Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Two Towers


Finished The Two Towers at the gym this morning. I know I said it before, but it's a testament to how much the movies affected me that I still can't get past comparing them to the books when I reread them. (This is only my second time rereading them since the films, though, so maybe that'll fade...) Anyway, I focused this time on a couple things: The portrayal of Faramir in the movie and how my post-mivie visualizations of the characters are colored by the films. First, Faramir. In the books, he is able to shrug off the power of the Ring and send Frodo and Sam along on their way. In the movie, he takes them part way back to his city before relenting and letting them continue their journey. I wish there had been a way for them to avoid that change, but I realize how hard it would have been to film Faramir's thought process. Plus it made for a good Osgiliath action sequence. As to my visualizations of the characters: In the films, Frodo is close enough to how I pictured him that I see him when I read the books. Gollum was done SOOO well that I will never think of him as other than in the films. Sam, though. All credit to Sean Astin, he did a superb job. He's just not how I pictured Sam, though, so I just don't see that movie character when I read the books. I pictured him thinner, older, more wizened - probably more like his father, the Gaffer, would be portrayed.

Wow, this was a long post for me. Jeez, get me going on Tolkien...

Book 13

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's funny that you write about visualizing the actors in place of the characters while you read. I had a hard time when the first Harry Potter movie came out- none of the actors/actresses looked like what was in my head and I tried to block them out. Still do- the Harry Potter in my head looks different than Daniel Radcliffe. Not that I think they didn't do an awesome job with the film, because I loved them all (so far). Although with Lord of the Rings, I think it'd be the same for me, matching up the actors with their characters...
-A