Classic CC2K: The Two Towers Strike Back
Written by: The CinCitizens
In the House of Sean Patrick Flannery
Tony, there’s really nothing I can disagree with you on in that post, particularly since you voiced your thoughts and opinions with your trademark lusty vigor.
You’re totally right about Jackson and Co. improving Faramir from a dramatic standpoint. That’s indisputable. Another “fault” in Tolkien’s writing is that he doesn’t bother shading in complexities with too many of his characters, and Faramir is a result of that. Faramir’s one-note character is basically “The Perfect Warrior-Poet”…his only flaw being the fact that he was born the son of an overbearing prick (although maybe that’s a bit too harsh…Denethor was enslaved to Sauron through the Palantir, after all, which being enslaved to the Dark Lord of Middle Earth has to count for something in pardoning your faults). Reaching into his incredibly rich, esoteric mythology, Tolkien constantly alludes to the fact that in Faramir is the kind of person who you used to run into all the time walking around the High Society of Numenor before it was corrupted by Sauron and the fickle hearts of men and literally disappeared from the face of the earth. Strong but wise, noble but humble, all that shit.
(Note: Before I get too far into into ripping Tolkien apart for having “one-dimensional characters,” let me just qualify that statement by saying sometimes a writer’s “faults” are part of what’s great about them. This is no exception. The Lord of the Rings books are a very trippy combo of Ancient Mythic Poem and Modern Novel, so Tolkien purposely pitches his characters somewhere between the two. Most of the characters have one or two definable traits and never really change–and that’s okay. Tolkien’s chronicle of the War of the Ring isn’t a Jamesian character study in the subtleties of human personality. Nor is it a simple cave painting depicting the slaying of a lion. It’s a war novel. It’s job is to make the characters interesting enough that we feel for them as we make our way through the real story: the war.
In fact, when you get down to it, there’s really only two three-dimensional characters in The Lord of the Rings whose personalities couldn’t be summed up in two sentences and who go through significant psychic contortions throughout the story: Frodo and Smeagol. And they’re sort of reflection of each other on opposite sides of the ring, so they almost only count as one.)
I’ll wager to say that I had pretty much the same reaction as you when it came to the changes in Faramir: I hated them at first, then I came to accept them, and finally grew to like them. First: hating them. I saw right off the bat that Jackson and Co. were making Faramir more interesting by showing him seriously tempted by the ring, but although it made his character more complex, it made him less cool. Faramir was like a secondary Aragorn in the book–the perfect hero. When you read the books in 8th grade, you don’t want Tolstoy-esque character shadings: you want a superhero. Most of Aragorn’s coolness was spent in Fellowship during the Strider section, so encountering a new superhero like Faramir was most welcome. The changes in the movie eliminated that, and that’s why I think they were jarring and initially unwelcomed.
(I think that this is also the reason the character of Eomer doesn’t really translate well into the movies. Eomer is a very memorable character in the book, mostly because he’s like the tertiary superhero guy, behind Aragorn and Faramir. Jackson and Co. clearly decided they didn’t have the time to make this character more interesting, and just kind of downplayed his importance. The guy they cast was fine and all; Eomer just turned out to be a really flat character when plucked out of Tolkien’s high prose.)
Plus, let’s just say that I wouldn’t have cast David Wentham as Faramir. I had a picture in my head of what all these characters looked like, and the casters of the movies managed to get close enough to all of them that it never really took me out of the movie…until Faramir came along. Faramir’s lived most of his last years in either in the wilderness, rangering around, or in open battle. Needless to say, I didn’t picture him having a double chin. I think Wentham did a fine job now–particularly his achievement of having been born with a face that resembles Sean Bean enough that they could pass as brothers–but I had to wash my previous picture of Faramir’s appearance out of my mind before I could accept Wentham.
