The Infamous
Movie Rant
By Willow-wode
The definitions of
strength.
Frodo's victimization. Frodo and Sam's bond. Faramir's temptation. Arwen's
influence, over Aragorn and within the entire movie. Theoden's likenesses to
Denethor. The movie's well-defined quickness and ability of the Ring to
corrupt--and the supposed lack of resistance to the corruption. The speed of
deterioration of all those characters and, in particular, the tension upon the
relationships within 'calling' distance of the Ring’s influence.
Evil is certainly present in JRRT's text, but the result and culmination of its
influence is ambiguous at best. He did not want to go there. Not that I blame
him, but he didn't. And in choosing to not deeply delve into the effects of the
Ring's power, I think it is only natural that the books set us up, leave us
with very real conflicts of emotion in the wake of any strong exposure to and
revelation of that power, particularly as exposed by the TT movie. Our focus
and expectations--whether they be none, or many--lift us up, and take us down.
The holding out of strength against an enemy that can undermine and subjugate
even the most strongest of wills, because of that ambiguity of reaction and
result in the books, is likely to divide us in our opinion. Particularly in a
middle act of a play that by all laws of dramatic necessity must be rife with
tension and unfinished division of hearts and minds--and one that was not
necessarily written with strictest attention to this dramatic necessity.
Remember, JRRT did not want LotR to be a trilogy. It was the publisher's
decision to make it so. Therefore JRRT did not give the same impact to the
second book that must be given within the dramatic confines of a trilogy.
I think that unbending impact of darkness and the definition of what makes true
strength is the true psychological masterpiece of this movie. It does not
define strength by only physicality, by bravado and shouting of epithets and
sword waving. It shows true strength is internal... and that even the strongest
will and heart and mind is not always enough to prevent breakage or subjugation
to darkness, however limited and temporary that subjugation is.
It shows us quite brutally the message of JRRT's books: that sometime true
strength and sacrifice is giving up everything including inner peace and
sanctuary.
Which leads us right away to Frodo. Is Frodo weaker in the movies than in the
books? It's quite the interesting quandary to me how a lot of people seem to
find Frodo 'weakened' in the movie. For I do not see that at all. I find him
stronger in a very subtle fashion. I actually find the book and movie Frodos
very compatible--other than in the book he would display an outward bluster
(what farm-folk call 'pissing on the tractor tires') that I never was
comfortable with and found more in keeping with Bilbo. In fact, it was almost
like JRRT sometimes forgot that he wasn't dealing with Bilbo, because this
wierd braggarty streak would appear out of thin air and squeeze itself onto
Frodo on occasion. It was a poor fit, I thought, and one that did not aligned
itself well to Frodo. Bilbo, yes. The occasional pomposity enriched his
character and gave a basis of comparison when he showed true, quiet strength.
But Frodo? Upon him it was not used with regularity nor in keeping with other
character traits displayed, so it became a false strength. True toughness does
not need to bluster. Even Bilbo, for all his wonderfully full-of-himself-ness,
knew when to stop the 'pissing contest' and get to business.
Is Frodo victimized by the Ring? Of course he is. He must be. To suggest that
he is weakened by falling prey to something that is so overpoweringly and
sorcerously evil is rather like suggesting that a rape victim 'didn’t fight
hard enough'. To say that within the confines of the movie that the Ring is
corrupting him too soon... well, define 'soon', please. Quite pragmatically PJ
only has 10 hours for over a thousand pages of text. To go through movie tTT
with the timing and effect that we see in the book tTT is not real. It is not
believable, nor is it possible. In any trilogy that concerns itself with the
struggle of light, darkness and greyscale, the middle third is where darkness
rises and nearly triumphs. Tension and angst usually apply in spades.
I want Frodo victimized by that damned Ring. He must be. Otherwise you
have this enormous ambiguity of what exactly he is doing when he claims the
Ring at Sammath Naur. I want to see, and to know that it is trying to
manipulate him, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. I want the Ring to be
exposed for what it is: a very clever stalker and rapist. What I do not
want is to get to the Sammath Naur and hear people say--like I have in several
forums--that he is consciously making a choice to embrace evil. That he is
embracing his own free will and in cool deliberation putting on the Ring in the
place of its making. That the 'choice' he voices and makes is one where he is
in full consent, cognizance and consciousness of his actions. One way he
remains true to his inner luminosity, is taken and driven past even his
remarkable limit of endurance and snaps... The other way he's just been under a
bit of siege by that pesky Ring, and makes a conscious and rational choice to
claim his share of avarice.
Which one is the strongest character, eh? I know which one I choose.
