What about the acting? The way I am going to handle this aspect of the films is to critique each character one at a time.

Before I go any further one important observation needs to be enunciated about the actors and Jackson. In general, Jackson seems to put a lot of stock in telling much of the story, at least from the viewpoint of the characters that happen to be involved in any one situation, by having the camera close in on their faces. Therefore, it is most interesting how each actor (or actress) handles the camera.

Frodo: Elijah Wood, as I wrote in my public review on TORN, holds up well as
Mr. Baggins. Frodo is clearly the most difficult character to play in the story. I often pictured Frodo being a bit older than Wood is, but we could chalk Frodo's relative youth to the influence to the Ring.

There seems to be some criticism about the fact that Frodo often seems to be too wide - eyed or has his mouth open in too many scenes. Well, look at it this way: if you were suddenly thrust into the role of carrying the burden of the World around with you all of the time, you too would likely look that
way most of the time. I know I would be looking like that with the Nazgul bearing down on me!

Wood and Jackson have done a good job of showing how Frodo evolves into a far more knowledgeable and worldly Hobbit than he was at the beginning of the story. This is largely due to his education by the great ones, but Frodo clearly goes through the school of hard knocks too. Coupled with this is the slow realization that by the end of the movie, viewers have a very powerful feel for how much is truly riding on Frodo’s shoulders. Jackson lets the story tell this drama itself.



Perhaps my favorite scene with Frodo is where Gimli tries to strike the Ring at the Council of Elrond. I like how Frodo appears jarred by the strike against the Ring. It was also interesting how Gandalf seems to have been the only one who noticed what happened to Frodo.

Perhaps my least favorite scene involving Frodo is at the end of the film where Jackson shows the Fellowship breaking up largely because of the attack of Saruman’s orcs. Frodo is shown encountering Aragorn and he shows Aragorn turning down the temptations of the Ring. The party then seems to cooperate together to make sure that Frodo safely gets the Ring out of danger.

One of Tolkien’s great recurring themes in LOTR is how Evil often harms itself. Indeed, terrible acts often have the inadvertent consequences that can, in fact, often end up doing good things that Good itself could not do. Of course, the greatest example of this in LOTR is where Gollum ends up taking the Ring from Frodo (who had finally given in to the Ring) at the edge of Mount Doom and slipping into the chasm as he celebrates getting his Precious back. Some critics have blasted Tolkien for depicting Evil in this way, but Tolkien, I my view, could be driving home the point that what comes around goes around.

An unexpected consequence of Boromir’s attempt at taking the Ring was that Boromir inadvertently ends up scaring Frodo into making a decision to leave for Mordor entirely on his own. The Fellowship had been having some difficulty in making decisions as to where they were going. Who would go with Frodo to Mordor and who was going to go to Rohan and Minas Tirith? Boromir’s attack, coupled with the attacks of orcs, solved that problem. Boromir’s stab at taking the Ring from Frodo ended up having far reaching consequences.

Gandalf: I wrote in my review on TORN that McKellan worked well with every other actor in the movie. There were times I wished we could have seen some more of Gandalf's occasional quick temper, but that's a small complaint.

At a broad level, I really liked how Gandalf was depicted in trying to deal with his Writ from the Valar to aid the Free Peoples of Middle Earth against Sauron. One can essentially infer in the movie that Gandalf (and Saruman too) can attempt to persuade the Free Peoples to take a certain course of action based on their wide knowledge and wisdom of things in the world, but that’s it. They cannot coerce anyone to do anything they would not want to do. The Wizards have to work with what they have. They were generally not supposed to actively steer events or engage in social engineering to produce desired outcomes. Tolkien writes in his Letters that it was these impulses within themselves that the Wizards were to quell. Gandalf was able to do this while Saruman eventually succumbed to the desire for Knowledge, Rule, and Order.

Part of Jackson’s way of showing Gandalf’s limits involved showing him interacting with others. Although the Council of Elrond was shown differently than in the book, it did show Gandalf arguing with everyone else after Gimli’s outburst. He was not able to stuff his ideas down everyone else’s throat. One of the joys of Middle Earth is the sloppy pluralism of its Free Peoples and like it or not, that’s what Wizards have to deal with. It’s not always fun being a Wizard.

I liked: Watching Gandalf mull over his encounter with Bilbo at Bag End after Bilbo leaves for Rivendell. The scene was full of lingering mystery as Frodo enters Bag End looking for Bilbo. Indeed, the entire Bag End episode was really good.

It was interesting, though probably not entirely accurate, having Gandalf show some deference to Saruman. Gandalf’s deference did serve to show Saruman’s stature.

For years I thought that any film rendition of LOTR would need to show scenes of the Great and Noble discussing history and past events as a device for filling in story gaps for viewers who were not intimately familiar with LOTR. With this in mind, I was dearly hoping for some scenes showing Gandalf and Elrond in Rivendell discussing matters, because this would have performed this sorely needed function perfectly. I was absolutely overjoyed when this happened in the movie, although some more explanation of what happened to Arnor and Gondor could have been spoken about. Nonetheless, Jackson and Company get an A+ for showing that scene in the film. Gandalf’s scenes with Saruman also worked relatively well in this regard. Scenes such as this also serve to give the film the epochal time depth that the story has.

