One of the best scenes of the film was where Elrond was speaking with Gandalf. He says that, “Men are weak… I was there when Isuldur took the Ring!” When the scene then goes into flashback and shows Elrond with Isuldur at Mount Doom, I was awed. If a viewer sits down and really thinks about this scene, it reveals even more power than it shows on screen. What can Elrond do here? NOTHING! In theory, he could have “tried to do the right thing” and made an attempt kill Isuldur in order to then destroy the One Ring, but what would have happened? Would Elrond have been successful? Would Elrond have then kept the One Ring for himself? Even if he would have killed Isuldur and thrown the One Ring into the nearby fires, what would have happened then? Elrond would have been faced with having to explain to the Lords of Arnor and Gondor why he needed to kill Isuldur – an awfully tall order! Indeed no explanation, however noble, would have probably been acceptable to the Lords of Men. Such a deed may well have cracked the Last Alliance and would have probably meant everlasting war between Elves and Men. Such is the power of the One Ring. The look on Elrond’s face when he relives those moments says it all. It was a face that wore nothing but sadness and regret.

Saruman: I saved the best for last!


As I wrote in my TORN review, I nearly flew over the moon when Christopher Lee was cast as Saruman. Everything about the dark eyed, hook faced, deep voiced, towering Lee was just absolutely sensational! Lee effortlessly captured Saruman’s arrogance and his imperial bearing. Lee is right on the money showing most of Saruman’s attitude towards Gandalf. We don’t have screen time to see why Saruman would be jealous of Gandalf whom he now is afraid of. For the film however, we do get to see how the Lordly Saruman treats Gandalf as an errant Minister. Now that’s a Wizard!

I have long had a running argument in my own mind about how much Magic, Art, and Power there actually is in Middle Earth. In fact, to me this subject is one of the most fascinating and beguiling aspects of Tolkien’s writings. There are times in which I think that Middle Earth is overrun with magic (a la Morgoth’s Ring Theory) and then there are times in which I think that the amount of Magic that exists in Middle Earth is somewhat sparse. By the “minimalist theory”, the Great and Powerful (the Galadriel’s, Saruman’s, Elronds, Cirdan’s, Gandalf’s, etc) are powerful simply because they inspire fear and awe rather than actually having vast magical powers. In other words, the Great Ones are immortal, possessors of vast historical and practical knowledge, can speak many languages (including some forgotten ones), have healing powers, and so on that few other mortals possess. But they cannot hurl magic around the way we would conceive such actors would in a Dungeons and Dragons type world. To be honest, I don’t think I want to solve this problem and I really don’t want anyone trying to give me The Answer. Middle Earth will always have more Wonder for me if some things are just left alone.

In fact, perhaps the single greatest aspect about Tolkien’s writing to me is that since he does such a wonderful job of creating Middle Earth, it is almost pointless to go on and on trying to systemically explain magic in Middle Earth. The blunt fact of the matter is that Tolkien wrote that Gandalf had the power to use magic and Bilbo did not. For that matter, I would not have had that power either. I know you fanatics, You don’t have to give me a dammed sermon on how Gandalf was actually a deity. Just let me ask you this: When did you first find out that Saruman and Gandalf were actually Maiar? Until you found that out, did you really question how Saruman and Gandalf had the powers they actually possessed? If you were like me, you didn’t. You just accepted that they had extraordinary powers that most beings did not have simply because Tolkien said so – period. Now, to me that is a classic example of how great of a storyteller Tolkien really was. Tolkien didn’t waste a lot of time and words explaining exactly how magic worked in Middle Earth because he didn’t have to.

What does this tirade have to do with Saruman and the way Jackson decided to portray him in the film? Quite a bit actually. For one thing, Tolkien’s style of writing allows for a great deal of leeway in portraying how much power the Wizards wield. In the film, we see that Jackson has clearly chosen the path that Wizards have great powers, which of course makes for great theater. Saruman uses “foul craft” instead of mere genetic engineering to produce his new Master Race of Uruk – Hai. The scene showing Saruman standing at the pinnacle of Orthanc, summoning up a vast storm to throw at our heroes from far away Isengard was just incredible.

