This is, I think, one of the best observations I've seen about the movies,
Lush. Kudos for a very fine thread. I think I just might nominate this for best thread of the week (or is it month?).
The Lee painting, however, makes me draw back from the film for a bit, to consider how the artists depict the books.
And I will be begin with lots of cavets about interpreting paintings and symbolism. Innumerable articles have argued the various meanings of Aristotle's and Plato's hand signals in
The School of Athens, for instance, all to no avail--at least in terms of generating a concensus about what the hands might mean. So bear with me and take these comments with a heavy pinch of salt.
One of the symbols I know in literature and in painting is the joining or touching of hands. Usually (although not always) it represents marriage. The ending of
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, for example, ends with Tess' sister walking away from Tess' fate hand in hand with the man who could not come to terms with Tess's history. Oh, the lit seminars that I have seen devoted to this scene!
But, I will make a long story short or at least a long argument short by truncating evidence. What I would like to know is why Lee had Eowyn's and Aragorn's hands touch in the painting. Was he implying anything about the relationship as he saw it in the book? Yes, I know it is possible simply for hands to meet in the grasping of an object, but it is also possible for them not to.
I don't want to imply more than Lee could have intended-- that this was a significant moment from the book that touched his artistic imagination. But does the conjoining of hands imply anything other than the gift of drink? And what about the gift of drink itself? There's Rebecca at the well, of course, a story which begats all kinds of stories of damsels bearing water and quenching thirst.
What I'm getting to is the idea that Lee's painting implies more about Aragorn's role in the relationship than exists in the text of the story. (Or does it?) Does Lee impute some responsibility to Aragorn for Eowyn's deep crush? Clearly the moment or image of the two characters was meaningful for him. How did he see the relationship?
I raise this idea also because from what I remember (and I don't go back to the movies to rewatch them) I thought PJ rather successfully represented the relationship not as a true love on Eowyn's part but as a young noblewoman's infatuation with a man of rank and power who could take her out of her unhappy state.
Of course, if anyone wants to offer me a drink and tell me to go drown my silly speculations I promise not to become emotionally entangled.
