[Lyta_Underhill]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I understand his desire to prove himself to his father, because, unfortunately, I see it happening to my younger brother. I've always been my father's favorite (although he isn't a pyromaniac!) and in my father's eyes, I can do very little wrong. That is a lot to live up to for my younger brother, and it is rather sad to see him trying to make my dad happy, and failing sometimes. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Ah, <B>Finwe</B>, doesn't life like this make art resonate in ways we never expect until they are upon us? I have only just finished watching the EE last night, after finally getting in from out of town and Amazon finally delivering it...and I found a few moments in this version to open up a subtext that is important and must be balanced delicately, so delicately that I cannot yet make up my mind whether or not they overdid Denethor or not! Many people identify with one member of the Boromir-Faramir-Denethor triangle and will perhaps identify with that particular character partially for that reason. For myself, Faramir is the viewpoint character in this triangle. For that reason, his plight resonates even more, now that I've glimpsed the enigmatic Denethor (who I'm now having a love-hate debate in my mind about, because I've always found him extremely interesting!). All the juggling of "who knows what" aside, I can say, from a Faramir POV, that the pressure to please a <I>present</I> and <I>demanding</I> father is more than the pressure when one is allowed to command far away, even if it is in memory. So, good show on the inclusion of Denethor! And Faramir probably learned long ago that, no matter what he did nor how good his intentions, Denethor's affections would not be swayed. The debate would become "is it really worth trying to beat against this brick wall?" One learns to let go of the need to receive feedback that will never come and accept your position and do as much good with it as possible, as badly as it may chafe and as difficult as it is to suppress old tendencies in the "presence of". I think the mere presence of Denethor in the EE snapped Faramir into place in many aspects and gave me an insight into his struggle that it took me a few readings of LOTR to achieve, mainly because I've got the life experience to reflect upon it!<P>It is good to see the more human aspects of Faramir, although I would have liked a few breadcrumbs tossed to me to appease my uneasiness about Frodo in the Henneth Annun/Osgiliath scenes! There are a couple of lines that bring him into a sharper and more focused purpose, but I find that I wished that he had had the intelligence to realize that it was useless to deny Gollum's existence once Faramir had described him (obvious he had seen him, silly Hobbit!). And I do enjoy the initial Elven rope scenes and the lighthearted Frodo-Sam interactions in the Emyn Muil. I actually liked Frodo's "Don't touch me!" line added in , because at this point, he IS still acting with good will towards Gollum primarily out of his respect for Gandalf's words and not completely out of his own heart; this shows a bit of that struggle going on. (See, I can take the breadcrumbs and make bread sometimes!). I'll just have to relegate what I call the "pea soup" episode of Frodo at Osgiliath to some kind of outer vault though, because I can't save it in my own mind, even with the Faramir improvements. I liked the addition of the cloven horn description, but wished they had added Frodo's question of whether Faramir was trying to trap him into telling something. The dream scene with Faramir seeing Boromir in the boat was sublime, though. OK, I nitpick, don't I? Can't help it! One thing I don't mind that some do was Faramir's mentioning of Cirith Ungol. He does the same in the book and warns against it, but I found the inclusion of Gollum's explanation of the fact he must find some way, because Frodo says to take him to Mordor good. Elijah's kind of pale, "I must," at that point seemed both appropriate and inappropriate, depending on how I look at it, though. Either he is indecisive or irresolute or he is suggesting the unsaid line from the book and his infinite weariness of the Quest: "I must take the Ring to the Mountain of Doom. Gandalf said so. I don't think I shall ever get there." (don't have the quote to hand, so forgive any deviations!). Still making up my mind on that one!<P>On other notes, I must say I am absolutely thrilled with the additional Merry and Pippin scenes and the extra "Old Man Willow" nod in Fangorn! Plus, although the depiction was somewhat different than the one in my mind when I read it, the Huorns at Helm's Deep were a wonderful addition! I understand it would be hard to show them moving upon an unseen wind, definitely but undetectably. I found having them present as a "Birnham Wood marched to Dunsinane" effective and evocative of many childhood dreams and fears...nice! And, for mise-en-scene, I must say I adore the most wonderful scene of Pippin sitting with the bowl of Entdraught and the whole atmosphere of Wellinghall (if that was indeed where they were, but I can't say that, because why would a black Huorn inhabit Treebeard's very house? OK, I digress! Sorry!) This Fangorn scene was my wallpaper for ages and may be again soon! Ah, but the little addition of Pippin's dream of the barrel of pipeweed being fulfilled at Isengard was heartwarming, as well as Merry's banter about their height differences. I can only hope they compare themselves to Frodo and Sam at Cormallen properly at the end! <P>And lastly, although I enjoyed the Brego scenes and DID get the joke about the kingly name (does that make me a real LOTR nerd?), I still get irked by Aragorn's indecision regarding his intentions for Arwen. It puts her in a difficult position, in which she shows an admirable resolve. I do wonder if they are playing up the Luthien echoes, and why Aragorn didn't just sing a song of farewell to the lights of Heaven and all before he went into battle...but that's neither here nor there, I suppose! I still say "Grumpy old Elrond!" every time I see him, though. <P>I suppose this post is going on quite long now, so I'll leave off and perhaps return later!<P>Cheers,<BR>Lyta<p>[ November 22, 2003: Message edited by: Lyta_Underhill ]