Amy and I saw The Two Towers again today. I'm going to assume that everybody who wanted to see it already has (you've also read the book), so I'm going to jump right in with my thoughts on it.
The movie is magnificent. It's been too long since I've read the book to know how consistent it is with the original (I will soon remedy that), so I have no complaints about plot changes. Though much of the movie is about war, I don't see the movie as glorifying war, I see it more as recognizing, as Sam said at the end, "there is good in this world, and it's something worth fighting for". I was moved by the scenes of the women and children of Rohan who would be killed if the men of arms failed in their defense of Helms Deep. It served to emphasize that they were not just fighting for their freedom or for a plot of land; they were fighting for their existence. If they had failed, Rohan would simply cease to exist altogether.
I was looking for some of the script to remember in this second viewing, just as Gandalf's line (my favorite scene) from Fellowship Of The Ring: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given.". My favorite, next to Sam quoted above, is when Eowyn says "the women of this country learned long ago that those who do not bear swords may still die upon them." (a good slogan for the Second Amendment Sisters, with whom I agree).
The portrayal of Gollum (Smeagol) was excellent. The moral fight he had with his evil nature was important to see, given his corruption by the ring. I'm having trouble understanding, from the movie alone, what his motivation was for helping Frodo find the way into Mordor. Maybe a detail will emerge on the upcoming DVD, as was done for Fellowship Of The Ring.
My only gripe about the movie, maybe even Tolkien's original work, is that it seems to romanticize medieval life, and to demonize industry. When Saruman is shown building his army of Uruk-Hai, it seems to be presented as an indictment against science and technology, as if these were, by themselves, evil. I don't share that view. I think that science and technology have done much for good. We are much better off for having left our medieval history behind us. There is certainly the capacity for the moral abuse of technology, but that is a symptom of our sin nature, not of our intelligence.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at January 1, 2003 07:05 PM