July 13, 2002

Ages of Characters
Deb

There was a question recently about the age of Frodo, and why, when he is supposed to be 50, he shows up as a very young Elijah Wood. In fact, most of the main characters in the movie are much younger than their counterpart in the book. Aragorn, for example, is supposed to be around 50 himself, and if Merry and Pippin were Frodo's friends growing up, it can be assumed they are also way out of their "tweens". The first time I saw the picture of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, I thought, "oh,no. If PJ made him this young, what other things did he change?" It disturbed me, that is, until I saw the movie. It works well in the book as 50 year old men, but on screen, I personally think they couldn't have picked a better cast, or especially a better Aragorn (forgiving the strange Bree accent). I think they all perfectly fit JRR's idea of his characters. PJ did a fabulous job with this film. I now think that if they had cast Harrison Ford or some other 50 year old tough guy as Aragorn, it would not have worked as well. Also, they needed some pretty faces to look at! It comes down to the fact that these guys are just too sexy for some of us hardliners.