What I didn't like about TTT, and a couple of things I did

[Amy Z]

Warning: contains spoilers for all of LoTR

Ill decline to declare which is better, LoTR or HP:
the Respective Movie, even if I thought any of you
cared.  Its apples and oranges, because I love both
series and enjoyed all four movies, but my reasons for
loving each are too different to really compare them. 
But what I wanted in both of them was for them to be
faithful to the booksnot letter for letter, but in
the important ways.  The Fellowship of the Ring was
*very* faithful.  It omitted some scenes, some of
which I didnt miss (Bombadil) and some of which I did
(what Sam sees in Galadriels Mirror, the full Council
of Elrond), but omissions are necessary and they
mostly chose well.  With a few exceptions, it caught
the feeling of the book and was faithful to its
meaning:  the themes, the characters, the sense of
time and history came through.

Thats why I was stunned when I watched The Two
Towers.  It was so different from the book that it was
hard to believe it was made by the same people who
made Fellowship, at the same time and as one seamless
piece of art, to boot.  It seemed as if it was made by
someone with a completely different philosophy of
adaptation.  Im not talking about small changes, or
the kind of juggling they did in order to begin and
end it in a way that worked well for them (e.g., it
chooses a different spot to break between TTT and
Return of the King); Im talking about huge added
scenes that had no resemblance to what happens in the
book and/or go up against the books themes in some
way.

(1) Aragorns near-death experience.  It was
unnecessary and anti-climactic, and most of all, it
undermined the impact of Gandalfs death, and the
one that parallels it in much smaller scale, Sams
belief that Frodo is dead at the end of The Two Towers
(in the book; the moviemakers have left it to #3).  It
reminds me of what Cassandra Claire writes in her
summary of Draco Sinister:  Everyone dies at least
once.  In fanfiction, this is clever and funny.  In
LoTR, its an insult to the author.  

(2) In the book, Arwen has already pledged to give up
her immortality and marry Aragorn (if he survives and
becomes King of Gondor, which are the conditions
Elrond has set).  In the movie he thinks shes going
off to the Undying Lands instead.  This might give
Eowyn hope, but to me it was just an irritant.  Why
change this?  Isnt it enough that the chances of his
ever seeing his fiance again are infinistesmaldo we
have to call into doubt whether shell marry him as
well?

(3) Speaking of elves, that whole thing with the Elves
showing up to help at Helms Deep?  And the rivalry
between Rohan and Rivendell that it resolves?  Theyre
completely made up.  Nothing whatsoever along those
lines in the book.  Rohan isnt ticked at Gondor,
either.  Apparently the moviemakers didnt think there
was enough conflict in the book and decided to
introduce a bit more.

(4) All that stuff with Frodo and Sam almost getting
caught at the gate of Mordor.  Huh?  Again, the movie
wasnt exciting enough without that?  I always thought
it was a bit thin that Frodo was going to walk right
in the front door, but I like the scene in the book
because its as if Gollum didnt really believe they
were going to Mordorwhich fits in very well with an
important thematic point, that Gollum never puts two
and two together about what theyre going to do with
the Ring.  He keeps saying Dont give it to him!,
but if he gave it a moments thought hed know Frodo
intends no such thing, because why would Frodo go to
all this trouble of *walking to Mordor* when he could
just hold up the Ring from anywhere in Middle Earth
and yell Here it is, Mr. S! and a Nazgul would fly
by and pick him up?  It is perfectly obvious what he
must be up to, but Gollum is so enslaved to the Ring
that he cant conceive of anyone willingly destroying
it.  (And hes right; no one does.)  In the book, the
little scene at the gate is an interesting turning
point, where Gollum really takes seriously their
desire to get quietly into Mordor, really, we mean it,
even if we cant do it any way but via Cirith Ungol.

(5) Theodens release.  In the book, Theoden is NOT
under a spell in any magical sense.  Thank heaven.  He
is under the sway of evil advice from Grima (and
therefore Saruman), and when he stands up and is a man
and a leader, the tide turns (which is a bit
irritatingly macho and far from my favorite scene, but
at least its about character).  The movie turned it
into just a magic trick.  Saruman has him under a
spell, Gandalf comes in waving his wand, he *drives
out Saruman* as if Theoden has been possessed by a
devil (yeesh!), and lo, Theoden is young and bold
again.

