Film Review: The Hobbit "The Battle of the Five Armies"

**Spoilers**
If you have not yet seen this movie, please go and do so before proceeding.

            This was so incredibly anti-climatic that I don't even know where to start. There were times when I honest-to-God felt like I was watching a play-through of the video game. I'm all for a final installment of a trilogy being non-stop action and drama, but this was just ridiculous. If this were a TV show, I would be saying that it 'jumped the shark' at this episode. Really, these movies should not have been split into a trilogy. Two films would have been better as originally planned AND the title could have been There And Back Again with exactly the same impact. It did not need to be changed.

What I Liked:

- Martin Freeman. Just...just Martin Freeman. Whenever I heard they were making The Hobbit, he was my first pick as the actor to play young!Bilbo. Thankfully he was PJ's first pick also and he just does a tremendous job in the titular role of the hobbit.

- Love that they kept Bilbo's less-than-welcoming homecoming in there. That was always one of my favorite parts of the books and it's just hilarious to see him spluttering at those who are making off with his best armchair (and silver spoons) as he stumps up the path with his sword and dragon gold.

- Absolutely ADORE Ian Holm returning as older!Bilbo.

- Galadriel's fight with the Necromancer is one of the most beautiful, terrifying, and incredible things I have ever seen. It called to mind shades of Luthien Tinuviel facing off against Morgoth (which I'm sure was intentional) and really showcased just how much power the Lady of Lorien carries inside of her, both as an elven queen and as a ringbearer. Great stuff!

- The visuals of Smaug burning down Laketown were quite impressive. I still say that should have been the climax of the last movie, rather than the dwarves trying to dip the dragon in nacho cheese.

- Thorin and Bilbo and Balin. Man, I still can't believe the acorn scene exists. That was just too funny.

- The Elven King's reaction to Bilbo apologizing for stealing from the pantry just made my day.

- Thorin's actual death scene was done pretty well. It was changed from the book, but the impact wasn't any less. He still had his speech to Bilbo about how it's important to value love and friendship and hospitality over gold and power.

- The entire confrontation with Bard and Thranduil was just about perfect. I really, really like how they did it with Thorin and Bard speaking through the wall. The moment when Bilbo reveals that he stole the Arkenstone (which I'm still waiting to hear why it glowed like that...) was just as painful as it was in the book. Though I do miss Thorin threatening to sting Bilbo's feet with arrows if he doesn't leave quickly.

- Billy Boyd's song made me cry a bit, I confess.

What I Thought Was Weird:

- Thorin became Scrooge McDuck in this film to the point that he even had a 'swimming in gold' moment. Not quite sure what they were trying to do with that.

- Why were Thorin, Fili, and Kili riding mountain goats? And did we really need to hear the clip-clop of hooves? That was just ridiculous.

- There was too much CGI. It utterly lacked the grit of LotR which wouldn't be an entirely bad thing, except it tried to still have that. It still tried to be that big, epic story that LotR is. And it's not. It's The Hobbit. Even WITH the Necromancer stuff, it's still not as big and epic as LotR.

- WHY was that waterfall frozen solid? It wasn't even winter yet! What is this, a lego set???

- I don't think that King Thranduil riding on that moose will ever NOT be hilarious.

- Why exactly did Thorin take off his armor before going out to fight? That seems kind of counter-intuitive, does it not?

- And why did they copy the worms from Dune?! What even was the purpose of that? I honestly don't understand. Why?

- I guffawed when Smaug died Emperor Kuzco style with his tongue hanging out. Seriously. That was some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen. Problem is, I'm not entirely certain if that was intentional or not.

- Legolas is totally a show off. Why is everybody else even fighting? Just send the blond guy in! Heck, he could have had The One Ring destroyed and Sauron taken down before tea time if they'd just given him a chance. He probably wouldn't even have broken out into a sweat. WHY IS EVERYBODY ELSE EVEN FIGHTING AGAIN?!

- I really hope that Thorin's funeral scene is in the extended cut. It had a lot of important resolution for the different character arcs that we missed out on.

- Alfred (aka Unibrow aka Not-Grima aka Little John Wore The Dress Better) was the saving grace of the Bard scenes. The guy deserves a miniseries all of his own (preferably without Bard's brats) and I really, really enjoyed him in this movie. That being said, we really could have used less of his scenes. They didn't belong here. You thought Gimli farting and burping in LotR was bad? Imagine that times 10,000 and you'll get an idea of what we endured.

