One Way to Move the Modern Audience
Almost every scene in The Return of the King is about the same things: courage and hope in impossible circumstances. Here, courage isn't about standing up to fight and hoping to win. It's standing up to fight completely expecting to lose. Whether it's Sam finally acknowledging they don't need to save rations for the trip back from Mount Doom, or little Merry and Pippin each becoming part of the battle, or King Theoden coming to help defend Gondor, or his niece Eowyn fighting the Witch-king... the film is littered with people willing --again, expecting-- to sacrifice their lives for the sake of a world worth living in.
Same thing in almost every scene. And you know, it's powerful every single time it happens.
Courage isn't about being strong; it's about being strong when logic says run. Or shut your mouth. Or let sleeping Orcs lie.
This kind of courage is largely missing from movies in other genres. What about, say, a romantic comedy in which one or both leads have to be truly brave, even as they're certain they have no shot at the love they desire?
The lesson: we, as writers, need to be a whole lot braver!
Almost every scene in The Return of the King is about the same things: courage and hope in impossible circumstances. Here, courage isn't about standing up to fight and hoping to win. It's standing up to fight completely expecting to lose. Whether it's Sam finally acknowledging they don't need to save rations for the trip back from Mount Doom, or little Merry and Pippin each becoming part of the battle, or King Theoden coming to help defend Gondor, or his niece Eowyn fighting the Witch-king... the film is littered with people willing --again, expecting-- to sacrifice their lives for the sake of a world worth living in.
Same thing in almost every scene. And you know, it's powerful every single time it happens.
Courage isn't about being strong; it's about being strong when logic says run. Or shut your mouth. Or let sleeping Orcs lie.
This kind of courage is largely missing from movies in other genres. What about, say, a romantic comedy in which one or both leads have to be truly brave, even as they're certain they have no shot at the love they desire?
The lesson: we, as writers, need to be a whole lot braver!
posted by Jennica at 8:17 a.m.
4 Comments:
One that ALWAYS gets me:
Singing or otherwise acting bravely when going to certain death, usually as a noble sacrifice. I bawl like a baby...
Best example...THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING...but the whole thing's pretty great there.
I've put it in 3 scripts already, one was made, but the scene was ultimately cut, the other two languish. sigh.
Chris
milliondollarscreenwriting.com
One thing that defeats the believability of LOTR characters summoning courage to beat impossible odds is that they always win. The movies become more and more grand in the impossibility of the battles fought and yet the characters never loose. It seems a certainty that they will triumph continuously and their only problem will be the interpersonal relationships that suffer slightly on the way. What is missing from their victories is the 'why' the protagonists win. To use the David and Goliath analogy, David used cunning and speed to deafeat Goliath despite physical combat being next to impossible. William Wallace used unexpected tactics in 'Braveheart' to fight his oppressors, The rebels had impromptu help from Ewoks in 'Jedi' after they were beaten up in 'Empire'. Even in 'Saving Private Ryan' the American troops had to ambush the Nazi forces to defend the bridge. The hero is only as good as their villain, and when the villain is consistently slaughtered, how can I feel for their desperation and/or courage to beat the odds?
Chris-- how heartening to know writers are trying. How disheartening to know the scenes are getting cut.
Ryan-- I know the one. Oh, do I know it.
Clayton-- What about the idea of sheer hope being the "why"? I actually believe that if they hadn't had this totally reckless hope in every battle, they'd been done for. Plus, I think losing Boromir early on counts for something... the only member of the fellowship who doesn't "win"? Though I can see the argument that that wasn't enough to last through the whole trilogy.
You're right about the Fellowship suffering serious loses in the first movie, which made the danger much more real in my opinion. My thinking is, as far as cinema goes, that Tolkien's battles are largely a product of his time, WorldWar1 had huge amounts of people just charging in opposite directions with little to no idea of their position in the scheme of things. Since WW2 there has generally been a reason (even if it might be fictional) equated to the winning party succeeding. In WW2 it was a crazed dictator (on both sides) and the Atom bomb. In Vietnam it was guerrilla warefare, In Desert Strom it was a technological advantage. Various movies I mentioned depict a rational reason for winning, so that when it happens it won't look like victory was snatched from a big mess of ideas. Sheer courage is sometimes depicted winning victories in smaller, more personal scales, but to beat an army it would be a better bet to have a big gun (or a wizard).
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