The Return of the Flashback

[Essex]

off topic, but Tuor's point on

I've finally got what PJ's Denethor reminds me of (Shakespeare's Richard III).

reminds me of something I always think of when watching a particular denthor scene.

It was when he's dragging Pippin by the scruff of his neck and throwing him out the door with his immortal line "Go now, and die in what way seems best to you. " It was delivered in a totally different context to the one I always imagined when reading the books. In the books, Denethor (to me) sounded sincere and heart felt, but in the film, he seems almost as if he is toying with Pippin and (perhaps) ridiculing him. I was at first slightly annoyed by this, but then thought, hey why not? that's the scriptwriters' view of how they see Denthor speaking to Pippin. Why is my version any more 'right' than theirs?

I then realised that so much could be read into certain scenes and words in the book. Changing the way things are said can totally change the context, very much like the plays of Shakespeare, when one director has a totally different slant on a scene than another. This is obviously what keeps Shakespeare's plays fresh and interesting, and maybe this is why we go back to the LOTR books and discuss them again and again. There is so much to see and read, but maybe as importantly, so many VIEWS on what we 'see' in our mind's eye when we read LOTR (or sometimes when we watch the film)


back on topic. the smeagol/deagol scene, and it's placement at the start of rotk, was a work of genius.