What Made My Eye Twitch:

- KILI DIED PROTECTING/AVENGING TAURIEL! AAAAAAAAUGH! NO! NO! NO! I accept that this is a movie. It is an adaption. Changes are going to be made. BUT THEY HAVE TO BE CHANGES THAT MAKE SENSE! This made no sense. The romance felt forced already (it was semi-okay last movie, but REALLY felt shoe-horned in here) and this only made it worse. Fili and Kili were supposed to die defending their king and their uncle with body and shield. They were supposed to die with honor, darn it!

- Thorin's fight with Azog was just painful. Azog himself should never have been in these movies. According to the lore, Azog had been long dead and his son, Bolg, was the one out for blood. It would have been fine to leave it as, rather than reducing Thorin's pompous, selfish nobility to a half-crazed, revenge-bent idiot. The fight atop the waterfall was made me cringe while watching it. I could practically predict each movement that the dueling foes made (cliches, cliches, by-the-book cliches that weren't in the book at all) and it felt like it had been ripped from The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, which is another movie that has a fight with a frozen waterfall and cracking ice. Ugh.

- Tauriel is pointless. Just thought I'd re-iterate that.

- Bard's brats...WHY? JUST WHY? Why were they even there? They were cute in the last movie, but we didn't need them here. We didn't need them bleating out "Daaaa!" every three minutes and constantly putting themselves into danger. No. Just no.

- It was literally pointless for the dwarves to split up and for some of them to stay behind in Laketown. At first I thought that maybe it was to raise the stakes of Smaug burning down Laketown, but nope! Literally pointless.

- Tauriel had no reason for being there and she didn't even have the decency to die in the final battle. I'm still not over that. She might have been okay if she had just been a bit of girl power (because, y'know, apparently Galadriel wasn't enough). Why? Why was she even there? She added nothing to it. All she did was mess some things up.

        And yet, despite all these complaints, I did still honestly enjoy it. I do take issue with some of the...choices. Oh boy do I ever take issue! But it's still a fairly decent movie that I think will be enjoyable to watch as part of the (now 24-hours-long) Middle Earth Marathon. Unfortunately, though, the problems are many and involve things that even I, a devoted fan, cannot excuse or ignore. *sigh* This movie is a 2/5.




What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?

Dear Lord of the Rings...

Thank you for being a big part of my childhood...

Thank you for inspiring three live action films that can, to this day, give me chills and make me cry like a little baby...

Thank you for your diverse fanbase, made up of everything from the 12-year-old Mary-Sue writer to the 40+ Quenya & Sindarin scholar...

Thank you for the years of laughter and tears...

Thank you for the late-night movie marathons with friends & family...

Thank you for the 'father-daughter' nights out at the cinema with my Dad...

Thank you for the times my mother read The Hobbit to me when I was a kid...

Thank you for being the story to bring fantasy back and make it popular, thus inspiring many other authors and filmmakers to try their hand at it...

Thank you for getting me into poetry with your unfinished 'Fall of Gil-Galad'...

Thank you for three awkwardly-animated-but-still-utterly-charming films, four radio adaptations, and a stage musical that each give a different view and flavor to your world...

Thank you for interesting me in the movie making process...

Thank you for teaching me that a book adaptation doesn't have to be exact to be good...

Thank you for showing me that even epic, high fantasy doesn't have to take itself too seriously to be good...

Thank you for influencing the person I am today...

Thank you for being my friend for many years...

Lord of the Rings Parody

It's Okay...I Didn't Need My Heart

It's September 22!

Film Review: The Lord of the Rings "The Fellowship of the Ring"

**Spoilers**
If you have not yet seen this film what's wrong with you...how are you still alive?! please go and do so before proceeding.

Or you could just watch this:

            Okay. Do you have the general gist of the story figured out yet? You do? Great! Let's proceed with the review then...complete with spoilers. Because the only way to talk about Lord of the Rings is to just spoil away. Shall we begin?

