Re: [ClosedHeroQuest] Digest Number 274

From: David Cake <dave_at_z3N2kE27GNkCFCLItK1q3samiVyU_JARgTFKn5Ox6sfOsgqM23bbsT1j3pbQRSzt9hJS8sj>
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 00:43:17 +0800

> > In particular, Roderick seems particularly annoyed that Arwen
>> got to, you know, do anything at all before turning up and marrying
>> Aragorn at the end.
>
>I would have been annoyed at any character that rose from obscurity to
>become a major focus of the film. Had Lotho Sackville-Baggins replaced Merry
>I would have complained. Had Glorfindal showed up to save the day at Helm's
>Deep I would have been offended. The problem with Arwen is was that A) They
>used a crappy actress, imo. B) They touted her far more than necessary. C)
>They thought she was necessary "for women in the audience to associate
>with".

	Ah, you see, I saw it differently.
	I saw that they wanted to be true to the original story and 

make Arwen and Aragorn the great romance of the story. Which it kind of is, its just in the original book the romance is largely relegated to an appendix. Which is so hilariously Tolkein, but anyway.

        So, rather than having her apparently just turn up at the end and mysteriously marry Aragorn for no apparent reason, it seemed like a good idea for her to appear a lot more earlier in the film, and the best way to do that was to make her do something.

        Now, we have three alternatives
a) keep the books as they are, and have the romance be important (after all, its why Aragorn doesn't go for Eowyn, and its symbolic value as union between races is pretty big too) but off screen and mysterious up until the end. Dumb.
b) make the films as male as humanly possible, lovingly recreating the first half of the last century sexism that says that only male roles matter much (though woman can, at a pinch, pretend to be men if they want to matter). Galadriel don't count, she isn't human. Drop the character of Arwen, or sideline her importance. This seems to be Rodericks preferred option, an oestrogen free epic. Or
c) beef up her role a bit and have her actually do something of importance besides marry Aragorn. So have her replace a character no ones ever heard of in the first film, and try to bring out the whole elves leaving middle earth (and her different choice) in the second film - fine story elements, which I have no problem rescuing from the appendix and firmly placing in the main narrative.

c) seems a reasonable choice to me.

Now, as far as dodgy casting goes, sure. If nothing else, I know from a friend who was on set that she is close to clinically phobic of horses, which as almost all her important scenes were on horseback was a bit of a problem. Shoots took a long time and she probably turned in a lot poorer performance than she was capable of.

> > >I think the EEs are superb -- flawed, but superb -- and I certainly
>> >won't judge RotK until I see the "real" version.
>
>I wish we had seen the "Real" version instead of wasting our money on
>inferior previews.

        You got to see the version designed for watching in movie theatres by people with normal human bladders, is the way I see it.

	Cheers
		David