I am geek, hear me nitpick

[kellinator]

James and I watched the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring over the weekend, and I have to say, as highly as I regard the LOTR films, it takes seeing it again to go "hot damn, that's really magnificent." I'd forgotten just how much I liked them.

That said, there are a few things I noticed this time that I hadn't caught before.

• No wonder Elrond's so cranky all the time. His nice house has been turned into a nursing home for wounded and incontinent hobbits, a smelly mortal who doesn't bathe is sniffing around his daughter, and then Gandalf shows up and asks to stash the One Ring at his place. It's enough to make you give up and head to the Grey Havens.



• Come on, Gimli, didn't you wonder even once why you hadn't gotten a Christmas card from Balin in more than twenty years?



• When everyone else was gazing at Galadriel in wonder, Pippen was thinking about getting something to eat.



• Don't be offended by my relentless mockery of Pippen. He's actually the character I most identify with.



• And what the hell were they thinking, leaving Rivendell without a healer?



• And the hobbits don't even have class levels! Frodo could be a serviceable scribe and he speaks elven; that's NPC stuff. Sam sank his skill points in cooking and gardening. James made an argument that Pippen has ranks in sleight of hand, but personally I think he took them in being an idiot. We haven't figured out Merry yet, but I'm sure he took at least a few ranks in smacking Pippen.



• Of course, Shamus Young has already said all this far more entertainingly.



• And finally: I think I finally understand Boromir. The first time I saw FOTR (thanks, alison_says and kingjohn2nd!), he was just the heavy, the guy who spends the whole movie lusting for the Ring. I softened a little after seeing his scenes with Faramir and the Dad From Hell in TTT:EE. But this time, I think I finally got it: Boromir's a caretaker. He's been raised to be a steward. He's the one who takes care of the hobbits; he's the one who realizes they won't survive Cadrahas, and the one who spends his free time teaching Merry and Pippen to fight. I suppose you could argue he's doing it to suck up to the ringbearer, but I'd have to say his death proves otherwise. He wants to take care of everyone -- and this wonderful quality, combined with a good bit of overconfidence, is his downfall. Aragorn and the others maybe can pare the Ring down to a lust for power, something they know they should just leave alone, but Boromir really does believe he could save Gondor with the Ring, and that good mixed up with evil becomes something he just can't resist. Sean Bean rocks.

Comments

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Not much to add to most of what you've said here (you HAD to know the mention of LOTR would perk my ears up). Glad to see I don't need to mention the Shamus Young link, which was the first thing I thought of when you started mentioning classes and levels and whatnot. :)

Boromir had the best of intentions -- as do most of those who desire the Ring for themselves. But as Aragorn noted, "The One Ring answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master." Galadriel, Gandalf, Boromir, Faramir -- all who desire it do so for the best of intentions (except, perhaps, the film version of Denethor, who was already pretty far corrupted by his gazing into his palantir, something the film doesn't make at ALL clear).

One of the things I was most delighted with when the extended version of FOTR was released was a small thing. "Such a little thing," as Boromir would say -- and that's funny, because it was Boromir who benefited from this moment. It was the reincorporation of a line or two of dialogue as the Fellowship climbed Caradhras, and showed that Boromir genuinely cared for those he was set to guard. "We cannot stay here! This will be the death of the hobbits!" So small a thing...but it helped explain his motivations even more.

And you're right. Sean Bean does rock. Had Boromir been played by anyone else, it would have been an inferior portrayal.

cheers,
Phil