January 27, 2003

TTT's Other Jerk
Jean-pierre Marangakis

Like many others, I am angerd and frustrated by the changes in "The Two Towers."

I work in the film industry, I have written screenplays, I understand that certain changes had to be made to "The Lord of the Rings" to get it from novel to screen. In "Fellowship'" , they cut out Tom Bombadil, no Barrow-Wight, cut a lot out of Bree (no forgetten letter, and essentially, no Butterbur), no Gloin, etc. I didn't mind too much. But... in the novel, Gandalf wanted to go thru Moria, Aragorn was against it. For me, this made Gandalf's death seem more heroic. In the movie, their positions on Moria are reversed. Oh, I could forgive Aragorn's fight with Lurtz, but the heartfelt goodbye to Frodo?

Whatever... "Fellowship" was still a magnificent bit of film making.

"The Two Towers" is equally magnificent... but the changes are even more glaring! Many have complained about Faramir being a bit of a jerk, and I agree completely. The whole "Faramir section" of TT was a huge disappointment... and when he brought the Hobbits to Osgilliath, the movie really lost me. It struck me that the Boromir was more like Tolkien's version of Faramir, and vice-versa.

But let us not forget TT's other jerk... Theoden! Richard Harris' "Dumbledore" was a better Theoden. I mean, Theoden was, as I recall, a kindly, brave and just king, though fatalistic, knowing that his time was short. So what gives? In TT, he seems mean, spiteful, petty, boastful (To paraphrase, "Saruman, is this the best you can do?"), and then, after the retreat into Helm's Deep, he even seems cowardly. I find it hard to believe Merry could grow close to such an unpleasant old crone, and even harder to picture the film's Theoden smiling warmly at his "Holbytla" esquire.

Like the Boromir/Faramir interpertations mentioned above, it seemed that TT's Theoden was more like Tolkien's Denethor. Next year, will we see RK's Denethor benevolently taking Pippin under his wing, or asking Gandalf for guidance?

I can only hope that RK will be truer to the characters of LOTR than TT.

JPM
marangakis@aol.com