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Hmmm, I promised more movie commentary today, so commentary you shall have. Most likely in installments, since I've looked at what I've written, decided I've just gotten started, and have much more to say. But I do have to plan my trip back to the multiplex this afternoon.
Of Pacing and Elf Lords and Sons of Gondor
While I mourned things cut from Fellowship's theatrical release (gifting sequence in Lorien most notably), the film didn't feel rushed. Two Towers did. I think that may be for two reasons. First, the pace in Fellowship was much slower and more deliberate. We were getting used to the characters and the world. In Two Towers, everything is motion. There is running and riding and fighting and flying. Moments of true quiet (Theoden at Theodred's grave, the Arwen/Galadriel/Elrond sequences, Frodo and Sam at the end) are sadly quite rare. Because of that, I think that the film lacks something of the intimacy of the first.
Second, the plot in Fellowship only had to deal with two main storylines: Frodo and company and Gandalf and Saruman. In this movie, we've the three main lines--Three Hunters, Merry/Pippin, and Frodo/Sam--and several minor ones-Saruman, Gandalf's fall and rise, the bits with the Elves. Same amount of screen time + more plot threads = narrower slices of time for each thread to develop. Less time for subtlety.
Elrond's character took an interesting turn. Galadriel is thought by many to be a "weaver of nets," but Elrond's manipulation of both Arwen and Aragorn left a bad taste in my mouth. It's made more terrible for me by the fact that they are his children. Child and foster child at any rate. When he tells Aragorn that to let Arwen carry her love for him into the West where it will remain green forever, Aragorn gives the right answer, that it will only be a memory. But Elrond has done his damage by suggesting this: he makes Aragorn doubt enough to try to return Arwen's jewel before leaving Rivendell. He uses Aragorn's love against him, as he does to Arwen later.
I find his meddling even more unsavory when it comes to Arwen. He shows her Aragorn's death and the despair she will face in the years without him. This is after her insistence to Elrond that there is still hope left in the world (for her, for Aragorn, for all the Free Peoples). Then after he has sown this horror in her mind, he suggests she take the road that will lead to the Grey Havens and Valinor and asks her if she does not love her father as well as Aragorn. He's not much better than Sauron in my mind at this point, because he tries to strip that hope from her in order to make her bend to his will. It doesn't matter to me that he is doing it "for her own good."
After reading all the buzz about book/movie differences in TTwo Towers, I began to worry most for Faramir, one of my favorite characters from the book. I didn't want a harder, more Boromiresque Faramir, damn it. But this Faramir worked very well for me. Very well indeed. He manipulates the hobbits, something more subtle than what I picture Boromir doing. Things like his desire to please his father and gain his regard are clear, as is the loyalty he inspires in his men that they do not question him when he goes against Denethor's law and lets Frodo continue on his journey.
I especially enjoyed watching Faramir's reactions when the conversation turned to the subject of his brother. When Frodo first mentions they've set out from Rivendell, when he names Boromir. When Faramir confesses he is Boromir's brother and tells the hobbits Boromir is dead. The scene where he draws his sword and uses it to lift the Ring from Frodo's chest was stunning and full of tension. Boromir succumbed. How will Faramir stand, especially now when the Ring is so much more powerful?
My favorite Faramir part is when he tells his men to take the hobbits to Minas Tirith and deliver them to Denethor. When Frodo resists and Sam confronts Faramir with the fact that the Ring drove his brother mad and caused him to forsake and betray his companions, you can see so clearly how that truth affects Faramir, who loved and respected his brother. Even dead, Boromir continues to impact the story in critical places.
When one man objects to Faramir's decision to free the hobbits and break Denethor's edict, he reminds Faramir that his life is forfeit for disobeying the Steward's command. Faramir's quiet and yet firm, "Then my life is forfeit," was so compelling. And so underscored one of main themes of the film: nothing comes without cost, without sacrifice, without pain.
Of Pacing and Elf Lords and Sons of Gondor
While I mourned things cut from Fellowship's theatrical release (gifting sequence in Lorien most notably), the film didn't feel rushed. Two Towers did. I think that may be for two reasons. First, the pace in Fellowship was much slower and more deliberate. We were getting used to the characters and the world. In Two Towers, everything is motion. There is running and riding and fighting and flying. Moments of true quiet (Theoden at Theodred's grave, the Arwen/Galadriel/Elrond sequences, Frodo and Sam at the end) are sadly quite rare. Because of that, I think that the film lacks something of the intimacy of the first.
Second, the plot in Fellowship only had to deal with two main storylines: Frodo and company and Gandalf and Saruman. In this movie, we've the three main lines--Three Hunters, Merry/Pippin, and Frodo/Sam--and several minor ones-Saruman, Gandalf's fall and rise, the bits with the Elves. Same amount of screen time + more plot threads = narrower slices of time for each thread to develop. Less time for subtlety.
Elrond's character took an interesting turn. Galadriel is thought by many to be a "weaver of nets," but Elrond's manipulation of both Arwen and Aragorn left a bad taste in my mouth. It's made more terrible for me by the fact that they are his children. Child and foster child at any rate. When he tells Aragorn that to let Arwen carry her love for him into the West where it will remain green forever, Aragorn gives the right answer, that it will only be a memory. But Elrond has done his damage by suggesting this: he makes Aragorn doubt enough to try to return Arwen's jewel before leaving Rivendell. He uses Aragorn's love against him, as he does to Arwen later.
I find his meddling even more unsavory when it comes to Arwen. He shows her Aragorn's death and the despair she will face in the years without him. This is after her insistence to Elrond that there is still hope left in the world (for her, for Aragorn, for all the Free Peoples). Then after he has sown this horror in her mind, he suggests she take the road that will lead to the Grey Havens and Valinor and asks her if she does not love her father as well as Aragorn. He's not much better than Sauron in my mind at this point, because he tries to strip that hope from her in order to make her bend to his will. It doesn't matter to me that he is doing it "for her own good."
After reading all the buzz about book/movie differences in TTwo Towers, I began to worry most for Faramir, one of my favorite characters from the book. I didn't want a harder, more Boromiresque Faramir, damn it. But this Faramir worked very well for me. Very well indeed. He manipulates the hobbits, something more subtle than what I picture Boromir doing. Things like his desire to please his father and gain his regard are clear, as is the loyalty he inspires in his men that they do not question him when he goes against Denethor's law and lets Frodo continue on his journey.
I especially enjoyed watching Faramir's reactions when the conversation turned to the subject of his brother. When Frodo first mentions they've set out from Rivendell, when he names Boromir. When Faramir confesses he is Boromir's brother and tells the hobbits Boromir is dead. The scene where he draws his sword and uses it to lift the Ring from Frodo's chest was stunning and full of tension. Boromir succumbed. How will Faramir stand, especially now when the Ring is so much more powerful?
My favorite Faramir part is when he tells his men to take the hobbits to Minas Tirith and deliver them to Denethor. When Frodo resists and Sam confronts Faramir with the fact that the Ring drove his brother mad and caused him to forsake and betray his companions, you can see so clearly how that truth affects Faramir, who loved and respected his brother. Even dead, Boromir continues to impact the story in critical places.
When one man objects to Faramir's decision to free the hobbits and break Denethor's edict, he reminds Faramir that his life is forfeit for disobeying the Steward's command. Faramir's quiet and yet firm, "Then my life is forfeit," was so compelling. And so underscored one of main themes of the film: nothing comes without cost, without sacrifice, without pain.
