LotR3-RotK-Seq01

[alatar]

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

But the Lord said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. - Genesis 4: 6-16

***

So it begins again, the discussion of Peter Jackson’s last installment of the Lord of the Rings extended edition movie trilogy.

We start, not with a flaming Balrog this time, but with a worm. Not a Worm of the Smaug kind, but a little wiggling earthworm that will be the bait on a hook. The Ring obviously had plans for this worm, and you can see its influence on this Lumbricidae family member. The creature baiting the hook appears to be Andy Serkis, meaning that this is Sméagol, before the change, when he was still a hobbit. He looks sickly white for someone who, seemingly, spends any amount of time in the sun. A bit ghoulish, and nothing like his future ‘cousin’ Frodo. There already seems to be a taint - an ill-favored look - to Sméagol.

Still, the sun is shining, the waters are calm and the world is a beautiful place. Another person in the boat, Déagol perhaps, gets a bite and gets really excited. First time fishing, perhaps? Sméagol, his buddy and possibly the smarter of the two, encourages him. The voice of Sméagol does not match the person here, and maybe that’s because I was hoping to see Sméagol as just another hobbit that, after acquiring the Ring, became corrupted/corroded as a result. Déagol goes for a dive, and the huge fish, ironically, pulls him right past glinting bait in the mud. First the worm, then the fish, and now Déagol. Where will this Ring’s influence end? Déagol scoops up the bauble of gold and makes it to shore. As he coughs and sputters, we here birds suddenly in the background. What’s startled them?

Sméagol finally catches up with his friend, and finds out why he is so intent on his palm. Within seconds of seeing the Ring, Sméagol desires and asks for it. That’s some magnetic artifact there, as Andy Serkis’ character is already gone nuts for it. Neither of these two know what powers the Ring holds, nor what exactly it is. Both just ‘want’ it, and so I tend to think that Sméagol was already flawed before he took the Ring, whether addict or spoiled brat, I don’t know, but he’s no proto-Frodo. And Déagol is no Sam. Neither of these two loves the other.

By the by, when watching RotK with the kids in the room, we skip this scene as it’s a little too brutal.

A fight ensues. Madness. Finally, Sméagol gets the upper hand, or hands, and then Déagol is no more. The score beats out Déagol’s last moments on Middle Earth, and when it quits, we know the deed is done. A faint laugh is heard – the Ring or Sauron’s spirit, strengthened by the vile act?

No matter, Sméagol gets the Ring – pries it from Déagol’s warm dead hand – and calls it his “precious” for the very first time. The end has justified the means. Should have stuck with fish, poor Sméagol. What water will wash the blood from your hands now? You will pay for this villainy, many times over.

He places the Ring on his finger for the first time, and we see Sméagol vanish. It’s on to the montage, where we see the makeover of Gollum in reverse. He begins to change, and it seems that the Ring is radioactive – it imparts some type of sickness on Sméagol, and he becomes the wretched creature that we saw in TTT. Odd. Not how I saw the transformation, and it almost seems that with the exception of Déagol’s, Gollum has no blood on his hands. The Ring here doesn’t give him power, and he’s no better off for taking it. We don’t see him living the high life, then as the Ring takes hold and his family can take no more, the addict falls from the good into the sickness of the addiction. There’s no indication that the Ring corrupted his heart, and gave him delusions of grandeur. It’s as if the Ring and the murder make Gollum look as he does, not all of the subsequent actions and life choices.

Anyway…

Sam sleeps inside some small structure (hopefully not the other end of the under-river old Osgiliath sewer system ); the barren landscape outside indicates that we’re not in Hobbiton. Frodo sits awake, either on guard or not able to sleep. He scratches at his neck – feeling like Déagol, perhaps? Timidly he sneaks a peak at his Ring and gets his fix. Something is nigh, and Frodo hurriedly covers the Ring, only to find that Gollum is back. Their guide urges them on, to continue their journey to Mordor’s back door.

Sam, seeing the sky perhaps, thinks that he’s overslept, but Frodo lets us know that the days are growing darker. Not day, but days, which is a bit…ahh…silly. Was Sauron, via Mount Doom, adding a little more smog to the winds, day by day, until eventually he could blacken the entire sky? Mount Doom erupts, possibly, or an oliphaunt stumbles nearby, and the very ground shakes. Gollum, now even more anxious, suggests haste, but Sam explains that his master needs to eat before continuing their journey.

And Gollum uses the word silly. Whether in the text or not, the word silly doesn’t fit in the scene.

Sam gives Frodo a lembas, yet takes none himself. Frodo is still concerned about his servant, and knows that Sam is very hungry and so should eat something as well. It’s then that we learn that not only is Sam the planner of the two, he’s planning on returning home, which seems strange to Frodo. Home? What’s home?

The three continue their journey, and Gollum tells his two followers that they are very close to Mordor and that there are no safe places anymore. Methinks that he wants them to be on their guard. However, Frodo and Sam hike along like they’re on some, well, movie set and were told to move from point A to point B. Neither seems interested in concealment or caution, and to me this works against the scene somewhat. If Mordor is this big bad place that all fear to tread, then why aren’t these two showing that in their body movements?

As in the last film, we start and now leave Sam and Frodo as they walk to Mordor.