Movies

The Return of The King
Peter Jackson & Co. had the opportunity to make one of the greatest movies of all time - and they blew it.

Grade: B-

The long-awaited culmination of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy is here, and has been received with the anticipated acclaim. Visual effects such as the computer-generated city of Minas Tirith, gargantuan trolls and hideous orcs launching huge boulders from six-story catapults, as well as the mammoth Oliphaunts trampling the hosts of war, will live in viewers minds for months. Gollum, too, was again sickeningly convincing in his role of devious evildoer. The rest of the fellowship - Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the four hobbits all dutifully played their characters as in the previous installments.

But this viewer was woefully disappointed in this film.

Peter Jackson & Co. play loose with Tolkien's finely crafted dialogue, sometimes using it, sometimes attributing it to a character who didn't say that, and other times dumping it altogether in favor of trite Hollywood-style one-liners; they cut scenes that could have been cinematically captivating, often in favor of their own additions to the story; and several scenes that should have packed a wallop hardly grabbed you.

In short, Peter Jackson had the opportunity to make one of the greatest films ever - and he blew it.

The Return of the King begins with a flashback to the tale of Deagol's discovery of the One ring at the Gladden Fields, when a big fish pulls him in. Smeagol, once he sees the beautiful gold ring in Deagol's hand, is overcome with desire for the ring and when Deagol refuses to freely give it to him, they struggle for it until Smeagol chokes Deagol to death. Smeagol transforms gradually into Gollum and we are then taken back to the present, where Gollum leads Frodo and Sam toward Tower of Cirith Ungol.

From this decent beginning, the film skids downhill.

The rest of the Fellowship reunites at a flooded Isengard. Gandalf and company meet Treebeard in the shadow of Orthanc, where Treebeard greets them "Stock and stone I can master," he says "But there is a wizard to manage here," using a bit of genuine Tolkien dialogue.

Despite Treebeard's entreaty to manage Saruman, the relevance of his statement is lost, since the dramatic scene where Gandalf proclaims his new supremacy and casts Saruman from the "council" is omitted. Instead of Wormtongue hurling the Palantir from Orthanc at Gandalf and King Theoden of Rohan, Pippin merely discovers it in a puddle.

It is a terrific scene in the book, one that could have been condensed with great effect in the film - but it is bypassed altogether.

After some celebration at Rohan, Pippin, gripped by insatiable curiosity of the Palantir, lifts it from Gandalf's arm and looks into it. Again, the dialogue between Merry and Pippin explaining Pippin's curiosity is not used, seemingly making the scene more vague. And instead of us getting Pippin's perspective looking into the ball - as we did when Frodo looked into Galadriel's mirror - we see him flailing about as if electrocuted, unable to disconnect himself from the Palantir.

Here again the filmmakers deprive us of what should have been an intense scene - Pippin sees Sauron in the Palantir, but all we get is to hear him tell Gandalf about it.

Gandalf rides immediately with Pippin to Minas Tirith, while in the movie Pippin whines that he's going alone, in the book he's thrilled- and Merry complains that Pippin, after being a troublemaker, got just what he wanted - he couldn't sleep, and he gets to talk to Gandalf on the long ride to Gondor.

Such departures are common.

The scene where Eowyn and Merry kill the King of the Nazgul is horribly muted. This is the most significant moment in the Battle of the Pelenor Fields, and there's something awfully rushed and anticlimatic about it in the film's portrayal. For one, again, the filmmakers opted not to use Tolkien's dramatic dialogue for the scene, where Eowyn takes off her helm and proclaims that she's a woman. Nor did they highlight Merry's essential role, piercing the Nazgul's undead flesh with his magic sword. Finally, the death of the strongest of Sauron's fighters passed without much ado.

Meanwhile, as they climb the long stair to Cirith Ungol, Gollum has started to play mind games with Frodo, trying to convince him that Sam will soon ask for the ring; Frodo starts to buy it. Then Gollum frames Sam as having eaten the last of the elven Lembas cakes. Both of these Jacksonian additions to the story are utterly absurd and out of character. Frodo tells Sam to "go home" - and Sam turns around and starts walking back down this great stair, while Frodo stupidly wanders alone into Shelob's lair.

