[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Clueless in Middle Earth (WAS LOTR movie)

[Zorb17 at aol.com]

Cindy said:
"One more observation:  I think the guy who died at the end (gee, I 
already forgot his name) was not a particularly compelling character 
or a good actor.  When the orc hit him with three arrows and he kept 
fighting, I wanted to go onto the screen and finish him off myself.  
I thought the tired old device of shooting someone repeatedly and 
having them rise to fight again went out with the old Monty Python 
movies.  I really, really wanted the orc to shoot him a fourth time, 
right between the eyes to get it over with."

His name is Boromir, and the arrow thing actually happens in the book, IIRC.  
They make 'em tough in Gondor!

And:
"Also, was there any relationship between Pretty Boy and the Evil 
Wizard who threw Gandolf onto the top of the tower?  They both have 
sleek long blond hair, but maybe it is a coincidence?"

Actually, Gandalf is more closely related to Saruman (Evil Wizard) than 
Legolas (Pretty Boy) is.  Legolas is an Elf, while the other two are both 
Wizards.  In Tolkein, Wizards are really a separate race from Men.

David said:
"In the early stages (ie Bilbo's stewardship of the ring and 
the years immediately afterwards, putting on the ring makes you 
invisible, but you can still see OK.  On Weathertop, it's night 
anyway, but Frodo doesn't see Strider with the branches very well.  
Later still, on Amon Hen (the end of the film) the ring changes 
Frodo's perception, with some things more visible, others less.  
IIRC, he can sense Sauron's orcs preparing for war across Middle 
Earth, for example.  In later books, the ring's power (or Frodo's 
habituation to it) is such that the normal world is made misty and 
insubstantial when he puts it on."

I'd call it development.  In The Hobbit, the ring is more of an inanimate 
tool, true.  The call to return to its master, I think, isn't as strong yet 
as it will become in LOTR.  When Frodo first inherits the ring, his 
experiences with it are pretty much the same as Bilbo's.  However, unlike 
Bilbo, Frodo receives an injury from a Mordor weapon on Weathertop, and 
that's what changes things, in my mind.  The injury makes him more 
susceptible to the wraith-world, and thus he falls more easily into it when 
using the ring from then on.  Amon Hen is an ancient "seeing spot" (I can't 
for the life of me remember the textual name), and that's why he can see 
things going on far away.


Zorb


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