' deeds with songs. Which is fine in a book, but if you did that on screen it would look inadvertantly funny. Whereas the equivalent in RotK the movie, the "my friends, you bow to no one" scene in which Aragorn kneels down in front of the Hobbits, with everyone following suit, does the same thing but does it cinematically. And again the perfect mixture of epic and intimate - the scene lives both from the effect that we see a great many people kneel, and from the expressions on the faces of our Hobbits - each one of the four takes this differently.
Speaking of facial expressions and cinematic shorthand - Sam drinking his beer determinedly, then standing up and the cut to Merry's, Pippin's and Frodos' amused and approving looks work better than an actual longer depiction of a scene between Sam and Rosie would have done.
Details, details:
- The hall in which Denethor resides reminds me of a chess board, both because of the floor and because of the statues. Which fits with the Denethor and Gandalf situation.
- The camera showing us Frodo writing in the Red Book near the end is the visual repetition of the scene introducing Bilbo in the special edition of FotR, but whereas the study in Bilbo's time looks clustered and homely, full of warm colours, it's spartan and empty in Frodo's case, symbolizing his ongoing devastation.
- Frodo smiling at his friends, the last image we see of him, repeats his first close-up from FotR as well, and both the similarity and difference between the smiles is heartbreaking
- and speaking of smiles: Theoden does see Eowyn smile again, after all, during those brief moments before he dies. Go forth, purists, and complain that it's Eomer in the book. I don't care. It has a rightness to it here.
Anyway, I just watched the film again and am full of the love for everyone concerned, from PJ, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (the most adorable trio of scriptwriting geeks ever - as proof I offer their audio commentaries on FotR and TTT) to the absolutely perfect cast to Howard Shore for the music to Ngila Dickson for the costumes to WETA for the effects... you get the picture. No, it's not that I think this film, or the other two, don't put a step wrong. In each installments, there were some things that rubbed me the wrong way. But these were never enough to distract me from the overall fannish devotion.
One the major achievements of the LotR film trilogy is, imo, the intensity of emotion it conveys. For which I credit the direction, the script and the performances equally. No matter whether it's a quiet moment, like Pippin's conversations with Gandalf on the balcony in Gondor or Theoden saying "I would have you smile again" to Eowyn, or one of those fierce outbursts, like Sam's "I will carry you" or Aragorn's "For Frodo", the sincerity and intensity of the feeling always carries me with it. And it's not just the major relationships which get the attention from script, direction and performances.
For example, a lesser director might have given us Frodo and Sam, but would not have bothered with Frodo and everyone else. In RotK, we have the poignant, tender and sad scene between Frodo and a very aged Bilbo, which reminds us of the affection we saw between them in FotR - and the fact that Bilbo's brief "Gollum" moment early in the adventure was the first time Frodo could see what the Ring was capable of doing to people. (And to someone he loved, no less.) When Bilbo asks Frodo about the Ring in RotK and Frodo replies "I lost it", Elijah Wood's face conveys the entire story - Frodo's realisation that the longing for the Ring really never does stop, despite its destruction, and that he and Bilbo both are damaged by it and can't remain in Middle Earth.
Each time I watch the brilliant intercutting between Faramir's suicidal charge, Denethor gorging himself and Pippin singing, I'm tempted to quote Wilfried Owen, because this is such a WWI moment, complete with the visual Saturn-eating-his-children/Abraham sacrificing his son associations Owen was so fond of. It's fascinating how Jackson manages to convey a very different emotion when Theoden leads his equally suicidal charge later. (Mainly, methinks, because Theoden tries to save lives and wasn't ordered to do this.)
A single illustration on the different way books and films work to achieve the same thing: in RotK of the novel, we have the "praise them with great praise" scene in which everyone celebrates the Hobbits' deeds with songs. Which is fine in a book, but if you did that on screen it would look inadvertantly funny. Whereas the equivalent in RotK the movie, the "my friends, you bow to no one" scene in which Aragorn kneels down in front of the Hobbits, with everyone following suit, does the same thing but does it cinematically. And again the perfect mixture of epic and intimate - the scene lives both from the effect that we see a great many people kneel, and from the expressions on the faces of our Hobbits - each one of the four takes this differently.
Speaking of facial expressions and cinematic shorthand - Sam drinking his beer determinedly, then standing up and the cut to Merry's, Pippin's and Frodos' amused and approving looks work better than an actual longer depiction of a scene between Sam and Rosie would have done.
Details, details:
- The hall in which Denethor resides reminds me of a chess board, both because of the floor and because of the statues. Which fits with the Denethor and Gandalf situation.
- The camera showing us Frodo writing in the Red Book near the end is the visual repetition of the scene introducing Bilbo in the special edition of FotR, but whereas the study in Bilbo's time looks clustered and homely, full of warm colours, it's spartan and empty in Frodo's case, symbolizing his ongoing devastation.
- Frodo smiling at his friends, the last image we see of him, repeats his first close-up from FotR as well, and both the similarity and difference between the smiles is heartbreaking
- and speaking of smiles: Theoden does see Eowyn smile again, after all, during those brief moments before he dies. Go forth, purists, and complain that it's Eomer in the book. I don't care. It has a rightness to it here.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 11:17 am (UTC)Oh yes.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-29 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 11:54 am (UTC)Funny how fantastic material has now been proven to be translatable in a compelling and intelligent way from the original book. I'm thinking of Troy here, which I enjoyed as dumb fun, but when I think what a true lover of the material might have acomplished - - Oy!
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 10:01 pm (UTC)But if you want to hear a completely different take on the matter, go and read
no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 08:05 am (UTC)Thanks for the link, I'll go over and take a look.
I have to confess. . .
Date: 2004-05-26 04:01 pm (UTC)Re: I have to confess. . .
Date: 2004-05-26 09:57 pm (UTC)Viggo with his quiet intensity - and PJ, Philippa and Fran scripting Aragorn as someone who has doubts about becoming King, and does not take Arwen's sacrifice for granted - was who made me change my feelings for Aragorn from mild sympathy (it wasn't that I disliked him in the novel, but I never was as interested in him as in the Hobbits) to love.
Re: I have to confess. . .
Date: 2004-05-26 10:09 pm (UTC)Haven't seen B5 so I can't comment there. One of those shows I wish I had caught in time but didn't.
As for Aragorn, I've been in love with him since I was 13. And I always thought more of of a Liam Neeson type, but Viggo had me at hello (or, more accurately, at "You call a great deal of attention to yourself, Mr. Underhill.") But yeah, the character was more defined and better written in the films.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 04:09 pm (UTC)I love these movies. None of them are perfect, but they're great.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 03:10 am (UTC)Witnessing people's unbroken enthusiasm for LotR always puts me in a quite difficult position *g*. I'd lie if I said that I didn't enjoy watching Jackson's trilogy. I'd lie if I said that I believe the movies are flawless or brilliant.
Pippin singing in Denethor's hall is the one amazingly intense scene of RotK that makes me experience a short glimpse of the movie's magic :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 09:18 am (UTC)