March 4, 2004

Re: L: Lidless Eye
Eonwe

I agree with Elendur that in the movies Sauron always seems secondary to his army of orcs or even Saruman. The thought first struck me while rewatching TTT that the audience has a much better feel for Saruman and Isengard than for Sauron and Mordor. You see Saruman building his army, plotting his attack, and giving a speech to his huge army. And you see Sauron ... flaming. The superiority and sheer evil of Sauron get lost. I know you can't show Sauron giving orders to his underlings, but you could do something - talk about him more, show Saruman less, something. And then, in RotK, they don't even show the Eye until near the end when Sam and Frodo look into Mordor for the first time after walking out of the Tower. Saruman's out of the way, but now the orc armies and the Nazgul are put front and center.

The one thing PJ and Co. do get right about Sauron is their depiction of the One Ring, which even in the books is really the way you know him and his nature best. From early on in FotR, the audience knows the ring is evil and is afraid of it. They show the ring dangling out there, throw in a shot of some character staring at it, and start that heartbeat sound effect going. I get nervous just thinking about it!

Eonwe