So I have to believe that he is so wrecked by the time he gets there that he
has no true ability to make any sort of sane and rational choice. And the fact
that he is wrecked by circumstance and the final taking away of his ability to
make that choice and has to depend on others to help him fulfill that quest...
that is the whole point, yes? If Frodo never did any outward action other than
take up the Ring, carry it to Mordor while it tried to take him under, and
submit himself to the subsequent wreckage of all that he was and all that he
could ever be, then isn't that strength enough? Isn't that sacrifice enough?
And in making this choice of strengths, the movie shows us that the Ring is
quite the clever stalker and manipulator. It even attempts to rive Frodo from
his one true source of strength and support.
Which brings us quite naturally to Frodo's relationship with Sam.
Sam and Frodo’s separation was absolutely heartbreaking, but it made horrific,
true sense. True and lasting friendships do not always consist of cuddling. 'In
sickness and in health' might have been overused, but it is a true statement.
'You always hurt the one you love' also comes to mind. To persevere through
anger and hardship and pain is what betrays the true feelings of any
partnership. And in portraying this rift between these two beloved friends, the
Ring is again betrayed for what it is. The nature of manipulation and
corruption is examined. The rift is not only mental, but physical as even body
language betrays the strain. Frodo is less and less responsible for his
actions, and Sam begins to realize it. Gollum merely adds to the equation, a
reality check of what the Ring has done and will do. Yet at the same time Frodo
seems almost hard-wired to take on things alone. He is insistent on
self-reliance--even when he cannot realistically be self-reliant--and
the Ring uses this as well. It has found another chink in the armor. It keeps
trying to take him over. He keeps fighting it back. And the closer he gets to
the agents and power of Mordor, the more vulnerable he is. His instincts, his
inner will and strength knows; by the time Faramir drags him nearly to
Osgiliath he is absolutely panicked. He knows what might happen, even if
he doesn’t want to believe it.
And it does. In the scene that has more than a few people howling, he is
possessed by the Ring. Despite some opinion, Frodo is not offering the Ring to
the Nazgul, nor is he claiming it. In truth it nearly claims him; it tries to
make him put it on and reveal himself to the Nazgul.
And the final horrific impact of Frodo drawing on Sam: first the thwarted
anger, then the recognition of the voice, then the absolute terror behind his
eyes as he realizes what is happening and what he has done yet comprehending
that he hasn't the ability to control what his body is doing. That he is,
almost fatally, out of control. And then the final wrenching return to
sanity--enabled only by love and horror at what he has become, and the
paralyzation of what he has, under the influence of the Ring, nearly done. All
of these reactions: from Frodo falling under the ring-spell to the breaking of
it by a beloved voice and presence pleading for reality and clemency, all
rolling unforgivingly into the next moment, and the next, one into the other...
amazingly complex.
I think the whole point to the 'unholy triad' arc in tTT--the heartbreaking
separation of Frodo from Sam, the focus on Gollum, the wheel of fire nearly
consuming Frodo whole, is that Frodo is not balancing anything. He thinks he
can do it on his own, that he can't burden anyone else with it, that
'salvation' has to be always possible for even the impossibly weakened... when
he can't, he has to, and it isn't.
And then, the scene I call 'Faramirus Interruptus'. I growled inwardly at
Faramir when he approached: 'No! Wait a minute… give them the chance to embrace
each other, dammit!' And then I realized that considering what just happened,
if Frodo even allows himself to as much as touch Sam’s arm for a little while,
it would be shallow. The last time he laid hands on Sam he was trying to kill
him, and he must still be utterly shattered by the reality of what he might do
if he's not careful. More, this realization of what he almost did under the
Ring's influence, this brush with his own acquiescence to darkness has placed
him, set his will all the more to defiance. It gives him a clean bleed, a
renewal of courage. He will not not fall so easily again into despair, because
he has been brutally shown that he cannot afford to. Not willing to believe how
far the Ring could take him, feeling desperately that he had to save Gollum in
order to know that he could save himself--another very-real symptom of
disbelief in the fact that inner strength is not always enough to sustain us
from the ravages of outer forces--and his riving from Sam as another aspect of
the corruptive power trying to separate him from his strength, all of it works
to point out that he thinks he can do it alone.
If the reactions that Frodo and Sam have at this ultimate manipulation of self
at expense of sanity don't display the utter love and need these two companions
have for each other, I don't know what does. I really don't understand why
people dislike this scene so. It is a fabulous and timely re-working of the
crossroads. It shows how much of Frodo's survival will depend on Sam's support.
It shows Sam, almost finally and fatally, what he's up against. It shows Frodo
that he cannot do this, and he even acknowledges such. But the key word that
Frodo finally comes to understand is that he cannot do it alone
Is this weak? Does this make the bond between Frodo and Sam less strong? I
don’t think so. I think it makes it real.