January 25, 2003

A Few Tweaks
Dec

After I've seen a movie, I have an initial impression and then take a while to digest what I've seen. As a mental exercise, I put it into a scale that ranges from "I loved it and wouldn't change a thing" to "It was awful and nothing could be done to salvage it." The middle ground would be "I did/didn't like it, but with changes it could be a good movie." When I know the story (such as with LOTR), I inevitably compare the movie to the book. FOTR was at the high end of the scale. I understood the alterations from the book. I didn't miss Tom, I enjoyed the movie, and I enjoyed the extended DVD even more. TT, however, was a little further down the scale. I enjoyed the movie, but a few things stuck out in my mind that could have made the movie better. All of them could have been fixed with dialogue changes. First, I would have put Sam's comments about Boromir in the stronghold when Faramir was looking at the ring. I would have made Faramir's comments in the stronghold summarize those in the book. He still could have deferred the decision, and taken Frodo with him because of haste. Then Faramir would have been more like the character in the book instead of a jerk. Later, he could say he understood Frodo better. I don't know where "we understand each other" came from. Frodo was pretty much out of it at the time as I recall. The second thing I would change would be the dialogue with the Ents. Treebeard knew the hobbits weren't orcs as soon as they spoke. I didn't think the hobbits' initial jeopardy was necessary. A good writer could have summarized the conversation between Treebeard and the hobbits, so that Treebeard was convinced before the Entmoot. The other Ents could have been unconvinced until the hobbits suggested going to see the damage to the forest. That way, the essential elements of the story are mostly preserved, and the importance of the hobbits is established for filmmaking purposes. Finally, Theodin came across as weak. The dialogue could have been firmed up about the move to Helms Deep. In the book, it was clearly the only viable option. The attempt by Aragon and Gandalf to have Theodin meet a vastly superior force in the open would have been foolish and risked encirclement, rout or slaughter. Besides, it wasn't a serious consideration in the book. Other "tweaks" could have been made here and there to improve the overall flow and keep it true to the book, but it was still a good movie. I doubt many people could have done even remotely as well. I still have high expectations for ROTK.