LotR3-RotK-Seq01

[alatar]

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

But the Lord said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. - Genesis 4: 6-16

***

So it begins again, the discussion of Peter Jackson’s last installment of the Lord of the Rings extended edition movie trilogy.

We start, not with a flaming Balrog this time, but with a worm. Not a Worm of the Smaug kind, but a little wiggling earthworm that will be the bait on a hook. The Ring obviously had plans for this worm, and you can see its influence on this Lumbricidae family member. The creature baiting the hook appears to be Andy Serkis, meaning that this is Sméagol, before the change, when he was still a hobbit. He looks sickly white for someone who, seemingly, spends any amount of time in the sun. A bit ghoulish, and nothing like his future ‘cousin’ Frodo. There already seems to be a taint - an ill-favored look - to Sméagol.

Still, the sun is shining, the waters are calm and the world is a beautiful place. Another person in the boat, Déagol perhaps, gets a bite and gets really excited. First time fishing, perhaps? Sméagol, his buddy and possibly the smarter of the two, encourages him. The voice of Sméagol does not match the person here, and maybe that’s because I was hoping to see Sméagol as just another hobbit that, after acquiring the Ring, became corrupted/corroded as a result. Déagol goes for a dive, and the huge fish, ironically, pulls him right past glinting bait in the mud. First the worm, then the fish, and now Déagol. Where will this Ring’s influence end? Déagol scoops up the bauble of gold and makes it to shore. As he coughs and sputters, we here birds suddenly in the background. What’s startled them?

Sméagol finally catches up with his friend, and finds out why he is so intent on his palm. Within seconds of seeing the Ring, Sméagol desires and asks for it. That’s some magnetic artifact there, as Andy Serkis’ character is already gone nuts for it. Neither of these two know what powers the Ring holds, nor what exactly it is. Both just ‘want’ it, and so I tend to think that Sméagol was already flawed before he took the Ring, whether addict or spoiled brat, I don’t know, but he’s no proto-Frodo. And Déagol is no Sam. Neither of these two loves the other.

By the by, when watching RotK with the kids in the room, we skip this scene as it’s a little too brutal.

A fight ensues. Madness. Finally, Sméagol gets the upper hand, or hands, and then Déagol is no more. The score beats out Déagol’s last moments on Middle Earth, and when it quits, we know the deed is done. A faint laugh is heard – the Ring or Sauron’s spirit, strengthened by the vile act?

No matter, Sméagol gets the Ring – pries it from Déagol’s warm dead hand – and calls it his “precious” for the very first time. The end has justified the means. Should have stuck with fish, poor Sméagol. What water will wash the blood from your hands now? You will pay for this villainy, many times over.

He places the Ring on his finger for the first time, and we see Sméagol vanish. It’s on to the montage, where we see the makeover of Gollum in reverse. He begins to change, and it seems that the Ring is radioactive – it imparts some type of sickness on Sméagol, and he becomes the wretched creature that we saw in TTT. Odd. Not how I saw the transformation, and it almost seems that with the exception of Déagol’s, Gollum has no blood on his hands. The Ring here doesn’t give him power, and he’s no better off for taking it. We don’t see him living the high life, then as the Ring takes hold and his family can take no more, the addict falls from the good into the sickness of the addiction. There’s no indication that the Ring corrupted his heart, and gave him delusions of grandeur. It’s as if the Ring and the murder make Gollum look as he does, not all of the subsequent actions and life choices.

Anyway…

Sam sleeps inside some small structure (hopefully not the other end of the under-river old Osgiliath sewer system ); the barren landscape outside indicates that we’re not in Hobbiton. Frodo sits awake, either on guard or not able to sleep. He scratches at his neck – feeling like Déagol, perhaps? Timidly he sneaks a peak at his Ring and gets his fix. Something is nigh, and Frodo hurriedly covers the Ring, only to find that Gollum is back. Their guide urges them on, to continue their journey to Mordor’s back door.

Sam, seeing the sky perhaps, thinks that he’s overslept, but Frodo lets us know that the days are growing darker. Not day, but days, which is a bit…ahh…silly. Was Sauron, via Mount Doom, adding a little more smog to the winds, day by day, until eventually he could blacken the entire sky? Mount Doom erupts, possibly, or an oliphaunt stumbles nearby, and the very ground shakes. Gollum, now even more anxious, suggests haste, but Sam explains that his master needs to eat before continuing their journey.

And Gollum uses the word silly. Whether in the text or not, the word silly doesn’t fit in the scene.

Sam gives Frodo a lembas, yet takes none himself. Frodo is still concerned about his servant, and knows that Sam is very hungry and so should eat something as well. It’s then that we learn that not only is Sam the planner of the two, he’s planning on returning home, which seems strange to Frodo. Home? What’s home?

