Why Can't Movies Be Like Books?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Yes, you're on the right track with regard to Faramir. Since he didn't desire the Ring or the power it represented in the first place, being in its vicinity was not going to change his personality or 'corrupt' him.* Jackson singularly failed to appreciate this point, and invented the whole Osgiliation based on the notion that any Man (besides Aragorn) would be on it like a duck on a June bug, no matter what his previous character or moral stature.

Boromir did desire it- from the moment he saw it at the Council he coveted the Ring, or the strength he believed it would bring him (Sam says as much to his brother). Combined with spending many weeks in its vicinity,** the desire would eventually overthrow his will, even to the point of oathbreaking and betrayal.

Denethor shared this weakness, which is why Gandalf tells him that "Nonetheless I do not trust you. Had I done so, I could have sent this thing hither to your keeping and spared myself and others much anguish. And now hearing you speak, I trust you less, no more than Boromir." It is specifically Denethor he doesn't trust: not any Man or any Steward, but this particular one.

* PJ shows this misunderstanding much earlier, with Bilbo at Rivendell. As filmed, Bilbo is momentarily transformed into a ravening little beast, lunging for the Ring; but it's very clear in the book that it's Frodo whom the Ring affects, making Bilbo look disgusting in Frodo's eyes. This moment is echoed with Sam in Cirith Ungol.

** I do think that the Ring can work without physical contact: but it has to have something to work on in the first place. It would have burned Denethor's mind away, we are told, even were it buried beneath Mindolluin: but that's because Denethor wanted it so. The Ring can only seduce the lustful.

[Sauron the White]

It sounds like you have nothing to worry about if you are pure of heart and harbor no negativity of any kind.

But who does that? There is nobody 100% pure of heart without a negative or selfish thought at some point. Thus the Ring could work on anyone given enough time and awaiting the proper allignment of luck and circumstances. Except Tom Bombadil. Remember him? He was the being that the Ring had no power over but then JRRT does nothing with that incongruity. I think that is how we got to talking about all this in the first place.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Yep- even Frodo, even Sam, even anyone, eventually.

Yes, sooner or later - later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last - sooner or later the Dark Power will devour him.

Nobody is completely free of baser impulses. "This is a fallen world," Tolkien would say.

Bombadil is an enigma. He's meant to be. Nobody really knows what Tom is. The closest we have to an explanation of his freedom from the Ring's power is found in Letter No. 144: "If you have...renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself...then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless."

[Folwren]

Look...STW...Bombadil was not an inconsistancy, he was an exception. He was perfect. He had no self love, no personal selfishness. He was your perfect being. Is there a problem with that?

Originally Posted by STW

Thus the Ring could work on anyone given enough time and awaiting the proper allignment of luck and circumstances.

Yes, given time. However, according to Tolkien, Faramir's was such a character that could have resisted taking the Ring, had he found it by the road side. Just as there are some good kids out there in the 7th grade who would abstain from incorrect behavior (of any sort) around the other gender....something which you seem to claim to be impossible.

Disgusted,
Folwren

[Essex]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli

* PJ shows this misunderstanding much earlier, with Bilbo at Rivendell. As filmed, Bilbo is momentarily transformed into a ravening little beast, lunging for the Ring; but it's very clear in the book that it's Frodo whom the Ring affects, making Bilbo look disgusting in Frodo's eyes. This moment is echoed with Sam in Cirith Ungol.

And there's the rub. One of the main reasons why films and books cannot be the same. Now putting aside my view of what you say here (I'm not sure I agree with it 100%) - how CAN a director show that the Bilbo's look is something that only Frodo 'sees' and not what actually 'happened'. without a narrator to tell us this detail it can;t work.

Yes, you're on the right track with regard to Faramir. Since he didn't desire the Ring or the power it represented in the first place, being in its vicinity was not going to change his personality or 'corrupt' him.

People seem to forget that Faramir WAS tempted by the Ring. One of the reasons he stoped himself taking it was he tied himself to his word, as Faramir himself tells Frodo. But HE WAS TEMPTED. He fought internally with himself and did not take the Ring. Therefore, to me, I see the trip to Osgiliath as a Detour. I didn't like it - but in the long run it did not make any difference.