Thoughts on the return of the King
Dec. 18th, 2003 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularWow.
Oh, wow.
After an afternoon of evidentiary law, an evening fighting through the subways, the FDR Drive, and a stop-and-go Palisades Parkway ... then stopping at a diner and bolting a sandwich ... I finally got to the nine PM showing. The effect may have been lessened by being in a tiny theater with maybe a dozen people, but still...
There's a laundry list of things I wish I'd seen. Merry introducing Theoden to the pleasures of pipe-weed. Denethor with the palantir, and Aragorn's using it to reveal himself to Sauron. And I wish they'd let us know that the Three Rings were all aboard the last ship out of the Grey Havens ... and that Arwen's place aboard that ship was her gift to Frodo.
But those are quibbles. I was literally overcome in watching this movie.
I felt more than a twinge of sadness at Theoden's fate, exhiliration when Merry and Dernhelm took on the Witch-King together, and loved that the filmmakers waited until now to re-forge the Sword that was Broken. (In the book, Aragorn left Rivendell with Anduril hanging from his belt.)
"That still only counts as one!" Yes, I laughed at that.
But I started to crack when Sam picked up Frodo and began carrying him up the slopes of Mount Doom ... was pushed harder by Aragorn's whispered "For Frodo" ... buoyed by the arrival of the Eagles ... taken to the brink with Sam and Frodo's last words on Mount Doom, "here at the end of all things"...
...but I lost it right when Aragorn saw Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry at the coronation.
Y'see, I'd been waiting for Frodo to be part of the ceremony - I was disappointed that Frodo hadn't been one of the people involved in the actual crowning of the King, and I'd had half a thought that Frodo himself might have been the one to place the crown on Aragorn's head (though now I remember, Gandalf took that task in the book as well), but when Aragorn said "You bow to no one", and the entire throng paid homage ... I lost it.
And then I lost it again at the Grey Havens. That one, I knew was coming, but I still couldn't hold it together.
I can't fault the film for the many partings and endings, all in all; the story wouldn't have been complete otherwise, and there was a much longer ending in the book. And after all, in the end, this wasn't the story of Aragorn, or Legolas and Gimli, or even of Gandalf.
It's the story of Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom.
And I'm glad I got to see that story told.
Oh, wow.
After an afternoon of evidentiary law, an evening fighting through the subways, the FDR Drive, and a stop-and-go Palisades Parkway ... then stopping at a diner and bolting a sandwich ... I finally got to the nine PM showing. The effect may have been lessened by being in a tiny theater with maybe a dozen people, but still...
There's a laundry list of things I wish I'd seen. Merry introducing Theoden to the pleasures of pipe-weed. Denethor with the palantir, and Aragorn's using it to reveal himself to Sauron. And I wish they'd let us know that the Three Rings were all aboard the last ship out of the Grey Havens ... and that Arwen's place aboard that ship was her gift to Frodo.
But those are quibbles. I was literally overcome in watching this movie.
I felt more than a twinge of sadness at Theoden's fate, exhiliration when Merry and Dernhelm took on the Witch-King together, and loved that the filmmakers waited until now to re-forge the Sword that was Broken. (In the book, Aragorn left Rivendell with Anduril hanging from his belt.)
"That still only counts as one!" Yes, I laughed at that.
But I started to crack when Sam picked up Frodo and began carrying him up the slopes of Mount Doom ... was pushed harder by Aragorn's whispered "For Frodo" ... buoyed by the arrival of the Eagles ... taken to the brink with Sam and Frodo's last words on Mount Doom, "here at the end of all things"...
...but I lost it right when Aragorn saw Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry at the coronation.
Y'see, I'd been waiting for Frodo to be part of the ceremony - I was disappointed that Frodo hadn't been one of the people involved in the actual crowning of the King, and I'd had half a thought that Frodo himself might have been the one to place the crown on Aragorn's head (though now I remember, Gandalf took that task in the book as well), but when Aragorn said "You bow to no one", and the entire throng paid homage ... I lost it.
And then I lost it again at the Grey Havens. That one, I knew was coming, but I still couldn't hold it together.
I can't fault the film for the many partings and endings, all in all; the story wouldn't have been complete otherwise, and there was a much longer ending in the book. And after all, in the end, this wasn't the story of Aragorn, or Legolas and Gimli, or even of Gandalf.
It's the story of Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom.
And I'm glad I got to see that story told.
