Thread: Forever?
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Old 11-18-2004, 01:57 PM   #38
davem
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davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
I take on board everything SpM says about the inner conflicts of the characters in the movie, but I still think Bethberry is on to something, & I suppose its something like 'original sin'.

I don't mean that in the usual sense of sex, but in the sense that we are all born 'sinful', ie with a tendency towards evil. There is a drive towards power, control, domination of others, wanton destruction, etc. There is a 'war' going on within us constantly. This is not a war merely inspired by an external force. Even if there were no 'Rings of Power', if there were no evil 'out there' we would still face evil because it exists within us & must be overcome or it will overcome us.

In the movie the 'good' characters may face dilemmas (sp?) but they are basically good people struggling to discover what the 'right' course of action should be. Tolkien presents us with a much more disturbing idea - 'good' people may not actually desire 'good' - they may actually desire 'evil'. In the movie all the good characters are shown wanting to bring about the Good but not knowing what constitutes that Good. Boromir's 'logical' arguments & justifications in the book are all over the place, & its clear that he's really trying to find excuses to give in to his own 'dark side', & justify his desires.

In Boromir, Saruman & finally in Frodo the evil wins out - yet this is a more complex matter than it may at first appear, because on Amon Hen we're told that Frodo 'awakened' to the realisation that he was 'neither the Voice nor the Eye'. There is a rational soul floating around in there who makes a choice between the two aspect of himself as well as between the two external forces. That rational soul must choose one or the other, so its not really a Manichean split, its a Boethian choice.

In short, the movie offers us a Manichean universe, where good individuals struggle to do their best to do the right thing. There isn't a sense that they may actually want to do the wrong thing, in full knowlege that it is wrong.

Book Boromir doesn't simply want 'the strength to defend his people. He wants power & control, dominance - he wants to replace Sauron. So did Galadriel at some point- or at least she had fantasised about it. Both had faced the evil within them - he had submitted & made excuses (& worse than that he had expected, demanded that Frodo go along with him), she had faced her own evil & rejected it.

Perhaps that was necessary in a popular action fantasy movie, but LotR is not a popular action fantasy book. It is a moral tale, specifically a Christian tale, & it is grounded is the idea of original sin, & the individual's battle with it.
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