After watching the movie several times, I got to thinking about Saruman’s motives behind hurling the storm at our heroes. If one pays attention only to the film and not the books, Saruman must know that he is taking a perilous risk by summoning the storm. Ideally, he would want the Fellowship to either go back to Rivendell or risk coming near Isengard. However, he is also presented as knowing that the Balrog (and perhaps Orcs) lurk in Moria. Clearly, Saruman is counting on fear that the Fellowship will do what he wants. But what if the Balrog manages to seize the One Ring? One could presume that a great demon such as the Balrog would be attracted to the presence of the One Ring, which would explain to non - Tolkien readers why this monster decided to pay our heroes a visit. A hidden moral is present here. Be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it.


Did anyone notice when Gandalf first met Saruman how there were crows flying around Orthanc? It sets up the scene later on where the birds come looking for the Fellowship. It was really cool how Saruman is shown understanding the crows of the birds.

The Orthanc scenes were also fun to watch. The Palantir was striking to look at and I also liked how Saruman is shown in his study with books piled up all over the place. Presumably, he has read them all.


Jackson portrays pretty accurately Saruman’s torture at the hands of Sauron via the Palantir. But at the same time, we see how Saruman is also a rival of Sauron’s. He too wants the Ring for himself. Saruman is by no means enslaved the way the Nazgul are. One can’t help but wonder how much help Saruman could have been for the Free Peoples during the War of the Ring.

As with Cate Blanchett and Galadriel, I will never be able to see anyone besides Christopher Lee as Saruman. If they ever do film LOTR again, whoever plays Saruman has an awfully tough act to follow.

This last section concerns various miscellaneous aspects of Fellowship of the Ring that I haven’t covered yet. Forgive me if I ramble here.

The Old Forest / Tom Bombadil scenes were cut and few seem to have noticed. I’m not sure how many people are aware of this, but the Old Forest and Barrow Wight scenes were also cut out of Bashki’s 1978 edition as well. These aspects add quite a bit to the mystery and color of Middle Earth (don’t we all scratch our heads a bit when thinking about Tom Bombadil and Goldberry?), but in terms of the overall plot to LOTR, I think that most people seem to have caught on to the fact that outside of how the Hobbits acquire their swords, these episodes can safely be cut out of most film renditions of LOTR and not damage the story too much. Screen time can be better put to use elsewhere.

We haven’t been prepared for Rohan, Theoden, and Grima yet. I’m wondering if Jackson should have done just a bit of work to prepare us for what’s coming.

Other criticisms of Fellowship of the Ring include, from the standpoint of an average viewer who hasn’t read the books might include:


1. How does Boromir know that the Sword he picks up in Rivendell is Narsil, just by picking it up? I suppose that one is to infer that Boromir knows from the nearby painting depicting the battle between Isuldur and Sauron that he has the legendary sword in his hands. Also, how does he know that Aragorn is a Ranger at the Council of Elrond? It seems that we are to infer that everyone has been introduced to each other already.

2. How exactly does Aragorn know about Mr. Underhill? How does Aragorn know what hunts Frodo upon meeting him in Bree? One may infer by watching the film that Aragorn knows about the One Ring, but how is Aragorn to know that Frodo is carrying it when he meets him? Has Gandalf told him of all these things?

One thing I started doing on subsequent viewings of the film was that I started asking other film viewers what they thought about the film after they finished watching the movie. In most cases, those whom I spoke to either had not read the books at all, or had read them many years ago and had not read them since. Therefore, I was really intrigued about what they had to say. Here are some things people said to me about the film:

1. One guy was a bit irritated at the 3 hour length of the film. However, he was the only person whom I spoke to who felt that way. He apparently wasn’t expecting the film to be that long.

2. A woman who was with the guy in (#1) above said the messages of the film were good vs. evil and make use of your time.

3. One younger couple, perhaps in their early 20’s, gave me mixed reviews. The girl said she didn’t like it (she didn’t say why and I didn’t ask her why), but her boyfriend said he “thought it kicked ass!” I suppose one can infer that these films are guy films and that we guys are going to have to go to some chick flicks sometime in the future in order to make the scores even.

4. Another couple, both whom appeared to be perhaps in their late 30’s, were interesting to talk to. Again, the guy said that, “This movie was really intense!” The woman was struck on “how the film starts rather idyllically and fairy tailish (in the Shire) and then gets bigger, gloomier, and darker as the story goes on.” I had a nice conversation with this couple after the film was over.