* * *
Speaking of character shading, admitting the following will add whole new shadings of geekiness to my image, but I have to bring it up. Back in the proverbial middle school, when my friends and I first got into these movies, we of course spent a lot of time imagining amongst ourselves what the movie versions of these books would be like (thank god we didn’t own a Hollywood studio back then). One of our favorite games was casting the movie. Here’s what I remember of our LoTR dreamcast (keep in mind, this list was created in the early 90s):
Gandalf – Sean Connery
Aragorn – Harrison Ford
Elrond – Leonard Nimoy
Galadriel – Kim Basinger
Unfortunately, we didn’t write this list down, and that’s all I can remember. I think we can agree on a couple of things, though:
1. Ian McKellan was perfect as Gandalf, but Connery would have been even more perfect. He fits the role just as well, and, well…he’s Sean Connery.
2. Although Harrison Ford obviously wasn’t exactly born to play Aragorn, Harrison Ford in his prime still would have made a kick-ass Strider. Since the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies (I include Indiana Jones under the qualifier “original,” because I assume Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford will some day get their wish and desecrate the original movies by making another, and I’m just leaving that in so I won’t have to go back and correct that sentence. While we’re on the subject, though–and in a parenthetical–does anyone remember Ford’s cameo as an old Indiana Jones in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (or whatever the fuck they were called)? Here’s what I remember: 1) He was only in the framing part of the episode, showing up in the beginning and again at the end and getting a tiny adventure for himself. 2) He wore an eyepatch. I can’t decide whether this was a good call or not, even to this day. 3) He solved the crime or got out of trouble or whatever by blowing a soprano saxophone really loudly and dumping a snow drift perched precariously above the villain. 4) It sucked. Here’s what I don’t remember: 1) Whether this particular episode featured the Young Indiana Jones or the Even Younger Indiana Jones. 2) What kind of the-senator-with-the-dead-hooker-at-the-Corleogne-Brothel-in-Godfather-2 trouble Ford go into with Lucas that necessitated him appearing in this TV show. Here’s what I do know: 1) this TV cameo is nowhere near as embarrassing as Ford’s other movie-character-appears-in-a-TV-special cameo, The Star Wars Christmas Special.) came out when I was a kid, Harrison Ford in his prime will always be the gold standard of action heroes. Therefore, it was a no-brainer to cast him as Aragorn, even if he didn’t really fit the part.
3. Leonard Nimoy as Elrond would have been the best thing that ever happened. I console myself with the thought that Peter Jackson’s only come out with one Lord of the Rings special edition–you know he’ll pop a new, more special special edition out every three years or so until he dies, despite his image as being the ultimate fan’s director. Peter: With the magic of CGI…and the fact that Nimoy’s still alive…It’s still not too late!
But back to our serious discussion, Bob: what do you think about the way the LoTR was cast? Since the movies turned out so great, you could easily just brush the question aside and say “perfectly”…but the movie was made by humans. Maybe it could have been made even better.
To start us off, let me just say that besides Faramir, the other casting choice that bugged me was Sean Astin as Sam. I agree that he’s absolutely perfect for the part, and no other choice would have been better. But still…he’s such a tool. Most of the time when he’s on-screen, I’m inwardly cringing, just embarrassed for the guy. He’s obviously a total dork. He’s not the kind of dork that automatically kickstarts the Bullying instinct buried deep inside us all the way physical threats turn Jason Bourne into a conscience-less killing machine in the blink of an eye; rather, he’s the kind of dork that makes you want to put your arm around his shoulders, gently lead him out of the room, and say something like, “Hey, thanks for the effort, Sean…but maybe you should take a T.O. for a little while, eh?” That’s why intellectually, I agree with you that Sam’s Oscar speech to Frodo at the end of the Two Towers was a strong choice, but in practice, when I’m watching it, I’m just rolling over the couch, cringing, embarrassed for everyone watching it, and especially embarrassed for Sean Astin.
I also thought that the Oliphaunt driver–the huge, bald, red-tongued African fellow who laughed in battle-glee as people were shooting arrows at him–could have been pulled off better if they’d cast me in the role.
— Lance Carmichael