           In 1937, Oxford professor and philologist John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, published his first full-length novel The Hobbit to great critical acclaim and reader enthusiasm. It was so popular, in fact, that the publishers (Allen & Unwin) requested that Professor Tolkien craft a sequel. Fourteen years (and two failed attempts at pushing The Silmarillion) later, Tolkien finally had completed, edited, and rewritten his masterpiece: The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King...to give it its proper title. Originally written as a single work, segmented into six smaller books, the publishers split the Bible of all Geekdom up into three volumes, creating what we today know as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

        The books have become household names - popular with everyone from hippies in the 60's to nerds in the 90's. It seems as though just about everyone has at least heard something about the story, even if they haven't personally read them. There have been several adaptations made (two animated films and a BBC radio drama) and the saga only seems to gain popularity with each new generation.

      But, aside from those loose animated features and the cut-down BBC audio, Tolkien's monster book was thought to be unfilmable. Certainly it could NEVER be faithfully made into a live-action flick. We all remember what a disaster the script for the first and last attempt was...Professor Tolkien himself turned it down in disgust. (The lembas was changed into 'compressed concentrated food stuff', as I recall...and that's not even starting on what was done to the plot!) Fans had all but given up on the idea that a faithful and enjoyable live-action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was even feasible. Enter this guy:

            Director Peter Jackson (or 'PJ', as I call him) dreamed of filming this 'unfilmable' story for years and, in 1997, he was finally able to start storyboard work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy after finally securing a three-film contract with New Line Cinema. After years of hard work and anticipation from fans, The Fellowship of the Ring premiered on December 10, 2001 in London.

           I will be reviewing from the Extended Editions of these films...because that is the version I own and is also the one that is the best. If you haven't seen this version, I strongly suggest that you find one of your Tolkien Junkie friends and bully, beg, and bribe them until they let you borrow their copies (and they will have one). One thing I really love about the Extended Edition (hereafter going to be referred to as 'EE') is the actual extra material that was shot. This isn't just a version that adds in all of the little scenes that were trimmed for time. No, PJ actually went back and shot extra footage, including a new introductory scene for the hobbits that talks of their history and just what a hobbit is. I understand why these touches were cut out of the theatrical edition as most of the extra scenes are just for the benefit of hardcore fans and sometimes disrupt the flow and pacing of the film, but that doesn't mean that everyone claiming the title of LotR Fan shouldn't see them as they really enhance the experience.

       Right from the first bit of Elvish chanting at the beginning of this film I get chills. I remember the first time I watched this film. I was SO excited because it had PG-13 rating and my parents were very strict about letting me watch things higher than PG. I was only twelve years old and it felt so grown-up (and naughty) to be watching a PG-13 film! That opening gave me chills then and it still does today, nearly a decade later. Right away it takes you back thousands of years to an age when there was more green and less smog and where hobbits were still numerous.

    One thing that was done just about perfectly for this films was the casting. From Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf to Sean Astin as Sam pretty much everyone was the embodiment of how I had pictured the characters from the books. Except for Hugo Weaving as Elrond. I still don't know what happened there (rumor is that David Bowie wanted the role too..) but he was definitely jarring whenever I was first watching The Fellowship of the Ring.

       I'll admit that I did a fair amount of fangirling whenever I realized that Ian Holm was playing Bilbo Baggins. For those of you who don't realize the significance of that fact, you should now be educated that Ian Holm (in addition to being a wonderfully talented actor) is also a LotR veteran, given that he provided the voice of Frodo Baggins for the BBC Audio Drama of the trilogy. Yes. That's right. Holm has now portrayed both of the famous hobbits from Tolkien's Middle-Earth stories. And, naturally,he simply knocks it out of the park!

        Another thing that makes these films so wonderful is the love and care put into the adaptation. Oh sure I'll jokingly moan and groan about ol' Bombadil being cut from the finished script or about Arwen replacing Glorfindel, but that's just a minor complaint because everything is done so well and with such love and care that you know they considered every cut and change closely (rather than just going in and hacking with focus groups/demographic scissors like so many other franchises seem to do).

      Just within the first ten minutes of the film I have counted at least thirty different subtle references to the original text. It's an Easter egg hunt for avid book fans as a lot of dialogue is either lifted directly from the books themselves or is a direct reference to descriptions and observations given in the books. This is great for two reasons. Not only does this show the great love and care for the source material that I talked about above, but it also makes it so that the films never get old. Every time I watch them I notice something new.


