My Thoughts on The Two Towers
Posted 5 years, 5 months ago on Tuesday, January 21st, 2003 under Entertainment · No Comments ·
What did I think of Jackson’s The Two Towers? For a long time, I wasn’t really sure what I thought about it. I’ve pretty much worked that out now.
My first impression, as I was driving home at 2:00am, was one of vague disappointment. The friend I was with loved it, and was going on and on about how great it was, but I just couldn’t get into the spirit. I couldn’t help but think "But what about Faramir?! Theoden?! Treebeard!! Frodo!!! They were all wrong!!!!"
After a few weeks, I still think that. I think Jackson has room to salvage the wreck he made of the characters in his next installment, but I don’t have much faith that he will. Frodo holding Sting to Sam’s throat? Please. Not even while deeply under the influence of the Ring did he get anywhere near that. Nor was he nearly so short with Sam when Sam expressed his doubts towards Gollum/Smeagol. Faramir was just pathetic. Jackson should have used a different name for the character, b/c in no way did he resemble Tolkien’s Faramir… except maybe in dress and skin color. Theoden was rude, impatient and fatalist in Jackson’s treatment. In print he was fatherly, forgiving, noble, kingly and full of hope, duty and honor, at least once he broke away from Grima. Treebeard is the shepherd of the trees in Fangorn, the forest that bears his name, indeed, that was named after him! How could he NOT know of the travesties the orcs were committing? Jackson established that the trees talked, was Treebeard so dense that he didn’t listen until he saw it with his own eyes? Bah. It’s a shame about Gimli. Such a stout and able friend reduced to comic relief. Gloin must be rolling over in his grave to see his son treated so.
Let’s get back to Faramir for a second, shall we? Jackson portrayed Faramir as an untrusting man who’s vision is limited to the here and now. In print he was a far sighted man of great wisdom, patience, and honor, in kind to Aragorn in that the blood of his forefathers at the height of their glory and power somehow ran more true in his veins. Jackson apparently didn’t think that was as Faramir should be. Instead, the minute he learned that Frodo bore the Ring, known to him as "Isildur’s Bane", he held a sword to Frodo’s throat to draw it out. Allow me to repeat that in case it didn’t register: he held (get this) a sword (oh yes) to Frodo’s throat. He then prepares to send Frodo off to Gondor as a "mighty gift" to Denethor. But then, when he is witness to Frodo nearly giving the Ring to the Nazgul for free, does he hurry Frodo off to Gondor to prevent such a horrible thing from happening again?! No! He lets him go! What?! Why?! That just doesn’t make any sense. He said that he thinks they "understand each other now." What does that mean? He understands that Frodo is a weak and cowardly slave to the Ring who hasn’t the will to resist it’s effects or it’s master’s servants? That’s what *I* understood from that tragic scene. I ask you, given what he witnessed, what else could Faramir possibly have understood? I’ll give Jackson some leeway in his treatment of characters, though my opinion is that he took Faramir way too far. However, what I won’t grant is logical inconsistency. If you’re going to rape a character, at least give a polite reach-around.
Moving on, what was the point of having Aragorn fall into the river? Perhaps it merely served as a segue into the conversations between him and Arwen, and Arwen and Elrond? Possibly… I don’t see why he had to go that route. Seems to me that he could have spent that screen time giving Faramir another fist up the… but whatever. Aragorn wasn’t too bad in this film, aside from the fact that he gave the star jewel back to Arwen. That never happened. Never. He was always true to her, and spent his entire life preparing for the day that he would take the crown of Gondor to brow, and her to bride. I got the sense that he was tempted by Eowyn, but I’ve also heard other people say they got no such impression, so I’m keeping a lid on that one.
What I can’t keep a lid on (among other things, apparently) is the way Elrond so vehemently argued against Arwen and Aragorn’s betrothal. He wasn’t happy about it in print, sure, and even went so far as to tell Aragorn that he would wed no woman, much less Arwen, until his time comes and he is found worthy. He goes on to say that Arwen would wed no one save the King of both Gondor and Arnor. Clearly he wasn’t happy about it. But he didn’t, at least in words that Tolkien wrote and published, actively try to convince Arwen to leave with him. And about the story he told Arwen in order to sway her. I’m not honestly sure, but I’m really not convinced that Arwen would waste away from grief after Aragorn’s death, either. I’ve looked around for reference to the true fate of those that chose to forego the immortality of the First Born, and all indications are that Arwen, like Luthien and Elros before her, simply became mortal, to age and die a mortal death.
Aside from all that, Elrond and Company didn’t even take the Straight Road past the Grey Havens until after the War of the Ring was over. Again, bah.
However, not all the characters were a loss. Gollum was brilliant. It was obviously CGI in more than a few places (in that way, Jar-Jar was infinitely superior), but the acting and facial expressions were amazing (in this way, Jar-Jar can suck a dick). Sam was spot on also. He was just as impatient and untrusting of Stinker/Slinker as I’ve always pictured him. Merry and Pippin were fairly innocuous. Gandalf the same. I was pleased with the portrayal of Eowyn as well. She came across as both strong and vulnerable, just as she was in print.
In terms of events, Jackson was more or less true to the print, if you don’t consider Aragorn’s little side trip, that is. At first, I was horrified by how badly Jackson had mangled the events as well, but the more I thought about it, the less upset I became. He truncated the book about halfway through for the Fellowship west of Anduin, while letting Frodo and Sam get nearly to their end-of-book destination. So in terms of events, the movie Return of the King will pick up somewhere in the middle of The Two Towers print version for. He didn’t drastically change the order of things, he just cut it off early to make room for Return of the King.
Fellowship of the Ring was a good movie. It was, to my mind, more or less true to the books. Some things were condensed, other things were left out. While he did alter the fundamental nature of some of the characters, Aragorn and Frodo more than any, he didn’t take them 180 degrees from their print counterparts like he did Faramir. The changes made to that movie were such that the additional footage in the Special Edition made for a truly excellent film. The theatrical release wasn’t bad, and the Special Edition was great. I’m not sure, to be honest, how he could possibly salvage the wreck he made of The Two Towers.
Maybe Return of the King will help, but for now, I still await a decent treatment of the whole of The Lord of the Rings epic.