More responses to my review of ROTK and some of the additions and corrections people sent in. [More]
Month: January 2004
This is a second update to some of the ideas discussed in my review of ROTK and the update I wrote to include people’s responses. A lot of people wrote to me about the scene where Elrond tells Aragorn that Arwen is dying. I sadi that it diminished Aragorn by making his motive for saving Middle-earth personal (ie doing it for love) rather than heroic (ie doing it for the common good of all). Other people disagreed:
Barbara wrote: “Arwen’s fading forces _Elrond_ to reforge the sword, and it’s this _sword_ that is the last missing piece of symbolic motivation that Aragorn needs to enter the Paths of the Dead and follow _his_ path from there. It’s not Arwen who really matters in this scene, it’s the sword.”
Lossefalme wrote: This is in response to a point brought up in your “ROTK Review: Updates and Corrections”
Elrond: “I bring hope to mankind.” Aragorn: “I save none for myself.”
For me, this exchange brought to mind a conversation between Aragorn and Gilraen as told in the appendices. Gilraen tells Aragorn that she will soon die, that she cannot face the gathering darkness. Aragorn tries to comfort her.
“But she answered only with this linnod: Onen i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel anim” – English translation: ‘I gave Hope to the Dunedain, I have kept no hope for myself.” [And in the Extended Edition of FOTR, we even see Aragorn tracing the inscription on his mother’s tomb – which is this line, surely – Tehanu]
“So, I took it not as having to do with Arwen, but as an acknowledgement of his mother, and, more importantly, Aragorn signifying to Elrond that he has now made the commitment to live up to his destiny and will accept his place as king (or die trying). By doing so, he finally gains Elrond’s approval,” says Lossefalme
Katrelya made a good point:
“At first, I thought the scene with Arwen on her death bed – which isn’t in the book – detracted from the story. However, it showed Elrond’s unconditional love for her, as opposed to Denethor’s possessive love for his dying son Faramir, which is in the book, of course. This scene provided the audience with Elrond as a foil for Denethor. Elrond is willing to finally let go of Arwen; Denethor wants to keep Faramir with him, even if it means killing him! Elrond, of course, is the wiser of the two dads. Ultimately, both Elrond and Denethor let their children go. “
Which reminds me – on my last viewing, I finally caught the expression on Elrond’s face at the coronation scene, where Arwen leaves his side and goes to Aragorn. It’s a complex mixture of pain and love and bittersweet acceptance, and it backs up what Katrelya said about Elrond being willing at last to let his beloved child go, despite the pain it costs him.
A few people have written in with suggestions for great paintings that seem to have inspired some of the shots in ROTK. Kathe writes, “I totally agree, as Faramir goes to his doom, down through the incredible set of M.T. the images are between Italian and Dutch early to mid renaissance – the faces and film tint and lighting and the colors of the clothing- great!”
Denethor eating while Faramir rides to his doom reminded Odile of this very disturbing Goya painting of Saturn eating his children. [More] Carla thought that the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian I found by Rubens is most similar to the 7th image downhere She said, “I knew this one looked familiar it reminded me of a shot of Frodo I see everyday (it just so happens to be my desktop background) Though not actually seen in any of the films, it made a quick appearance in the Two Towers preview (seen in the shot by shot analysis on your site. They share almost identical expressions…beautiful.”
That’s great, but I’m still looking for more!
The entire ROTK Cast has just won Best Ensemble at the Critics Choice Awards for his work on The Return of the King! Billy Boyd accepted the award on the behalf of everyone. For those lucky enough to have the E! Network you can watch the show live right now!
Howard Shore has just won Best Score at the Critics Choice Awards for his work on The Return of the King! Howard accepted the award and made a small speech. For those lucky enough to have the E! Network you can watch the show live right now!
Thorongil writes: As all of us here at TORN are big fans of Tolkien’s works, we have varying opinions and levels of how much we like or dislike Gollum in the books. While engaged in many discussions over the years with other TORN staffers and ringers from around the world, I have never heard anyone say Gollum was their favorite character. Well, after seeing Andy Serkis’ perfomance as Gollum in all three LOTR movies, that may very well change. [More]
Order your copy of ‘Gollum: A Behind the Scenes Guide of the Making of Gollum’ on Amazon.com today!
As all of us here at TORN are big fans of Tolkien’s works, we have varying opinions and levels of how much we like or dislike Gollum in the books. While engaged in many discussions over the years with other TORN staffers and ringers from around the world, I have never heard anyone say Gollum was their favorite character. Well, after seeing Andy Serkis’ perfomance as Gollum in all three LOTR movies, that may very well change. In “Gollum: How we made Movie Magic”, by Andy Serkis, we get another wonderful Houghton Mifflin LOTR movies tie in book that is delightful, fun, intelligent, humorous and easy to read. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down!
In this 120 page book, Andy lends his thoughts from the moment he first got called to audition, through the entire principal photography and into the final days of post production. What originally was supposed to be a three week job turned into 5 years of intense, emotionally and physically draining work. “Gollum” is very insightful on the ever evolving transformation of Gollum, the character, by Andy and the entire crew that worked on the films. From the moment Andy first acted out Gollum, Peter Jackson and the production crew knew they were going to have to rethink Andy’s involvement in the process. Andy tells us how he would have to do certain scenes three or four different ways. First from Motion Capture ( the process of digitally converting an actors physical movements onto a computer generated model),secondly to actual on screen shooting of scenes with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, then thirdly to having Andy off camera delivering his lines with the same timing to the same exact scene he just shot, then lastly to ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement).
Andy shares with us in depth details explaining the whole process of motion capture and the technology behind everyone of Gollum’s shots. He gives a very thorough account on his exhaustive performance as Gollum and everything he did to make Gollum the most actor driven CGI character in film history! Andy puts it simply, ” What we had achieved collectively was to take a great character from literature, filter that character through great screenwriters, then take the emotion, physicality and voice of an actor’s performance, ….. and synthesize them in a range of animation techniques and motion capture. This was then rendered inside a skin so real it looked as if you could touch it, then meticulously lit and placed back into original environments so that Gollum unquestionably existed as a real being. The audience was enabled to feel a connection with this hideous-looking creature rather than just being impressed with technical magic.”
I guess part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was the way Andy relates some of the experiences he has while he is in New Zealand. He has an amusing way of making us laugh as we follow along with him as he personally goes tramping all over New Zealand. It brought back clear memories of how beautiful New Zealand is when I was there over 3 years ago. Just reading Andy detailing his adventures or misadventures in New Zealand makes this book a worthwhile read. Then throw in some of the truly incredible sketches and drawings from the designers and animators that worked on Gollum, to go along with their candid commentary while working on creating Gollum, and we have another must read book for any Tolkien or movie fan!