One scene I was somewhat disappointed in was – surprise – the Gandalf vs. Balrog battle. No gentle readers, it wasn’t because of whether it was if the Balrog had wings or didn’t have wings, it was because the scene wasn’t exciting enough!

It wasn’t until I saw the film a second time that I saw that what Gandalf essentially did was “trick” the Balrog when he destroys the bridge. The Balrog starts to cross over the bridge while Gandalf is striking it. The bridge then collapses as the Balrog is crossing over it, sending the Balrog (presumably wingless! I just couldn’t help myself here!) down into the depths. Gandalf was presented as preparing a trap for the Balrog as a means of getting rid of it.

So, if I am so smart, what would I done with this classic battle if I were in Peter Jackson’s shoes?

I’ll have to confess here. If you have read my critical views of LOTR, you will know that I think that one literary failure of LOTR revolves around Tolkien investing much more care to most of his “good” creatures than his bad ones. In particular, literary criticism has pointed out that the Professor lavishes much more time and energy on Hobbits and Ents than on Shelob and the Balrog. Tolkien introduces Sauron and his Nazgul to us in Chapter 2, which gives us plenty of time to digest the horrors they will eventually visit on our heroes. On the other hand, both the Balrog and Shelob are introduced via cursory foreshadowings.


But despite this criticism, I have to say that Gandalf / Balrog battle is one of the few scenes of LOTR that I do have mapped out in my own imagination. Essentially, my “mind’s eye” version follows the book fairly carefully and it goes like this:

My movie scene starts, just like in Jackson’s film, after the battle in Balin’s Tomb. Gandalf discerns that they are, and tells the Fellowship the way out of Moria. The Fellowship leaves the Chamber of Mazarbul, travelling down the hall – going right and downwards from Balin’s Tomb on the Seventh level. The Fellowship gropes forward in the darkness, making steady progress. Meanwhile Gandalf stays behind at the bottom of a long stairwell, churning out the words of his spell that will bar the door which opens from the hall. The walls begin to shake, just as in the film. Shrieks of Orcs can be heard from behind the door.

Much to his horror, the door begins to open and Gandalf has to speak his Word of Command to try to keep the door closed. The strain on the door is too much and the door bursts, killing some Orcs. Parts of the stairwell crumble, making the passage unpassable to their enemies. A red glow can be seen from the distance. Orcs try to follow, but then realize that they cannot follow our heroes. A shocked and uncertain Gandalf turns away to follow the rest of the Fellowship …

Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship has reached the Second Hall. They see, at a small distance, the fiery fissure that stretches the length of the Hall. There are several rows of columns (instead of two) which hold up the ceilings of the Hall. They start to run, away from the fissure and towards the Bridge of Khazad-dum. Gandalf follows behind.

Meanwhile several hundred Orcs, followed by a group of 4 Trolls (again different) carrying stone slabs are racing towards the fissure. It is hard for the Orcs to shoot arrows due to the columns, but the Trolls finally throw the slabs across the fissures. Just as the Trolls finish throwing the slabs down, the dreadful red glow comes storming down the Hall. The Balrog roars, crackling his whip. With one beating, several hapless Orcs and one Troll are thrashed. They wail as they are thrown into the fissure never to be seen again. The rest of the Orcs and Trolls scream with fear …

As the Fellowship reaches the Bridge, Legolas puts his arrows to his bow. He wails as he recognizes the Balrog. The rest of the Fellowship races over the Bridge. Meanwhile, Gandalf hears Legolas and understands why the door was destroyed. He then starts to run over the Bridge.

Meanwhile, the Balrog has raced over the stone slabs, followed at a distance by even more Orcs. The Balrog reaches the Bridge as Gandalf is a little over half way over the Bridge. Gandalf halts. The famous words and the clash occur. However, instead of as in the movie (and as in the book), when Gandalf cracks the Bridge, the Balrog is initially thrown back towards the edge of the Bridge as the Bridge crumbles. Shockwaves of Power come storming at the crowd of Trolls and Orcs. The Shockwaves hit and they hit HARD! The huge stone columns holding up the Hall start to collapse. The ceiling of the Hall starts to cave in, crushing the hapless Orcs and Trolls who are not fortunate enough to be blown away into the fiery fissure.

The Balrog is briefly pinned against the edge of the deep chasm by the force of the Blast. His fire is briefly extinguished, but incredibly the Beast survives. He (it?) then starts the long fall down into the depths. Gandalf, much as in the movie, initially satisfied at his work, lingers for a moment. Then the Whip comes from the depths…

My scene ends with Aragorn, last of the Fellowship to leave the cavern, takes one last look with the tears starting to flow. As he starts to run up the stairs, the audience can see the final columns collapse into ruins.

It is the Fall of Gandalf.
                 

                   
                     1        2       3      5          6

                  

Back to Adventures & E - Book Home Page

Go to Home Page