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Old 03-23-2008, 11:09 AM   #159
davem
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davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Episode 6: The Breaking of the Fellowship

Transcript: http://www.tolkienradio.com/breakingfellowship.html

This episode takes us nearly half way through the adaptation. We begin with the death of Boromir & end with the reappearance of Gandalf.

The Three Hunters: the fallen Bormir is found by Aragorn, he is given to Rauros, & then they begin their pursuit of the Orcs who have taken Merry & Pippin & along the way they meet with Eomer & the Rohirrim. I particularly liked Robert Stephen's performance in this part. He starts out confused, angry with himself & at possibly one of the lowest points in his life. Slowly he finds his inner resources of strength & courage. He truly becomes a leader here, inspiring his companions,who are equally overwhelmed by grief & confusion, For the first time in the story we see the King in waiting break the surface. Up to now he has been Strider the Ranger, Now he is Aragorn, heir of Elendil. The transformation is awe-inspiring. When he confronts Eomer & tells forth his heritage:

Quote:
I am Aragorn son of Arathorn and am called Elessar the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor.
Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!
We know we are in the presence of true majesty.

The funeral of Boromir is beatifully handled, Stephen Oliver's music enhancing the sense of tragedy. This Boromir is (as in the book) not a 'sympathetic' figure, but we never doubt that he is a great warrior. Its interesting that the funeral he recieves is a Pagan one. Boromir is a warrior in the line of both Turin & Beowulf & recieves a suitably 'Viking' send off. He floats into the West, home of heroes from Scyld Sceafing onwards.

Again, we see how the medium helps. Battles on radio tend towards 'noise' & don't come across well, so the focus is on the characters. The meeting with the Rohirrim is beautifully done, Eomer is one of my favourite characters in this adaptation, & Anthony Hyde plays him beautifully.

The Merry & Pippin scenes are done beautifully too, & we begin to see their true characters now they are out from under the shadow of the rest of the Fellowship. Pippin is shown to be clever & resourceful, & Merry finds himself somewhat on the back foot! Treebeard is wonderful, wise, compassionate, complex, but never stupid or confused. The great thing about this adaptation, for me, is the time given to each scene. After watching the movie one is quite surprised at how long the scenes go on - few quick cuts, each scene allowed to play out properly, not cut short in order to get to the next 'joke' or action sequence. Character wins out over action.

The Frodo/Sam/Gollum sequence (longer than I remembered) is brilliantly done, & Ian Holm's performance is incredible. His sudden turning on Gollum ("How dare you!") is chilling. This is not the Frodo we've come to know & love & we get a glimpse of the Frodo he will become. There's a 'monster' growing in there, & here it rears its ugly head, just for a moment.

What else? Peter Woodthorpe's Gollum is a tour de force - clearly psychologically shattered, ranting, raving, spluttering over his words, gasping, shrieking, weeping struggling to speak. Its easy to unerstand Sam's desire to be rid of him & Frodo's pity for him. I don't think there's another actor who could have played him. Sorry movie fans, but Andy Serkis doesn't come close. Serkis stated that he portrayed Gollum as an addict. Woodthorpe said he played Gollum as 'half-animal'; I think that comes across here. I was also reminded of one of the lines on Gollum's song in the LotR stage show - 'Precious & me, alone we'll be, now & for always'. Gollum doesn't actually want anything but the Ring. He desires to get it back & retreat to his cave to be alone forever with it. Everything, everyone, else is simply an obstacle to his getting the Ring. I think Woodthorpe nailed that perfectly.

Finally, Gandalf returns. The White Rider. And this is the one point where it nearly didn't come off - I recognised Michael Hordern's voice straight off - yet that was inevitable I suppose. However, I suppose the adaptors simply accepted that & got the moment over as quickly as possible!

Anyway, that's me intro.... all I can say now is "Let's hunt some Or......" er "Forth the Three Hunters!"

(though hopefully we'll see more than three contributors to this one..... )
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