Frodo's fate (2)
Just over a year ago I posted my first entry about "Frodo's fate" (LINK). I had intended to do a series of posts with screenshots from The Return Of The King, between Mount Doom and the Grey Havens. Ever since reading the books for the first time I have felt sad about Frodo’s decision to leave Middle Earth. It seemed so unfair after all he had gone through. The films helped me to understand why he had to go and I wanted to share that.
I didn't continue after that first post for several reasons. First of all, real life intervened. But I also found it difficult to decide what to include. My mental image of Frodo is primarily formed by Tolkien's books. The films added to my understanding but several scenes in this crucial period are so different from book-canon that I found it hard to choose. But now, I've decided that I don't want to leave all those lovely screenshots buried in my computer. Some of them, at least, are going to be posted in this Journal. So, here they come.....
Today's choice of scene is: "Aragorn's Coronation". The book equivalent is "The Field of Cormallen", which is told from Sam's perspective, so we are left wondering what Frodo might have felt.
“I don’t deserve this”
In the DVD-extras of the extended edition of Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson says of this scene: “You can hear people sniffling in the theater and it’s usually me”. It is a moving moment when Aragorn, the elf Lords and all the Gondorians bow low before the hobbits. The reaction of the four hobbits to this homage is very revealing. In the first frame, Merry and Pippin look rather pleased with themselves while Sam and Frodo look confused. In the following frames, Merry and Sam start to look overawed but Frodo’s reaction is very different. Frodo looks distressed.
In the next frames the camera zooms in on Frodo and we see in his face that he rejects this homage. The edges of the mouth are pulled down and the chin is puckered. It’s a clear “No”.
And in the last few frames he can stand it no longer. The mouth suddenly opens as if he wants to shout: “No, I don’t deserve this”.
What this scene shows to me is that Frodo feels unworthy to receive this honor. After all, the Ring was destroyed by "Fate", not by him. He must have felt guilty for failing to throw the Ring into the fire. Corroding guilt must have been one of the reasons why he chose to seek healing beyond Middle Earth.
It's really easy for me to think about Frodo as a real person and to imagine his feelings. But my brain tells me that what I see is created by RL people: the actor, the director, the cinematographer. I would love to know what happened between Elijah Wood and Peter Jackson when they created this scene......
.
I didn't continue after that first post for several reasons. First of all, real life intervened. But I also found it difficult to decide what to include. My mental image of Frodo is primarily formed by Tolkien's books. The films added to my understanding but several scenes in this crucial period are so different from book-canon that I found it hard to choose. But now, I've decided that I don't want to leave all those lovely screenshots buried in my computer. Some of them, at least, are going to be posted in this Journal. So, here they come.....
Today's choice of scene is: "Aragorn's Coronation". The book equivalent is "The Field of Cormallen", which is told from Sam's perspective, so we are left wondering what Frodo might have felt.
“I don’t deserve this”
In the DVD-extras of the extended edition of Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson says of this scene: “You can hear people sniffling in the theater and it’s usually me”. It is a moving moment when Aragorn, the elf Lords and all the Gondorians bow low before the hobbits. The reaction of the four hobbits to this homage is very revealing. In the first frame, Merry and Pippin look rather pleased with themselves while Sam and Frodo look confused. In the following frames, Merry and Sam start to look overawed but Frodo’s reaction is very different. Frodo looks distressed.
In the next frames the camera zooms in on Frodo and we see in his face that he rejects this homage. The edges of the mouth are pulled down and the chin is puckered. It’s a clear “No”.
And in the last few frames he can stand it no longer. The mouth suddenly opens as if he wants to shout: “No, I don’t deserve this”.
What this scene shows to me is that Frodo feels unworthy to receive this honor. After all, the Ring was destroyed by "Fate", not by him. He must have felt guilty for failing to throw the Ring into the fire. Corroding guilt must have been one of the reasons why he chose to seek healing beyond Middle Earth.
It's really easy for me to think about Frodo as a real person and to imagine his feelings. But my brain tells me that what I see is created by RL people: the actor, the director, the cinematographer. I would love to know what happened between Elijah Wood and Peter Jackson when they created this scene......
.