5. This review was from one of my co-workers (named Alan) who had read the books years ago and re-read the books just before going to see the movie with his wife: He said that, “I thought that the movie was good, but it felt like one big chase scene after another. Like get in the car and get on the highway if you know what I mean.” (I know. I used his metaphor, as you may have noticed above).

6. From another co-worker named Tom – Tom was an old Dungeons and Dragons player who has also read the books: “The movie was really good. But I didn’t like how they didn’t show more hand - to - hand melee. All of the battle scenes felt like several things were going on at once.”

I will finish this section by granting the wish of another of my co-workers. This guy is in his early - mid 20’s and is a computer geek type named Stephen. Stephen is a true child of the computer age: Smart, nerdy, has read some science fiction and fantasy, but not nearly as much as older sci-fi and fantasy fans. Stephen absolutely loves computer games like Doom Quake (or are they separate games?). Stephen loves action movies with tons of special effects – should that surprise you?

In fact until recently I worked with an older guy named Charles who was much like Stephen. He too loved every meaningless special effects loaded film that came out and ran through the latest and greatest computer games like they were going out of style. In fact all those games were going out of style. Why? He would play them for a couple of months, figure out all of their secrets, and then get bored with them. Then he would go out and buy the next 20 games that had recently been released only to repeat the cycle over and over again.

Stephen (and for that matter Charles), like nearly everyone but my closest friends from long ago, at first could not understand why it was that I was going bananas about Lord of the Rings. I rarely go to see movies these days, so they couldn’t understand why it was that out of nowhere, I was suddenly going insane over these films. Well, after much explaining, now they know. In fact, some of my co-workers are now trying to read Tolkien!

Note I said “trying” here. Stephen told me that many gamer types out there (I am a retired gamer who now plays Chess – a most noble game that can be studied and played forever) are absolutely in love with Lord of the Rings. It seems that many war game and computer game players think that the LOTR film is the greatest thing ever. He asked me to write something about this. That was his wish.

This is my take on what’s happening: In my mind, Tolkien (and LOTR) is something whom you either hated or loved. I submit that is this not only the case amongst the general public, but that it is also the case amongst the geeky war gamer and computer game player community!

Let’s face it folks, LOTR is a hard story for many people to get through. Unlike the Hobbit, LOTR was written in a dry, plodding, often subdued style. It’s also written in a style that uses archaic words like “whence” and “gibbets” that people aren’t often exposed to in everyday conversation. LOTR goes on at points for pages and pages without showing any combat, without showing someone conjuring up a spell, or having anyone say something that’s funny. In other words for many people, and that includes war gamer types, LOTR is a boring book!


But these people never would have admitted that reading books was boring. Either that or they just put the books down long ago and decided that they would be a better person if they didn’t have to finish reading the books. They could skip reading LOTR and simply go back to their gaming conventions and their computer games. They would just go to see the latest and greatest special effects loaded movie (such as the movie Dungeons and Dragons) that they drummed up as being the next all time classic, but which in fact didn’t matter and would be forgotten next month. Better yet, maybe they could get on the Internet and simply download some bootlegged film from some website located in the Third World and watch it for free.

But then something incredible happened. Suddenly some people are talking about a film version of that book that they never read a long time ago. Their friends are going crazy. Older people, for whom Tolkien had been a glowing flame all their lives, started coming out of the woodwork and were working themselves into a frenzy. The media excitement is incredible.

Then, the Fellowship of the Ring finally came out and those people, who for so long blew those boring books off, were blown away. They didn’t know what was coming and they didn’t know what hit ’em. They were so used to seeing things that they forgot (or never realized) how words and stories can still move people and hold meaning for them. They suddenly realized after watching the film how awesome that boring book really was. They had spent their whole lives playing video and computer games that suddenly they saw the work of the Master on screen. They beheld a vision of what was the original source and inspiration for all of their games and fantasies. They had seen the light and the light was beautiful!

All I can say to anyone who ever reads this is this: If you are gamer like those of whom I described above, or if you are an average everyday person who has no interest in fantasy or games but has never read The Lord of the Rings, I suggest that you spend some time and read it. Then make your final judgment.

                                 

                   
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