It is possibly the most unfortunate departure of the movie, having no bearing on Tolkien's characters, while simultaneously being completely unnecessary for the movie. It is a radical change and oversimplification. Frodo would never have believed Gollum over Sam. Jackson is undoubtedly trying to capture the corruptive power of the ring, but it never manifests itself this way in the story. Later, Jackson fails again, when Sam finally finds Frodo naked, stripped by the Orcs in the tower. Why does he fail? Because Jackson adamantly refuses to use Tolkien's dialogue.

Some more omissions:

There is no description in the movie that Denethor possessed one of the Palantir and that is why he was overcome with a mad despair.

They left out the meeting between the leaders of the armies of the West and Sauron's Lieutenant "The Mouth of Sauron" before the Black Gate. Here Tolkien gives us a rare glimpse of what the enemy is really like, in the way the "Mouth" treats Aragorn and Gandalf, and the scene is wonderfully dramatic, a terrific prelude to the last battle.

Instead, we get a long silent stand-off until Aragorn finally yells a grim-yet-goofy "For Frodo!" cheer as the good guys run into a sea of orcs.

Meanwhile, in Mordor, Frodo is panting and unable to walk as he and Sam try climbing up Mount Doom. When Gollum suddenly attempts to stop them, Frodo - who couldn't move a second ago - starts effortlessly running up the mountain.

Now, they could have easily explained the drastic change in Frodo's state, but again they missed out on a wonderful opportunity for a fantastic scene: in the book, after Gollum's attack, Frodo stands up clutching the Ring under his rags at his chest - and Sam sees it as a wheel of fire. Out of the wheel of fire comes a booming voice: "Your time is at an end. You cannot betray me or slay me now. If you hinder me again you will be cast yourself into the fire of doom!" Frodo augurs, and then proceeds up the mountain.

Oddly, Jackson refused to tie up the theme of evil eventually and inadvertently doing good, the very essence of Gollum's presence to the end. In the book Frodo says, after the ring is destroyed, "even Gollum may have something yet to do? Without him, our quest would have been in vain" - or something close to that. The movie, for no apparent reason other than sheer obtuseness, substitutes Frodo babbling vapidly about the shire.

The list of offenses goes on through the sanitized and quick Hollywood ending.

Peter Jackson and his producers wanted to make these movies big hits more than they wanted to make them great movies. That's why they dumbed down the dialogue. In a Q&A on the movie site, Jackson notes,

"When we first started writing the scripts 3 or 4 years ago, we made an assumption at that time that we would have to simplify the language, that we'd have to modernize the language, that's really what a "modern" film would require."

What Jackson means here is that they determined they would popularize the language because they thought it would sell better. Evidently the producers didn't think average joe could follow - or wouldn't enjoy - Tolkien's dialogue. What's more, it would be a pain to translate it when it came to selling the international rights to the films, worth many more millions. So, instead of Tolkien's insightful prose, we get the same trite talk we could expect from any typical Hollywood blockbuster, with a dash of Tolkien here and there.

I couldn't help but find myself comparing this film to another one of similar roots: Excalibur. Excalibur managed to incorporate the language of the King Arthur era and portray magic and battle with phenomenal success. You felt, watching that movie, that you were transported back into that time, to that story… That you were really there.

Whereas, in The Return of the King, the makers took great pains to make the visuals perfect - such as the precise creation of Hobbiton, the elvin runes inscribed on Aragorn's sword, orcs of varied breeds, and fire-breathing battering rams - while caring little for the nuances and deeper meaning within the story.

Amidst all the imagery, the depth of the story was lost. Instead of a truly serious work, we got just another Hollywood adaptation.

Without Tolkien's moral, psychological, and philosophical musings, the wise insights of his characters, and their classical parlance, Jackson never completely took me to Middle Earth - just a place that looked a lot like it.

Despite my sour grapes, Jackson & Co. have succeeded in their quest: they have made the biggest blockbuster trilogy in recent history, and most Tolkien fans seem to love the films in spite of the changes. We have nothing to compare it to, and most are simply elated to see this fantasy land before them for once on the big screen.

Though in making the changes that Jackson felt he needed to make to generate a blockbuster… It's as if he put on the Ring… And kept it for his own.

~ by David M. Fine