Of Returning Kings

Thanks to the generosity of a friend at The Store, I spent more than four hours yesterday watching the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and I have some brief impressions (leavened heavily with spoilers, so beware):

:: Now that I've seen both versions (theatrical and extended), I'm not sure that either final reckoning with Saruman, as filmed by Peter Jackson, works very well. In the theatrical version, Gandalf just says "Oh well, keep him locked up in his tower, he's powerless"; in the EE, there's a brief confrontation before Grima sticks him with a knife. I found interesting how the filmmakers managed to both keep the manner of Saruman's demise from the books, and yet change it utterly. But it still felt a bit anticlimactic. I can understand Pater Jackson's reasons for leaving the Scouring of the Shire out of his films, but the biggest problem with that decision is that it leaves Saruman as a giant thread just dangling out there. Alas.

:: Speaking of the Saruman scene, I found it a bit odd that Theoden would try to appeal to Grima's better nature, after all that had transpired. It was probably necessary, just to make Jackson's version of the scene work, but I had problems with it. Grima was just as much to blame for what had befallen Rohan as Saruman himself.

:: The drinking game between Legolas and Gimli just struck me as more unfortunate comic relief.

:: Denethor gets more screen time, which makes his storyline work better. But I still don't like his flaming sprint off the top of Minas Tirith, and I wish the film had revealed (as does the book) that the source of his madness is not so much Boromir's death but the fact that he's been using a Palantir. I love how, in the books, Denethor is seeing what Sauron chooses to show him, in order to create a sense of despair that is not yet warranted. This is absent in the film.

:: Faramir's story, culminating with his union with Eowyn, works a lot better now as well. I'd have liked it just slightly better had the film mentioned how their union brings an end to tension between Gondor and Rohan.

:: Speaking of that: there is apparently no guardrail or anything at the point where Denethor leaps from the highest height of Minas Tirith. So at the end of the film, when seemingly all of Gondor is gathered there, wouldn't the people standing that far back be slightly nervous? "Stop pushing! I'm a little close here! And I seem to be standing in ash. Who's burning stuff up here?"

:: The theatrical version's implication that the distance between Cirith Ungol and Mount Doom is about two miles now works a lot better, with Frodo and Sam's run-in with an orc company.

:: I'm glad that we finally find out what happens to "Captain Tumor", the orc chieftain at the Pelennor Fields who looks like a walking cancer growth. I would have liked it better if Gimli had done him in on his own, though. For all the "Lethal Legolas" stuff throughout the films, I wish Gimli had been given chance to really shine with the axe.

:: Every time I watch the charge of Rohan on the Pelennor Fields, that sequence rises another notch in my "Favorite Action Sequences of All Time" list.

:: The film (both versions) really does a great job in suggesting how Frodo's journey with the Ring is leading him to more and more parallel what happened to Smeagol/Gollum. After the opening scene depicting how Smeagol got the Ring, Gollum has a monologue in which he describes how he forgot the taste of bread, the feeling of sunlight, and his own name. And as the film progresses, somehow Frodo's eyes become bluer and bluer, more and more lamplike; and as he and Sam approach Mount Doom, Frodo admits that he can't remember the Shire or the taste of food. The irony is that the Ring, an object of beauty, will ultimately destroy all beauty in the world unless it is destroyed.

And I still like the parallel created by the fight in the Cracks of Doom: the film opens with Deagol fighting Smeagol for the Ring, and the story of the Ring ends with another such fight (Frodo and Gollum).

:: I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Howard Shore is an absolute genius, and these three filmscores might mark the emergence of the next giant talent of film music. We're talking a voice on par with Jerry Goldsmith or John Williams here. I'll know more once I start listening to more of Shore's non-LOTR work, which is a priority for me in 2005.