The Emyn Muil, Pt. 1 ~ “We’re Not Alone”....

[mechtild]

~*~

Here begin screencaps for The Two TowersI haven't yet posted screencaps from the TTT, but there will be series from scenes in the Emyn Muil, the Dead Marshes, the Black Gate, Henneth Annun and the Forbidden Pool, and Osgiliath. I've made and tweaked all the caps, but it will take a while to write posts for them all. If I get fed up writing

Comments

[wispy_lass]

OMG!!!
Lovely screencaps Mechtild
This brings back a lot of memories you know *sighs* *sobs* *swoons*
Haven't seen TTT since 2005

[mechtild]

Flawed as TTT is, and as much as book Frodo was ill-served by it, I *do* love this film as film. Thanks for commenting, Wispy.

[mechtild]

Thanks, Mews. I love what you said about the distinctive palette for TTT. Yes, it is rather bleak, almost wintry. Helm's Deep is dusty-grey by day, blue-black by night. Fangorn is green but murky. The Dead Marshes are lit in a brown, the Emyn Muil is grey. Even the lush plains of Rohan from the book are a rocky upland, grass struggling between the boulders and jagged outcroppings, looking wintry in its bleak windswept beauty. It's a land and a people waiting for life to come back, like Eowyn standing on the parapet looking it the distance, her hair and gown whipping in the wind.

Yes, Faramir in the films came across so well. But it was David Wenham, I think. It's really not in the writing of the role. Hats off to him and much gratitude for salvaging a character that could have been thoroughly spoiled. I could die of love for him in that EE scene with Eowyn in the Houses of Healing at the end of RotK. He's just what I pictured book Faramir to be, and far, far, far from the captain who baited and mistreated his captives in

[mechtild]

And whatever PJ does to Frodo's character in TTT, he does at least look incredibly hot throughout. :D

He certainy does. And I intend to provide plenty of screencap evidence. Even "Frodo with PMS" looks good in screencaps.

Yes, they are WONDERFUL films, and I watch them that way. Even scenes that I decry because of what they do to book characters I love still tend to work well and film drama. I guess I can enjoy them because I just surrender myself to the film-story being told while I'm watching it. It's when the scenes are over that I blink, Smeagol-like, and say, "What? WHy did they do THAT????" While the film is rolling, though, I love even grossly miscarried scenes like Frodo standing on the wall of Osgiliath. It's just so beautiful, cinemagraphically, so well acted, shot, lit, and scored, I am swept away in spite of myself.

[shirebound]

Beautiful caps. And I really appreciate your insight that, "each actor's own intelligence, integrity, and warmth came through in the roles, no matter what the writers had the characters do". Hear hear! Why PJ felt it necessary to re-write (and 'warp', as you so aptly put it) so much of the text and characters' actions and words, is still a mystery to me. But we were able to see into the soul of each person, "whether or no".

[mechtild]

Yes, Shirebound. PJ and Fran get an A+++ for their casting choices, even when they made a mistake. They realised they erred casting Stu Townsend and although it was traumatic, for they really are fairly nice filmmakers as people, they made a hard choice, dismissed him and called Viggo. It was the Casting Gods, perhaps, again coming to the rescue.

The more I learn about how the films were made, and how and why script choices were made, the more I have to credit the actors themselves, as artists and people, for producing the characters I find myself loving, as you say--"whether or no".

[alyrthia]

It never gets less gorgeous does it? It's always breathtaking, even after seeing Frolijah shots time and time again.

And your thoughts were altogether spot on, IMO.

[mechtild]

Thank you, Alyon. No, I never tire of looking at, or of thinking about these films and the book that inspired them. So far, anyway.