Substituting Crying with laughter

[Boromir88]

I'm making this thread partially because I just watched Finding Neverland for the first time and I'm coming right out to admit it I balled through that movie. Johnny Depp was fantastic. If no one's seen it I won't ruin it, I'll just say I broke out the last 15 minutes of the movie. It was an absolutely wonderful and emotional movie about the life of John Barry.

Anyway, with that out of the way, it got me thinking about the LOTR movies. In the end of FOTR, I wasn't busting out in tears but I definitely got watery-eyed as Boromir makes his last stand. In FOTR Jackson did a nice job of balancing humor with emotion. Putting emotion where things should be emotional and adding in timely humor. I really think FOTR has been the pinnacle of Jackson's work so far.

Now with that aside, I get that feeling in FOTR, that emotional feeling, that I just don't get in the other two movies. Because, I think in the other two movies Jackson just excludes any sense of crying/emotion with laughter. Now I can understand adding humor in the movies, all movies I think need a good laugh. However, would it also be wise not to do what he did in FOTR and add in emotion where it should be in the other two movies? I just didn't sense the same. Either, when there should be crying/tears jokes are being spouted off, or there just is no time for crying.

TTT and ROTK there really is no room for emotion. It's like Jackson went with the laugh over the tear and is that necessarily the right thing to do? Should the movies have been more emotional (I guess I should say the last two). Not as in happy/laughter, but as in sadness/crying. For as I watched Finding Neverland it was just a sad, sad, story, yet that's what makes it good, that's what gets you to watch it. Crying necessarily isn't a bad thing. So why did Jackson shy away from the crying and should he have?

ROTK EE is a little better because Eomer is in anguish over Eowyn, but again there's not really enough time to start getting teary eyed, as quickly later it picks back up with fighting and the gimp.