(6) Faramirs temptation.  Pip noted that in the book
hes tempted for about ten seconds, the implication
being that the movies way has more dramatic tension. 
The thing is, you know, you have to trust your actors.
 A good actor can let us see that hes tempted and
resisting temptation, with nothing more than a few
words and a few seconds.  We dont see a heck of a lot
of Faramir in the book, but we see enough to realize
that he doesnt make this painful choice with ease. 
We have his brother for context.  Boromir wasnt a
power-hungry bad guy; he was a brave and noble future
Steward of Gondor who was motivated by his
responsibility to his people (intermixed with less
lofty motives, to be sure) to want to use the Ring to
save them.  Faramir struggles with the same dilemma,
but rightly concludes that there is no way to use the
Ring for good.  We dont just think hes an angel; we
see the struggle.  Thats because JRRT gives us some
dialogue.  But this is an Action Movie and Action
Movies dont have too much dialoguethe audience might
get bored.

And what exactly was accomplished by dragging them to
Osgiliath, other than allowing Sam to utter the
oh-so-true line, were not supposed to be here?  And
as my dh pointed out, in the book he feels the
presence of the Nazgul king when the latter first
rides out and is a mile off.  Thats really powerful: 
that Frodos wound aches and he feels faint even when
he so much as sees the Nazgul at a distance.  Here he
has to come face-to-face with a flying Nazgul to get
the full effect.  Which approach gets across the
terrifying power of Saurons servants better?

(7)  One change didnt make sense even within the
movie.  The way the scene at Helms Deep and the
Entmoot are intercut, the clear cinematic message is
that the Ents are going to save Rohans bacon.  In the
book, this is in fact what happens, indirectly (the
Ents persuade the Huorns, who have an even lower
opinion of men than the Ents do, that Saruman and the
Orcs such a threat to the trees that they must act to
help the Rohirrim.  It was sad to lose the scene where
the Rohirrim ride out and see a forest that was never
there before, but you cant have everything, so thats
okay).  But in the movie, all that buildup never
delivers.  The Ents overthrow Isengard (I loved,
loved, loved the flooding sceneall those Ents
standing in the waterit was just gorgeous) but that
has nothing to do with Helms Deep.  Its not as if
Saruman was about to send out another army or
anything; the battle is underway and will not be at
all affected by what happens in Isengard.  I dont
know what the heck the director was thinking.

I do have good things to say about the movie.  The
sets, costumes, etc. were fabulous, just as in the
first one.  The Dead Marshes were amazing, for
example.  Just so damn scary and right in every way.

A couple of character changes were interesting and Im
still mulling them.  One is that Sam is actively
intervening when Frodos tempted by the Ring.  This
alters their relationship quite a bit, in ways that I
like but that may be ultimately OOC.  Im not sure,
but I think I would rather that they again left it to
the actorhe could show us that he sees Frodos
struggles with the Ring and is worried, without
actually having to wrestle Frodo away from the thing. 
Sean Astin, who has so far struck me as the best actor
in the ensemble, could pull it off.  

Likewise, Gollum is great and really made into what he
is, a very complex character rather than a cartoon.  I
love the way they show him talking to himself, with
the great cuts to make it look like two people (Cindy,
he *is* schizophrenic, that is, he has warring
impulses that express themselves as Gollum and
Smeagol, Stinker and Slinker, corrupted self and old
sad hobbit-self), except that the bit where he
banishes Stinker was very pop-psychology-ish to me. 
Again (Amy turns on broken record), they have a great
actor working thereexcise the lines that spell out
whats happening inside him and let him *show* us.  I
also cringed at the pop-psych bit where Frodo calls
him Smeagol and Gollum Discovers A Sense of Self and
Inner Dignity (I rush to defend JRRTs honor by
informing anyone who hasnt read the books that that
isnt in there).  However, I appreciate that they are
trying to include Frodos empathy and the changes it
works on Gollumit will be interesting to see whether,
as in the book, it will be Sams refusal to see Gollum
as redeemable that causes him to send them to Shelob.

Christopher Lee has grasped the essential thing about
Sarumanhis voice works magic without any spells at
alland has developed a voice thats worthy of the
role.  That scene where hes addressing the orc
troopswow.

Grima was over the top, but he is in the book too.  I
thought he was fun to watch.  Id like to nominate him
for a role in HP (why not Sirius?  He seems to have
made a career of playing scary dudes, but one of his
first roles was a very sympathetic one, the stuttering
kid driven to suicide by Nurse Ratched in One Flew
Over the Cuckoos Nest).  However, hes American, so
that wont fly.

I was really, really looking forward to seeing the
Ents and was both pleased and disappointed.  On the
one hand, the voices were great and they really looked
like trees.  On the other hand, their legs are too
long or somethingbetween that and the cute eyes, I
felt like I was watching Muppets, and although the
Ents are very funny, that feel wasnt quite right to
me.  But I cant for the life of me figure out how
Ents *should* be constructed so as to look properly
serious and still get across the countryside (I could
redesign their eyes, though, no problem).

Amy Z


=====
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Florida, July 17-20, 2003
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