         One reason I always say that you should watch the EE of these films is that the theatrical release really doesn't do it justice. Take Boromir, for instance. Now there is a character who I don't actually think Tolkien liked very much. Indeed within the books themselves, he seems to be just there to serve as the 'noble man corrupted by evil' character. He's not very well developed and much of what we then learn about his good qualities come from reminiscence by his brother, Faramir (who Tolkien really liked). But here, in the films and especially in the extended editions, we get to know Boromir as a person before he is a plot device. Probably carrying over from his own relationship with his brother, Boromir immediately takes a liking to Merry and Pippin (the youngest hobbits) and pretty much turns into the surrogate big brother of the Fellowship. He teaches them to fight, he protects them whenever they're attacked, he is always the first to defend and the last to retreat...he even is the only one to reach out to Frodo immediately after Gandalf dies. The Boromir of the films is just a great character and you'd be missing out on half of that great development if you stuck with just the theatrical release.

         And you wouldn't get to hear this song:

        Another thing that this film does so well is the casting of Middle Earth itself. I remember going into these films and just being utterly BLOWN AWAY by the beauty of the New Zealand landscapes. Everything is so green and gold and the locations perfectly picked that they line up with my imaginings from the books almost perfectly. In a way the scenery is as much of a character as Gandalf or Frodo is because so much time and effort was put into finding and growing the right places and because so many of the shots in the film just show off the utter gorgeousness of it all. These days big, long, sweeping shots are more or less a dime a dozen...but back whenever FotR first came out, we had never really seen this before on the big screen.

     In my humble opinion, I think that by far the hardest thing to make work in this adaptation is the Ring itself. How do you show a band of gold that is malevolent and has a will of its own? How do you do that without your narrative falling apart and the audience laughing in their seats? Well first of all you set it up, in the prologue, as something that can drive men mad and then leave of its own volition, making it look like an accident. That's right. All you need to know about the Ring is set up in the opening ten minutes or so of this film and then is built upon throughout the entire story. They talk about the Ring as if it is personified. It's never described as just an object...it is treated as a character. That gets the point across more clearly than any amount of special effects could do.  

        It helps that they went out of their way to make the prop itself unsettling too with the fire occasionally reflected on the surface, the creepy ambiance that is the Ring whispering, and the fact that it seems very heavy for its size.

         Now there are a few things in this film that don't work so well as others. I've already mentioned the bewildering casting of Elrond, but now I'm going to complain about the character relationships. For the most part they are perfect. This was the dream cast and they all work together wonderfully. Frodo and Bilbo, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf and Elrond, Legolas and Aragorn...pretty much all of the cast is so good and has such excellent chemistry that you forget you're watching a bunch of actors being paid to prance around in leather and chainmail. The weak link in this chain, though, is the Aragorn/Arwen storyline. Liv Tyler is absolutely gorgeous and is exactly what I imagined Arwen to look like. Viggo Mortensen, again, is perfect for the role and simply embodies the character of Aragorn. But their love story...ehhhh, it doesn't really work for me. Seriously just try and imagine for one moment that none of their lines were in elvish. Look at what they're actually saying and then try to picture a couple uttering those lines in English. Yeah. It's some of the funniest stuff you've ever heard.

         But those are just minor complaints that don't detract from the movie-going experience in the long run. Do I think that the race to the Bridge of Khazad-Dum is a bit over-dramatic in places? Yeah. Am I annoyed that they took out Frodo's heroic moments in favor of him tripping? Yeah. Does the Aragorn/Arwen scenes still crack me up? Yeah. But that doesn't make the film as a whole bad. Whenever we first watched these film we were so caught up in the wonder and magic of seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring on screen that these little grievances did not completely turn us off. We get together and have quote-wars and complain about the changes and missteps, but we still love this movie for what it is. I think a lot of the problems people have with the recent Hobbit films is not that they're necessarily inferior to the original trilogy, but because now we're harder to please. The Fellowship of the Ring was one of a kind whenever it came out. It, along with Harry Potter, sparked the fantasy-films renaissance. Before this point they had been primarily low-budget, independent films that might be cult classics but certainly could never dream of obtaining blockbuster status. FotR was so different and so wonderful and so amazing that it changed the way we look at fantasy films all-together. It was the unfilmable trilogy, and yet it was done. While there may be problems, those issues are utterly over-shadowed by the sheer awesome weight of everything that was done right.

