I saw the second trailer for LOTR last night...VERYVERY cool. Jeff had downloaded the file already; how could I -not- see it? Plus I'm also hoping to catch the trailer in movie theatres. Some of those creatures look REALLY creepy (shudder). Elijah Wood seems perfect for the role of Frodo, doesn't he?
But I digress...back to the book...
Faramir seems to be a pretty observant guy, knowing that Frodo was keeping something from him, and being able to deduce that Boromir had lusted after the mysterious "heirloom" in Frodo's possession. Pretty neat that Boromir was his brother. Again, Boromir seems to be cropping up a LOT despite being dead, doesn't he?
I'm glad Sam had that impatient outburst, even if he did tick off Faramir somewhat. He was saying exactly what I was thinking myself! Though I did cringe along with Frodo when he openly mentioned the Ring in front of Faramir.
Ouch, poor Faramir, finding out about his brother's death when he found the funeral boat holding Boromir's body. :-( A shame about the horn. If Faramir heard it as far away as he was, then the horn certainly had more powers than I expected. I was relieved to see that Faramir didn't try to take the Ring away from Frodo when he found out about it...makes him more worthy of trust.
I had forgotten that Frodo and Sam didn't know about the Orc attack and Boromir's death, nor about his repentance. That certainly adds an extra layer to this chapter, from the reader's point of view. OH! And they have no idea that Gandalf is still alive, do they?!
Ah, so Gollum is still following them. This makes me really nervous, since it's pretty clear now that he did decide to listen to the Bad Voice (encouraging him to betray the hobbits) rather than the Good Voice. Waiting to see what the implications of this will be...
Replies: 9 comments
Hmmm. It would seems that once again JRRT has managed to open an introduction to a character with a initial description that subsequently needs the reader to re-examine their 'first impressions'.
Faramir is one of the characters in the book that I really like. Being the second son of Denethor must be a real pain given the somewhat heroic nature of his elder sibling.
Sam and Frodo really needed to find someone in all this trudging, waste and misery that they could trust and catch their breath. This is probably one of the reasons that Sam was a little unguarded about the Ring. He had been enduring the journey, if not the affect of the Ring, with Frodo, and had purposefully denied himself the opportunity to rest as he did not know Faramir's intentions (dispite his reassuring words an actions).
It was just another small victory for Hobbitkind when Sam basically said "put up or shut up" to Faramir. Hopefully we will get to see a "put up" from him.
I'm really glad that you like the trailer. As someone who has their own imagery firmly and freshly painted across their mind, to say that you liked what you saw just reinforces that PJ has got it right. Many people have commented that PJ seems to have been able to open their heads and take the personal images that they have of the books and transcribe that to film. I think that this is a just a great indication of the power that JRRT has to evoke the same responses from readers all over the world, at different times, in different years, at different ages and with different life experiences. And some critics have the unmitigated gall to say that his characterisations are shallow. Hummp!!
So. Are you having more fun than you expected??
Posted by Rallas @ 2001 May 26 08:15 AM EST
Makes me realize this time through the book that many of my favorite chapters are those moments of peace and shelter that the hobbits find along the road, the brief stretches of quiet and support within the darkness. The hobbits' time with Tom Bombadil in Book 1, the Fellowship's time in Lothlorien in Book 2, Merry and Pippin's time with Treebeard in Book 3, Frodo and Sam's time with Faramir in Book 4. All beautiful chapters for the reader to catch our breath as we travel through the story, too, and all introducing strong characters we come to care for in just a few chapters.
Posted by Allison @ 2001 May 26 08:40 AM EST
I downloaded the new trailer last night, and showed it to Kim. At the end of it, she blinked twice and said, "Damn. It's been a *long* time since these books have SCARED me. This might actually be good!" :)
Rob
Posted by Rob Wynne @ 2001 May 26 10:45 AM EST
One of Tolkien's strengths as a writer is his ability to create characters who are thoroughly "good," and yet make them multi-layered and interesting. Faramir is a perfect example. His psychology is compelling, even though, unlike Boromir, he seems to lack a "dark side."
I find the "Standing Silence" interesting, as it is one of the few instances of a religious observance we see in LOTR.
Posted by Paul Mendenhall @ 2001 May 26 12:35 PM EST
I also found the "Standing Silence" interesting, Paul, for the same reason.
With all this trailer talk, I was looking at Ain't It Cool News and found this absolutely beautiful still - from the trailer I presume. I mean this is the first shot from these movies where I started saying (screaming? :-) ) oh my god oh my god oh my god! It's of the Fellowship as they leave Lothlorien in the boats and it is so beautiful. A little more beautiful than I imagined it, but that's all right with me! Anyway, here's the link: http://www.aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=9141 & scroll down. This also links to QuickTime video of the trailer, but, alas, I can't do that at home...
Posted by Jan @ 2001 May 26 01:12 PM EST
Sweet mother of God! Just had a look at the 'leaving Lothlorien' image mentioned in the post above.
Will you have a look at the size of the Mallorn tree trunk that one of the Elves is standing next to. Given that this is a smaller specimen of the tree (as the really large ones are found in Calas Caladhorn) then Lorien must be on a HUGE scale.
Posted by Rallas @ 2001 May 27 03:44 AM EST
I remember reading this part with my heart pounding pretty hard in my chest - if my memory doesn't fail me (wouldn't be the first time), Faramir acted for a minute as if he actually was going to steal the ring. Luckily, it wasn't more than some sort of bad joke :-)
Posted by Jupiter @ 2001 May 27 11:35 AM EST
I was half-expecting you to say 'I hope Faramir doesn't die!' ;-)
There's some good stuff for Faramir in RotK...
Posted by Keith Fraser @ 2001 Jun 01 06:17 AM EST
Glad you like the trailer. I liked it also, but I think the first trailer is better. Maybe that's just because I like mountains. I can't believe I've been reading this site for 6 hours trying to catch up. It's really great. I also found it where everyone else did, but have saved it as a favorite so I can get back in after linking out. The Tolkien MPG is great! I think of Ithilien as the Ozarks except that Mordor is next door instead of Kansas (directions mirrored). The Mississippi is the Anduin.
Posted by dave @ 2001 Jun 01 11:33 AM EST
