November 17, 2004

Let's Turn That Around for a Minute
Everett

Eonwe, your claim that FotR cannot be the best of the three movies because it does not have any of the best scenes is an interesting one, but it ultimately fails to hold water. As I'm sure you well know, movies have peaks and valleys. So if it's legitimate to evaluate which movie is the best based on the peaks, it ought to be equally legitimate to evaluate which movie is the worst based on the valleys.

Is there any scene in FotR as bad (or silly) as any of the following: Gandalf "exorcising" Theoden, Theoden's decision to take EVERYONE in Edoras to Helm's Deep to avoid a fight (granted, he should have been outnumbered three to one, not thirty to one); Faramir's decision to take Frodo and Sam to Gondor; Pippin tricking the Ents into attacking Isengard; Frodo offering the Nazgul the Ring in Osgiliath; Sam's "There's some good in this world" speech; Frodo telling Sam to go home and Sam actually going; Frodo actually coming to trust Gollum over Sam; Gandalf needing encouragement from Aragorn; Elrond showing up by himself in the middle of the night with Anduril; any of the TTT scenes with Arwen; Faramir's suicide charge; Denethor the Human Torch; Gandalf riding Shadowfax into the Halls of the Dead; Aragorn's ectoplasm army running roughshod over Pellenor, a la the Flood in Halo (maybe if the hosts of Mordor had the Master Chief hey would have fared better.); Aragorn's charge of the light brigade; or searchlight Sauron. Arguably, the Arwen Warrior Princess scene and the Council of Elrond belong on this list, as does the scene where Frodo offers Galdriel the Ring, but they belong in the bottom half of this list. So, if both your standard and mine are applied, we reach the conclusion that FotR is both the least good and the least bad, an obvious contradiction. Rather, I think it best to conclude that that FotR's high points are not as high as the other movies, nor its low ones as low. The question then becomes, When taken as a whole, which movie is the best?

Of the three, FotR, I submit, is the best when taken as a whole. It has the most coherent and fluid narrative, the best character development, and is closest to the books in terms of both plot and the characters. With the exception of replacing Glorfindel with Arwen, it's greatest shortcomings come not from what is changed outright, but from what is left out, especially where dialogue is concerned. In TTT and RotK, these shortcomings persist, but they are far surpassed by the absurd changes to the plot that weaken and disrupt the narrative, greatly limiting the effect the most stirring scenes in the movies (typing as someone who prefers the books).