...and yet after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.

        It should also be noted that some of the problems with the movie can be cleared up by the EE where it is explained about the elves leaving Middle Earth and explains more about Elrond's misgivings and explains why Frodo chose to go through the mines and explains why Boromir came to Rivendell and explains many of the things that are expanded on in the books. That's why I always recommend that people watch them.

        Is this a perfect film? No. Nothing is really perfect. There's always a flaw somewhere. But sometimes you have to look at a film or an episode or a book as an experience rather than just as a set of tropes and literary devices. Does the story work on the emotional level? Does it get its point across without beating you over the head with it? Did you gain something from the experience? Are you able to connect to the characters and get immersed in the world? The answer to all of those questions is: YES! The Fellowship of the Ring and its sequels are a wonderful experience (one that everyone should go through) and they are a cultural phenomena that has been passed down through generations of fans. I would say that, structurally, this first film is the best out of the trilogy. Emotionally, it hits all the right points with delicacy and understanding. The Fellowship of the Ring is a 5/5.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently? 

The Most Adorable Thing...

            Now this is what I wish had been featured in the movie rather than the obscene amount of CGI and improbable stunts!

      
         Could have done without the snot jokes too, come to think of it...

Top Ten Boromir Moments

             Poor Boromir all too often gets typecast as a villain. Even Tolkien himself didn't seem to like the character too much as, for all the talk about how noble he is, he is actually portrayed as a major jerk. He seems to exist for little other purpose than to show what happens when the Ring takes someone over and for the inclusion of a nice piece of poetry. One thing that really struck me whenever I first watched the movies was the wonderful things they did for Boromir’s character – improving him to the point that he actually became one of my favorites. So, because this is the month where I talk about villains and anti-heroes and Boromir kind of fits that category (and because I just recently saw The Fellowship of the Ring again), I thought that I would get ready and count down my Top Ten Boromir Moments.

10: Checking the door in Moria.

            Many times when one decides to like or dislike a character it is not based on the big speech they made or the flashy sword fight they dominated. Oh sure that might look cool and we might appreciate it – but I find more often that people like a character for reasons that they can’t quite pinpoint. That’s not because they’re being irrational or because they just jumped mindlessly onto the bandwagon. Many times the best bits of a character are not expressed through the dialogue that they speak. No, what makes the difference between a performance and a real person lies within the little moments; the gestures, the expressions, the interactions with other characters. I picked this moment for the first entry on my list because, to be honest, it just recently struck me as one of those defining moment. So Pippin has accidentally knocked a corpse down into a well, alerting the orcs of Moria to the Fellowship’s presence. Everyone is looking around nervously, listening to the shrieks and laughter of the goblins, and Boromir immediately turns around and runs to the door to assess the situation. Let me repeat that: Boromir (not Legolas, Aragorn, or even Gandalf) runs over to the door of the chamber and takes a look out to get a better handle on what’s going on. He doesn’t stop and look around worriedly and he doesn’t rely on hearing alone (hearing that the echoes would throw off) he goes and he finds out what they’re up against. It’s just a great scene because it shows how Boromir is always on top of things. It shows how he is protecting his fellow travelers (whenever he barricades the door and takes time to mention the cave troll) and how even though they are all trapped he is looking for a safe way out.

9: The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm.

            No, I’m not talking about whenever Gandalf falls. Well – I sort of am; but I’m focusing on Boromir in this scene and what he does whenever the Balrog’s whip curls around Gandalf’s ankle and pulls the old wizard into the abyss. Frodo turns and races back towards the bridge, intent on getting to his mentor and friend, and Boromir catches him and holds him back. Not only that but while Aragorn is frozen in shock it is presumably Boromir who rouses the others and spurs them on towards the door, calling back to Aragorn while carrying the grief-stricken Frodo after them. Then while they are outside the door, Boromir shows great compassion for the Hobbits as he begs Aragorn (misguidedly, but still meaning well) to give them a few moments to grieve. 

8: Talking with Aragorn in Lothlorien. 