The three continue their journey, and Gollum tells his two followers that they are very close to Mordor and that there are no safe places anymore. Methinks that he wants them to be on their guard. However, Frodo and Sam hike along like they’re on some, well, movie set and were told to move from point A to point B. Neither seems interested in concealment or caution, and to me this works against the scene somewhat. If Mordor is this big bad place that all fear to tread, then why aren’t these two showing that in their body movements?

As in the last film, we start and now leave Sam and Frodo as they walk to Mordor.

[Trotter]

For me the opening scene of ROTK was a bit... weak. I thought the two actors, mainly the guy who played Deagol, we're a little too hammy. I also thought that the 'Gollum transformation' was very poor and untrue to Tolkien. The whole scene was rushed and stupid and shouldn't have been at the beginning of ROTK anyway.

P.S. The whole 'ring addiction' thing that they had going in the trilogy was ridiculous. It should have been portrayed much more subtly.

[Macalaure]

Originally Posted by alatar

By the by, when watching RotK with the kids in the room, we skip this scene as it’s a little too brutal.

I know what you mean, it is hard to watch indeed. The way we hear Deagol's last heartbeats we not only know he died, but we ultimately feel it. I'm sure this is what Jackson intended and he superbly achieved it. This silent death is more effective than a thousand of brutally and noisily slaughtered orcs. If only more of the movies had this intensity.

The Ring here doesn’t give him power, and he’s no better off for taking it. We don’t see him living the high life, then as the Ring takes hold and his family can take no more, the addict falls from the good into the sickness of the addiction. There’s no indication that the Ring corrupted his heart, and gave him delusions of grandeur. It’s as if the Ring and the murder make Gollum look as he does, not all of the subsequent actions and life choices.

Considering they didn't have that much time to show the transformation, it was okay to me. I've already said I don't like the simplified Gollum that much, not only because it, naturally, took depth and isn't true to the book, but because I think a more complicated Gollum would have been scarier and more effective. But, well...

Originally Posted by Trotter

The whole scene was rushed and stupid and shouldn't have been at the beginning of ROTK anyway.

If you just mean the transformation, I agree. Though I'm not sure how it could have been done much better in the same amount of time.
If you mean the whole beginning, I disagree. When I first saw it in the cinema I was very positively surprised, because I didn't expect this scene to be included at all. Smeagol didn't look 'proto-hobbitish' enough, Deagol's dive wasn't that well-made and the transformation, well...
..otherwise, I really like the scene.

The whole 'ring addiction' thing that they had going in the trilogy was ridiculous. It should have been portrayed much more subtly.

The problem with subtlety is always that the general audience, unfortunately ever the target audience of big budget movies, might not get it. And if you don't get why everybody is attracted by the ring, or don't get what this ring is about at all, you don't understand the movie. Then you don't like the movie and then you don't go and watch the two sequels. You have to put yourself in Jackson's place: He couldn't afford the trilogy to not be a success.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

You have to put yourself in Jackson's place: He couldn't afford the trilogy to not be a success.

The only problem with that is the first two movies were successful and this permitted Jackson more freedom with the third. And, as this is the last, what would he lose if it were a complete flop, which would have been hard to create? Most of the filming was already done, and so those that even at the very least tolerated the first two movies would be on the hook for the third, just to see if it were possibly better. And worse, this is not just the DVD but the extended version of the film, where Jackson had even more freedom to play.

My assumption is that the RotK EE DVD was less of a concern as Peter Jackson was either taking a well-deserved break or starting to consider large primates...

[Trotter]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

If you just mean the transformation, I agree. Though I'm not sure how it could have been done much better in the same amount of time.
If you mean the whole beginning, I disagree. When I first saw it in the cinema I was very positively surprised, because I didn't expect this scene to be included at all. Smeagol didn't look 'proto-hobbitish' enough, Deagol's dive wasn't that well-made and the transformation, well...
..otherwise, I really like the scene.
The problem with subtlety is always that the general audience, unfortunately ever the target audience of big budget movies, might not get it. And if you don't get why everybody is attracted by the ring, or don't get what this ring is about at all, you don't understand the movie. Then you don't like the movie and then you don't go and watch the two sequels. You have to put yourself in Jackson's place: He couldn't afford the trilogy to not be a success.

Sorry, I should have worded it more clearly... I meant the entire scene. Sure, it did have its highlights. I would agree with you about the heartbeat bit, that was very disturbing and well done. But generally, the entire thing rubbed me the wrong way. And the transformation... In my opinion, if you don't have time to do it justice, than don't do it at all.


