November 11, 2003

Saruman Out!!! Big Mistake
Danny

Gandalf's confrontation with Saruman is important in a lot of ways. It demonstrates Gandalf's growth in status and power as Gandalf the White, it begins the resolution of Saruman's betrayal, and Tolkien makes it a point to demonstrate the tragedy of one who uses their power for good rather than Evil.

The first time you really get a glimpse of what Gandalf the white is capable of is when he breaks Saruman's staff. I thought and beleived that one of the reasons that PJ had the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman in the Fellowship was to demonstrate in a vivid way that Gandalf was under Saruman for non-tolkienites. So I figured it was there specifically to build to when Gandalf returns later and easily throws Saruman down. I think we are missing a vital part of Gandalf's character development. I am sure that PJ will say that Gandalf's excorcism scene accomplished that, but I feel that it only hinted at what could have been so powerfully developed later.

If Saruman is left in his tower with all his powers after Isengard is cleansed by the ents, then destroying the ring is a victory, but there is still a very powerful and evil wizard out there. It leaves a loose end that in my mind would diminish any happy ending. Great Sauron was destroyed, but there is another out there. Sure Saruman is much weaker, but he is still quite a threat. Leaving him there only works for films where they want a LOTR 4 which they obviously don't.

Tolkien made it a point to have Gandalf develop how Saruman could still have been a great help to their cause. He also made it a point to demonstrate how much of a loss Saruman's decision to use his power for evil rather than good. A lot of this was developed fully in the confrontation with Gandalf. I think that is one of Tolkien's themes; missapplied power. Wether it is using your power only for self serving purposes rather than fighting for good(Bombadil) or Saruman's direct betrayal.

So I think that we are loosing a lot of important aspects of Tolkien's work if that scene is not there. I hope that it will be in the extended version. I think it is fairly likely that it will. My reasoning actually comes from the ROTK game by EA. That game has a path where Gandalf goes to Isengard. It has audio voice overs of Gandalf saying things like "I come to Isengard, and this time it's not seeking your counsel." It actually has several voice recordings of a dialog between them. Sure EA records their own sound bits, but they often base them off the script. It does give me the impression that the portions of the movie they were given access too included or strongly implied a confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman. BTW the game has some pretty cool visuals to give us a hint of what Shelob is going to be like etc. It is a definate improvement over the Two Towers game in my mind. Anyway back to the point. Let us all hope that the footage with Saruman and Gandalf makes the extended version. In my mind, the theater release is to be judged by the less avid Tolkien fans and non-tolkienites. For those of us who are big fans of the books, we have the extended versions, and we can pass final judgement on the films after we see the version where PJ tries to include extras to appease the book fans specifically.