            Up until this point in the movie there had been a lot of tension between Aragorn and Boromir. Boromir thought that Aragorn was threatening the tense, fragile political state in Gondor (and possibly his father’s sanity, not to mention his own claim) and Aragorn was (justly) suspicious about Boromir’s motives concerning the Ring. Neither of the two really seem to like each other, though they will work together when it is absolutely necessary, and this is the scene where it felt like some of that antagonistic tension finally seeped away. Boromir talks about the glories of his city. He tells Aragorn about how he worries for his father and their people. And then he says the most significant thing of all – he tells his rival that one day their paths will lead them there, describing an entrance into the city together with honor. This is a HUGE step for the noble, but arrogant Boromir to make. In saying those simple words he is accepting who Aragorn is and what that means for him.

7: Protecting Sam from the cave troll.

            This comes from the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring (one of the best investments I have ever made!) and it involves that Hulk-on-steroids troll which the Fellowship struggles to bring down in Balin’s Tomb. Before Sam makes his discovery of frying pans as weapons of mass destruction, the poor hobbit is cornered by the troll, which raises one foot to squash him into jelly. But before Sam can be made into a permanent part of the pavement, Boromir grabs hold of the chain around the troll’s neck and enlists the help of Aragorn to pull the creature back and give Sam time to escape. It is a brave move because this draws the attention of the troll and makes it focus all of its rage and destruction on the two men determinedly hanging on to its leash.


6: Comforting Gimli in Balin’s Tomb.

            Yet another small moment that is so important for Boromir’s character. I actually didn’t catch it the first couple of times I watched this movie but whenever Gimli is kneeling in front of Balin’s sepulcher, Boromir steps forward and places a hand on the dwarf’s shaking shoulder in silent support. It is one of those little things that make Boromir’s character in the movies superior to what he is in the books. It shows how much he cares for both people in general and for his companions.

5: Teaching Merry & Pippin to fight.

           One of my favorite parts of Boromir’s character (and, indeed, the first movie in general) is the relationship between Boromir and the two hobbits, Merry and Pippin. Fans have speculated that part of the reason he connected so well with those two characters was because he was missing his little brother and certainly Boromir does become a bit of a big brother/protective cousin to the two youngest hobbits throughout the journey. The first place we see this come through is the scene when the Fellowship stops for a rest in Hollin and Boromir takes it upon himself to teach the hobbits how to actually use those swords of theirs.

         We seem him systematically teaching them stances as well as basic strikes and blocks, gradually speeding the pace up and increasing their skill little by little just as you can imagine he once did for Faramir. What makes this scene so great, though, is the fact that he accidentally nicks Pippin’s hand – making the Took drop his sword and cry out in pain. Concerned, Boromir rushes forward with an apology but Pippin is having none of it and kicks the tall man in the shin. Merry runs over to help and the two of them wrestle Boromir, Captain of Gondor down to the ground. The three of them are giggling the entire time and it is the cutest thing you can imagine! 

4: Defending Faramir from their father.

             The extended editions of the trilogy are something that every fan should watch at least once. Not only do they help expand the story quite a bit but also they are full of character development that you don’t get to see with the theatrical cut. One of the best extended scenes for Boromir comes from The Two Towers whenever Faramir is remembering his brother.  

            The Gondorian forces have recaptured the city of Osgiliath and Boromir finishes giving his victory speech. Immediately he goes and seeks out his little brother and the two of them share a joke and a drink. The chemistry between Sean Bean and David Wenham is top-notch and you can really see the relationship that the two brothers share, just in the three minutes and half a dozen lines they share. It is incredible!

             But while that is great to watch, the character moment I am going to highlight comes mere moments later whenever their father, Denethor, comes down from his ivory tower to congratulate his beloved firstborn. It is quite obvious that he sees Faramir as less than Boromir. Why? We don’t know. Fans have theorized that maybe the reason their mother (Denethor’s wife) died was through giving birth to Faramir, but Tolkien never really elaborated on the subject so we don’t know. What we do know is that poor Faramir can never do anything right in the eyes of his father and that Boromir doesn’t agree with that attitude. He staunchly defends his brother from Denethor’s scorn and even goes so far as to try and build Fararmir up in the steward’s eyes. That is a great thing for Boromir to do! Often whenever we see this sort of family dynamic in movies the favored kid is portrayed as a bit of a bullying brat who smugly takes advantage of being the favorite. Even if the ‘kids’ are adults this trend tends to triumph over any new ideas. Rarely (almost never) do we see the favored child be actually a good soul who likes the disfavored and never do they actually come to the ‘bad’ child’s defense! The fact that Boromir is willing to not only build up Faramir and be supportive of him but also risk his own status by openly defending him to their father speaks a lot for Boromir’s character and nobility.