Trotter

[Rikae]

I agree that the murder scene was well done - appropriately disturbing and, like the murder scene in PJ's "Heavenly Creatures", seems to show the humanity (hobbitity?) of both the murderer and the victim, making it all the more horrifying. I'm not good at discerning what it is in a scene that gives a particular feeling, but watching this I almost felt as if I were inside Smeagol's mind, watching himself completely lose control.
As far as Smeagol's appearance (pale and creepy to begin with), this is in keeping with Tolkien's description of him. The "ring addiction", I thought, was also strongly suggested in the books; I remember having that thought while reading them ten years before the movies were even begun.
I did think the transformation happened too quickly, and apparently before Gollum ever entered the mountain. I had always imagined he changed slowly, over the course of the five-hundred-or-so years underground, and not due to the ring being, as you say, "radioactive"! I also think a slower transformation could have been suggested in the same amount of time, so time constraints really wouldn't be an excuse. Other than this, I liked the sequence - I was pleasantly surprised to see it included & also to see Andy Serkis in the flesh, since he's one of my favorite actors.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I loved the scene. It's as shocking an introduction into the next movie as the Foundations of Stone scene was for TTT, and I think it sets the tone at the beginning of the film by putting the focus exactly where it needs to be -- on the Ring. And on Gollum, of course. It hints that in the end, it's all going to come down to Gollum's lust for the Ring. Well, they add Frodo in there, too, but we'll tackle that when it comes.

Alatar, I'm not sure why you so despise Gollum's use of the word "silly", but I don't have a problem with it. It doesn't sound out of place to me, at all.

Believe me, people need to have it beat into them what the Ring is and what it does. Some people I know still don't understand it, even after everything PJ does to make it clear.

I don't think they really have time to go into everything that happened to Gollum. They emphasize what should be emphasized, which is that he became an outcast and had to go hole up in some mountain that just happened to be a lair of goblins. This isn't the story, after all; just the prologue, so they need to spend as little time on it as they can get away with, and bring us to our staunch heroes.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Alatar, I'm not sure why you so despise Gollum's use of the word "silly", but I don't have a problem with it. It doesn't sound out of place to me, at all.

It just takes me out of the scene. We just watched a murder and the transformation of Gollum, then we have Sam and Frodo contemplating their next move (and we also get a glimpse of Frodo the Addict). Then Gollum uses the word silly. I got the same feeling, briefly, like when in TTT Gimli said, "nervous system."

It could just be me.

[Essex]

Isn't Jackson showing us with gollum's transformation in that it may be down to how Gollum got tenure of the Ring. It was through Murder. Maybe this accelerated the process.

remember this is an adaptation of Tolkien's work. We have little proof (other than gandalf's words) what caused gollum's descent into madness (?) / schizophrenia etc. Yes, we know that gandalf tells us that he was outcast by his family, and this would have looked good on the EE edition, but what Jackson is showing us here is gollum's addiction to the Ring, and then pan straight to the 'new' addict Frodo, albeit in a lesser stage of the addiction.

showing us gollum getting outcast by his family may have taken too long in this opening scene.

a couple of things. one of the only times in the trilogy I see something with physical action not working quite right is when smeagol is strangling deagol. he's hardly holding onto his neck and not squeezing. now you may think this is over the top, but the way serkis puts his life and soul into his acting, im surprised he went so 'lightly' on the other actor in this scene....

and the rumbling that frodo and sam feel. I watched this scene time after time trying to get a reason for why we have this and couldn't fathom why it was in the movie. until I re-read the book!!!!

From Journey ot the Crossroads

At that moment a rolling and rumbling noise was heard again, louder now and deeper. The ground seemed to quiver under their feet. 'I think we are in for trouble anyhow,' said Frodo. `I'm afraid our journey is drawing to an end.'

and

But it was too late. At that moment the rock quivered and trembled beneath them. The great rumbling noise, louder than ever before, rolled in the ground and echoed in the mountains. Then with searing suddenness there came a great red flash. Far beyond the eastern mountains it leapt into the sky and splashed the lowering clouds with crimson. In that valley of shadow and cold deathly light it seemed unbearably violent and fierce. Peaks of stone and ridges like notched knives sprang out in staring black against the uprushing flame in Gorgoroth. Then came a great crack of thunder.
And Minas Morgul answered. There was a flare of livid lightnings: forks of blue flame springing up from the tower and from the encircling hills into the sullen clouds. The earth groaned; and out of the city there came a cry.

therefore it seems to be a rallying call from 'gorgoroth' - ie must be barad dur or the moutain of fire - and finally minas morgul heeds the call and unleashes its armies.....

PS - to get the quotes I opened my copy of ROTK first before realising this is TT in the 'real' book world!!!! ahhhh, sacrilegeous! the film is overtaking the book in my thoughts - must re read lotr again for penance.......

[Rikae]

I just read something interesting, though I'm not sure if it's true: someone on IMDB claims that Andy Serkis directed the scenes with Smeagol and Deagol.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I think Fran Walsh actually directed that scene. I am 90% sure this was stated on either a commentary or interview.

[Rikae]

OK, I've got the answer now, straight from the horse's mouth. Fran Walsh directed most of the Smeagol flashback sequence, but Andy directed the fight. From his book:
"Peter told me that Fran was unwell and was unable to work that day. He asked me if I'd direct the scene..." (pg 99)