Aug 01 2009
A Sad Realization (and heretical confession)
Lord of the Rings is, and probably always will be my favorite fantasy story. Tolkein certainly had his flaws as a story teller (though to his credit, his intent was more to build an in-depth mythological world rather than a literary masterpiece), but the modern fantasy writers I’ve looked at cannot come at all close to Tolkien’s ability to use language and writing style to enhance the atmosphere of epicness.
Now the movies get a lot of this right–in fact, pretty close to perfect. The battlefield charges–Theoden and Aragorn at Helms Deep, Eomer and Gandalf at Helms Deep, the charge of the Rohirrim on Pelannor Fields, and the final charge in front of the black gates– and the speeches that go with them are some of the most beautiful and epic battle scenes in movies.* Some of the non-battle scenes are no less beautiful as well, the sequence where the black riders enter Bree and the inn, and the sequence in the third movie where Arwen sets out to leave middle earth, sees the child, and turns back are also favorites of mine. As well as almost anything on the battlements in Edoras ^_^
However, between these amazing scenes lies something that bothers me every time I watch the movies, and it really increases with each viewing as I get more acclimated to the awesomeness of individual scenes.
It’s not really the plot additions (though the warg attack and Aragorn getting pitched off the cliff on the way to Helm’s Deep was a bit silly) or all the changes made to increase tension (Ents initially deciding against fighting, Frodo sending Sam away, Faramir taking Frodo toward Gondor, the exagerrated hostility of Sam toward Gollum, the shouting match at Elrond’s council in Rivendel, etc), though these things don’t exactly help.
The biggest thing I don’t like though, is the large amount of cartoonishness injected into the movies. Gimli is not in the story for comic relief, and Legolas is not a refugee from the X-games. The books contain enough humor with witty banter back and forth between the two, but there’s no need to have Gimli lose control of his horse and fall off, or show him belching with beer/mead/ale dripping down his beard in the middle of an important council, or thwacking orcs in the groin with his axe. The Harry Potter movies are about junior high and high school aged kids and it seems like there’s hardly more physical humor in those movies than in LoTR–and where HP includes physical humor it’s generally of a more intelligent nature and doesn’t stand out as badly as it does in LoTR (probably because of the setting).
Even Gandolf gets in on the physical humor in the third movie with his staff-bonking antics at Denathor. In this case, not only is it out of place atmospherically, but completely out of character. Despite Denathor’s despair and mistakes, Gandolf would display more respect for the Steward of Gondor. Additionally, it makes Denathor more comic relief, distracting from the incredibly tragic story of the downfall of a once great man.
Then there’s Legolas, who stays away from the unwanted attempts at humor (except for the drinking contest with Gimli), but seems to be constantly flying around in ways that defy physics and common sense. I guess a lot of it can be explained away because he’s an elf, but it still looks cartoonish and distracting in my opinion. And the references to real life things like him skateboarding/snowboarding/surfing the shield down the steps at Helm’s Deep breaks the separation I like between a fantasy world and the real world.
I think the blame lies largely on the personalities of the director and actors (mostly in the case of Legolas–Orlando Bloom is an extreme sports nut) showing through to make their marks on the story. But again, that breaks the illusion of a separate fantasy world untouched by ours. I think the real-world references and juvenile physical humor both really take away from epic atmosphere that really separates these books from other works of fantasy fiction and make them what they are. Therefore the movies lose a lot of watchability in my opinion. I will always love the epic scenes and scenery, but a lot of the rest I have lost interest in sitting through.
I think, given the potential of the materials they were adapted from, LoTR comes out below both Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter movies. Although they change some things around, the Narnia movies end up being fairly entertaining and consistent movies, and the Harry Potter movies vastly improve on the HP books by cutting out a lot of JKR’s repetitions and redundancies.**
I don’t really care if movies “stay true” to the books, but I wish the LoTR movies had done a better job of consistently sticking to the atmosphere that made the books different and so great.
* I think the fight scenes in “Hero” might be the best that I have seen for visual martial arts beauty, but the LoTR battles take place on a far grander scale and with better music. Here’s my favorite fight from “Hero” for your enjoyment.
**Yes, I know what I did there.
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i would personally describe their depiction of Gimli in other terms, but whatever. As for Legolas flouting natural laws of physics…lol! Call it artistic liberties on the part of the director and leave it at that.
two things about fight scene link:
1)…wow…just totally, artistically, intensely cool…
2) it doesn’t work properly. :> i cheated the computer to get around the difficulty.
Legolas is most certainly better in the books. In the movies, he is too melodramatic.
I really don’t like the way that the movies paint Faramir and Denethor. Faramir was a good man who made the right choice. He was not initially looking for his father’s approval. With Denethor, he was a man broken by his own confidence in himself and Gondor, and his subsequent dabbling in the arts of using the Palantir that he was not strong enough to bear. It drove him mad.
It is sad how the movies portray them, because they are such complex, deep characters. With Denethor especially, that is lost in the movies.
Another thing that bugs me after reading the books is how big of a character Arwen is in the movies.
It is hard to link to youtube videos while on campus. Perhaps it works better now.
All of the fights scenes from Hero are amazing. I think there’s one scene in the movie that should be skipped, but other than that it’s really good.
Hm. Perhaps this is why I watch the first half of the Fellowship more than any of the other movies.
I agree with your general conclusion and believe the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the director. If the story had been weaker, Peter Jackson would have ruined it with his uber epicness. Thankfully, it isn’t and he didn’t.
Overall, the post sums up my feelings toward The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe better. There are scenes that I absolutely love, but I enjoy them so much that it makes other scenes less bearable.
And of course, as always, I am prejudiced in both cases towards the books. ^_^