3: Comforting Frodo in Lothlorien.

             In the theatrical cut Boromir is kind of a jerk where Frodo is concerned and, for the purposes of storytelling, I can certainly understand why they played up the seduction of the Ring (the same reason they played up Aragorn’s suspicions). But that doesn’t mean I don’t think it is infinitely better whenever he doesn’t start off as being negative toward our main hobbit. Seriously, it only helps to heighten the impact of what the Ring does whenever Boromir attacks Frodo when only scenes before he has been protecting him (Moria) and then doing what no one else thought to do and comfort the hobbit after Gandalf died. One main difference between the movies and the books is that while in Tolkien’s narrative Gandalf decides to go through Moria despite all of Aragorn’s protests, Jackson for some inexplicable reason has the wizard ‘Let the Ringbearer decide’, making Frodo indirectly responsible for his death. I’m still not entirely certain why that change was made because it doesn’t make much sense from either an adaptation or story-telling angle, but what I love about it that it gives us this scene. Aragorn is arguing with Haldir who (understandably) doesn’t want to let the Fellowship into the heart of Lorien while they carry the Ring. The rest of the company, exhausted and grief-stricken, can’t help shooting a few accusing looks in Frodo’s direction. Poor Frodo, already feeling guilty about Gandalf’s death, takes this quite hard and is silently brooding off by himself – sitting away from the warm circle of his companions. But then Boromir goes over and sits down beside the hobbit and proceeds to gently reassure him and try to lend some comfort. He says nothing that is trite. But just the fact that he is talking to Frodo shows his support. I know that this scene always gives me a warm feeling inside.

 

2: Saving Merry & Pippin

              You knew this one was going to make the list somewhere, didn’t you. Boromir’s finest heroic hour is certainly whenever he runs to the rescue of his favorite little hobbits (I know I had to repress the urge to cheer). Even while impaled with three arrows and slowly dying, Boromir keeps on urging Merry and Pippin to run while shielding them with his own body and, well, I’m just going to include a video of the scene because it has to be watched if you want to fully appreciate how awesome it is. 

           

1: Last speech to Aragorn.

 

            There is just so much going on in this scene! Boromir has just fought off an entire legion of orcs to save Merry and Pippin. He was shot in the lungs and kidney with three arrows and faced down the main archer orc, prepared to take the killing shot with dignity. But before the shaft can drive home, Aragorn shows up and takes out Lurtz (as the head Uruk is named in the credits), leaving Boromir to somehow crawl over to the base of a tree in agony. After Lurtz is taken care of, Aragorn rushes over to the dying Boromir who cries out that, for all his efforts, Merry and Pippin were still captured by the Uruk-hai. 

I put this moment on my list above his heroic rescue of Merry and Pippin, where he regained his honor, simply because I think that this was the moment where he truly redeemed himself. It is one thing to go out and do penance for something bad you’ve done – harder by far is to actually take a deep breath and verbally admit your wrongdoing to another person. This is the moment where Boromir fully makes up for attacking Frodo because he owns up to what he did wrong and begs Aragorn to make the resulting problems right.

The culmination of his character arc also comes into play here whenever he says the immortal line to Aragorn: “I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king.” He has gone from envisioning them on an equal footing (Lothlorien) to bowing to Aragorn’s greater claim and saying that he will willingly submit to the other man’s rule. This is a huge moment and always makes his death all the harder for me because it feels like he finally connected with Aragorn. I should have liked to see them enter Gondor together, had he survived. I know Sean Bean dies in practically everything he is in – but this death in particular just tears me apart every time. I fully believe that this is the best Boromir moment because he humbles himself, he admits what he did wrong, and redeems himself so that he can die in honour. His last speech with Aragorn is truly Boromir’s finest hour.