Microphones in Middle-earth...the BBC Lord of the Rings

[davem]

Well, here we go at last with the penultimate episode: "Mount Doom" http://www.tolkienradio.com/mountdoom.html

Now, I will apologise firstly - this discussion will be divided up into sections, following the tracks on the cd. Please feel free to join in as we go, or wait till I've gotten around to posting on all seven tracks.

Don't know about anyone else but jumping into the series again at this point after such a long break was not a problem for me - I've listened to this series so many times over the years. The opening scenes, Frodo & Sam's escape from the Orcs (one gets such a strong sense that these Orcs are less the kind of monster depicted in the films & more the 'poor bloody infantry', driven, beaten, de'humanised' (if I can put it that way!). Sam's desperate attempts to lift Frodo's spirits,

Never say die, Mr. Frodo, sir. That's what my old Gaffer would say, if he were here.

are heartbreaking because they are couched in such cliche - that's all he can manage. When we then get to eavesdrop on his real thoughts its almost too much (particularly when voiced by such a brilliant performer

It looks every step of fifty miles, and that'll take a week, if it takes a day, with Mr. Frodo as he is. Well, it's got to be faced, Sam Gamgee. We'll never come back. At best our food will take us to our goal, and when we get there, w - we'll be alone, houseless, foodless, and in the middle of a terrible desert. That was the job I felt I had to do when I started: to help Mr. Frodo to the last step, and then die with him. Well, i - if that is the job, then I must do it. I wish Gandalf hadn't fallen in Moria! He would have done something.

. Sam's doing 'the job' now because that's what he has vowed to do - even though when he made the vow he didn't know what he was signing up for. And you can't help wondering how much of that desperate little speech Frodo actually heard. You get the sense that even if he didn't hear all of it he heard enough. Both of them know what the 'job will entail, & they don't have to say the words. Frodo makes a joke about Sam talking to himself.

Then we cut to another pair of suffering souls, equally bereft of hope. Don't know how the actors felt about this scene, but its a difficult one - as in the books it kind of comes out of the blue: suddenly there's romance in the air. Of course, we're in the final days (or hours), as it seems, of a hopeless war. The end is coming. Faramir simply tells Eowyn that he wants to spend the little time he has left with her because she is 'beautiful'. Now, that little episode handled badly would just be naff. In this case, the writers & the actors get it, & it works. The scene ends with a glimmer of hope, And that's vital at this point. Cutting away briefly from the darkness, the hopelessness, of Frodo & Sam's trek through Mordor to give our spirits a little lift before plunging us back into the Black Land is pure 'Tolkien'. And again, so much more in the spirit of the work than Jackson's effort - where (if I recall correctly) at this point we get the 'Captains of the West' planning 'A Diversion!' Jackson at this point offers his audience the 'hope' of seeing yet another big battle, while the adaptors here give us hope of something beyond. Its like Sam's glimpsing of the star in Mordor, or the scene at the cross-roads - 'They cannot conquer forever!'