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Old 06-15-2017, 06:57 AM   #31
Nerwen
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Originally Posted by The Sixth Wizard View Post
Definitely have to agree with that, especially given the modern world's gender politics. If the films were totally faithful, Eowyn's cameo in ROTK would be just about the only female appearance in the entire series. Remember that she gets hitched to a stranger almost immediately afterwards! There's Galadriel too, but she isn't exactly a relatable character for women.
Oh, I don't know about that... *points to avatar* But then I'm a rather strange woman...
My point really is that though that particular change is often assumed to be all about gender politics, it really has just as much to do with narrative economy.

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I think I can justify a few of those changes. Movies need more explicit, character-driven tension than books, story arcs with clear conclusions, whereas I think that space can be filled with exploration and worldbuilding in written form, because we experience the story in each character's mind rather than as a vista. The enjoyment of meeting Faramir in the novel comes from learning about his people and history, and we don't need him to desire the ring to keep us entertained. But it would undermine the dread surrounding the Ring to see him resist it in the film. We've already seen Galadriel, Gandalf and Aragorn bypass the temptation of the Ring at that point - how can we fear its corruption if some guy we just met resists it as well? It gives our heroes another challenge beyond "pit-stop at the Forbidden Pool" for TTT.
I'm going to disagree here- I think if the film had actually let Faramir be more like the rather atypical character in the book, it would have been believable- it's just that Film Faramir is written as very much Generic Man. Also, his arc simply ends up repeating his brother's (until the end). It feels rather redundant to me.

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The same goes for Theoden, unfortunately. Narrative tension must be driven by characters. The book's excitement comes from material constraints - can they muster enough of the Rohirrim and travel to the Pelennor in time? There is less sense of geography in a film, where characters can travel hundreds of kilometres between scenes, without page-turning establishing a feeling of time passing, so we need something else to establish the same narrative roadblocks. That's why we need Denethor refusing aid, Theoden refusing to help, Faramir's rout, and Gondor's military failure all building towards the final triumph. The long list of failures makes final success more vivid - Theoden's initial reluctance ramps up his change of heart and bravery in the battle as well. Think of the movie Ents initially deciding to take no action, for another such example. I do agree that Denethor was a badly-written caricature, though.
But you see what I mean about repetitiveness? How many characters, or groups have that same "nope... nope... shan't.... wait, changed my mind, here I come!" arc? As you say, it's certainly the easiest type of obstacle to establish in a movie, and I just think the writers fell back on it too many times.

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For the latter, I think of Frodo deciding to tell Sam to "go home" as a plot contrivance in ROTK, and Aragorn falling off a cliff, Skyfall-style in TTT. I get that these movies needed something interesting to happen in the middle of their three-hour runtime, but those two examples stood out for me most as cliched or out-of-character.
Well, I can see the reasoning behind wanting Frodo isolated at that point- but yes, it was clumsily handled. Aragorn-over-the-cliff is quite unnecessary and doesn't even really help build tension (or whatever it was meant to do). But that's a feeling TTT tends to give me, that there's a bit of underlying anxiety showing through: "Help, what if the audience gets bored here? I know, let's spin the Plot Complication Wheel™"

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I was also a bit annoyed that Pippin and Gimli were painted as quite so stupid and comical, respectively. Then again, the uniform, demonstrative heroism of every Walker in the novel is a bit boring too (don't shoot me for that one). I would cut a few scenes and lines as egregious in all three films, like Pippin dropping the suit of armour in FOTR to set off the goblins.
Hey! That was one of my favourite bits! Besides, are you regarding it as one of the changes? Borderline, I should say- the original incident happened earlier and involved a stone, but the result was the same. And the thing with Pippin (in either version) is that he is quite a silly kid to begin with, but develops.

Agreed on Gimli. My least favourite aspect of the entire trilogy. Maybe if John Rhys-Davies was actually, you know, funny...

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Again, these aren't massive quibbles, because they don't really affect the core elements of the story. They don't affect the communication of the themes of the work, unlike in The Hobbit, where Bilbo is nonsensically sidelined for large parts of a story supposedly about his courage and self-development.
What, you expected a film called "The Hobbit" to be about a hobbit? Think outside the box, man!
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