The Two Towers, The Last Straw
I lined up for over an hour with huge Adelaide crowds on Boxing Day to get my fix of Peter Jackson’s brave cinematic adaption of Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings. Such was everyone’s anticipation, some almost came to blows arguing about places in the line. We were all pumped about it, so you can understand my dissapointment at spending the last 20 minutes of it shaking my head in sad disbelief. The first movie made heavy compromises toward the cinematic medium, and although they grated if you knew and loved the books they were understandable, and by the end of the movie were forgiven. Unfortunately, in the second movie director Peter Jackson has lost the plot - quite literally. The really worrying thing is I don’t think he even realises it (warning, spoilers ahead).
PS: New Poll.
The problem with LOTR is that Tolkien spent decades putting it together in his head. He created a new language (several actually - he was a linguist among other things; Tolkien Elvish can be studied at university level), an entire cosmology, and the world of Middle Earth. The events in LOTR are truly just a short excerpt from Tolkien’s universe, and they have been carefully and painstakingly constructed by one of last centuries greatest literary minds, and squeezed into three books he admitted were too short. Alter anything at your peril. If you change one small thing at the beginning, you will have to deal with large, possibly fundamental changes at the end because everything is closely reasoned and interlinked.
With the first movie, Jackson clearly chose to follow and emphasize the theme of the One Ring and it’s ability to corrupt. That was a difficult choice because it meant other important side plots would be lost, but I believe it was the right one and showed he understood the books - or so I thought. In order to follow that path in a three hour movie many things were skewed or changed completely. For instance, the delightful Tom Bombadil was cut, Galadriel the Elven Queen was badly misrepresented, and a non-existent bad guy was created for the closing battle. Jackson had Frodo farewell members of the Fellowship who let him leave, when in the books he had to sneak away alone (his friends would never have willingly deserted him). But among the plethora of other minor changes, the integrity of the story was maintained. The central issue was the Ring - it’s power, it’s evil, and the secrecy that must surround it. Jackson got it right amidst very high stakes, and I was among those who applauded.
So I am flabbergasted that Jackson would choose to undo such a brave and intuitive move with his second movie.
There are many things that have been changed and altered, and many that Jackson got dead-on right in The Two Towers (though a pet peeve of mine is that they chose not to have the tower of Orthanc appear perfectly smooth and unclimbable as it is described in the books). Most of them are, again, understandable and forgiveable - maybe even necessary. The deliberate skewing of Arwen and Aragorn’s relationship who part in the movie was done to set up the artificial tension between Eowyn and Aragorn - something more eloquently dealt with in the books. In order to build that movie-based tension, Jackson has Aragorn seemingly fall to his death during a fanciful battle with Wargs on the way to Helms Deep (note how one subtle change necessitated a series of much larger ones). That was a jarring departure, but not fatal. Unlike the next one.
When Frodo and Sam are captured by Faramir the brother of Borromir while skirting West around Mordor with Gollum, the story reaches a critical moment. In response, the dialogue between Faramir and Frodo in the small room behind the secret waterfall is beautifully handled. Faramir knows of his brother’s death, and suspects the two hobbits know more than they are telling. Frodo cannot give away any point that would reveal knowledge of the Ring (which is what lead to Boromir’s death). As a result, he cannot explain the Fellowship, as that would allude to its purpose. Faramir knows the prophecies about Hobbits and Isildur’s Bane (the Ring). Frodo cannot let anyone know of his secret commission, least of all the brother of a man who tried to take it from him with force. Frodo knows all this. Sam knows all this. The entire plot of the trilogy revolves around this one point. Faramir, having been coached by Gandalf as a boy, is part seer and suspects something.
But it seems that Jackson didn’t get it. In complete contrast to the careful treatment given the Ring and it’s passage in the first movie, Jackson (correctly) has Faramir understand Frodo is carrying the Ring, and all hearts stop as he wrestles with himself. Instead of overcoming the Ring’s pull (as he did in the books and which is vital for the rest of the story), Jackson inexplicably has Faramir do the complete opposite. “The Ring will go to Gondor”, states a grim and dangerous Faramir, and Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are trundled off to a fight at Osgiliath.
That in itself is horrible for the integrity of the plot. Faramir has shown himself a very different person to the one described in the books, and undermined Gandalf’s relationship with him (which again is clear in the books). That has implications for the end of the story as Faramir is an important part of the resolution. But far worse is that it results in a dumb stricken Frodo standing upon a battlement in Osgiliath offering the Ring to a Black Rider hovering meters in front of him. This is a truly awful departure, and one which is patently ridiculous. On its own it destroys any narrative concerning the Ring and the Riders. Had such an event ever happened in the books it would have been a split second before the Ring was captured, Sauron was again in possession of it, and Middle Earth plunged into unending darkness. Instead the Rider and his macabre steed are dispatched by a single arrow after weakly watching the Ring for several moments.
As bad as that was, there was worse to come. In the very next scene, Faramir has a sudden understanding of the danger of the Ring, and Sam shouts about it at the top of his voice in front of all the soldiers. Of course, the Black Rider has already seen it and so Sauron now knows where it is. The desperate secret of the Ring and it’s journey has been uncovered before Frodo and Sam ever attempt to enter Mordor and, impossibly, reach Mount Doom. The battle at Helm’s Deep is now not necessary. The final stand at Gondor has no purpose. All Sauron has to do is waylay two hobbits, a shrivelled Gollum, and a handful of battle weary soldiers outside of Osgiliath, and all other conflicts are forgone conclusions.
To go out of his way to construct such an ugly chain of events means Jackson has fundamentally lost the premise he so delicately set up in Fellowship of the Ring. I can’t for the life of me understand why. When you are agonizingly cutting hours of plot from the books to fit the story into a trilogy of three hour movies, where is the sanity in creating new scenes and plot diversions which undermine the main story for which all else has been sacrificed?
Most reviewers of TTT concentrate on the visual magnificence of Jackson’s world, and the absorbing realism of the computer generated graphics. It’s all true. TTT is a feast for the eyes and the mind. It is an extraordinary film, but it has cast itself adrift from the story it is trying to tell.
At the end of the year I will be among the millions who line up to see the final installment. But I will do it understanding what I am about to see is not in any way other than topically related to Tolkien. LOTR the movies are now a construct of Jackson’s. That that is so is disappointing, and I know Tolkien - who forbid his work to be edited in anyway and just barely allowed them to break it up into three volumes (it was written as one) - would agree.
posted by monty · at 3:03 am · filed under Reviews
It is not possible to follow the book in such detail for screenplay.
Theres already alot going on in the movie for the audience to soak up in 3 hours.
Movie is outstanding.
You will be immersed in a world of adventure!
Story 10/10
Graphics 10/10
Long live the Ents!