August 20, 2003

Nasty Faramir and LotR Changes
Elfowitz

Can you imagine Pete Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens sitting down to adapt the screenplay of The Two Towers exactly as it appears in the book. So Aragorn, Leggy and Gimli go running after the Uruks, almost end up getting killed by Eomer, meet Gandalf (all in white shock) go to Edoras and cast out some evil spirits from Theoden, ride to Helms Deep where they battle tens of thousands of Orcs only for Gandalf and the trees to ride to the rescue just in time. Meanwhile Frodo and Sam meet Gollum, have a bit of a scrap for 60 seconds (and then are best of friends until they meet Shelob), go through some soggy marshland, decide after seeing the Black Gate that it probably isn't the best entrance to Mordor, take an alternative route, then meet nice Mr Faramir who asks then a few easy questions, gives them lots of tasty Gondor cuisine and then sends them on their way to Mt Doom with a new wardrobe. In the book, you could have called it Frodo and Sam's vacation with Faramir. PJ and Fran Walsh obviously realised that they could have a problem with the huge contrast between the tension and drama of what was happening to Aragorn and company at Helms Deep against the complete lack of drama or suspense in the Sam and Frodo storyline. Even as it was, (WITH the sinister Faramir in the film), I found it a bit irritating every time the camera left Helms Deep to go back to see what was happening to Frodo. When the Uruks are about to break through into the Hornberg and then the film shoots back to Gondor, I'm like 'who cares about Frodo and Sam - what about the Ents and Helms Deep'. I hate labouring a point but apart from Gollum, the Frodo and Sam part of Two Towers was boring enough as it was, even with Faramir being a bit of a swine and kidnapping them. If PJ had not injected some suspense into this part of the storyline with Faramir being creepy and nasty then the contrast with Helms Deep would have been too much and the film would not have stood up as well as it has (which would have been a tragedy for all Tolkien lovers). Some changes are a shame but the mediums of novel and cinema are so different that you sometimes have to make big changes to preserve both the tension and the emotion of the story. e.g The excellent Samwise the Brave speech which wouldn't have had the same impact without the Osgiliath / Nazgul sequence. Initially I shared some people's feelings about Faramir and especially Theoden but the more you analyse the story and see the film the more you realise that a huge part of Two Towers would have died if PJ hadn't made big changes.

For the same reasons, I understand why they have got rid of 'The Scouring of the Shire'. Even in the book I think that chapter was odd and seemed superfluous. In the film, the audience would be so annoyed to have gone through the trauma of Mount Doom and Pelennor fields only to have the tension ratcheted up again for the sake of a few dodgy hobbits like Ted Sandyman who have turned bad and the vagrants Wormtongue and Saruman. All this would do would be to detract from and lessen the significance of the defeat of Sauron. I think this would leave audiences feeling bitter and cheated after having watched these films for over 10 hours in total and would also spoil what I think will be an an amazing and emotional ending at the Gray Havens and hopefully Valinor. The novel and the films are works of genius in their own way and for me (all things considered) they are spot on.