Hi there diem_kieu94! Hail and well met. ;) I am delighted that people came to the books through the films, and want to reassure you that I in no way regard the films as an ‘abomination’. (As much as I respect Christopher Tolkien, I am sorry he is so hostile to the films, because they really brought his father's work back into mainstream popular culture – where it deserves to be. LotR deserves to be as much part of the British legendarium as the Arthurian mythos and Robin Hood!)
I'm a realist about the process of adaptation and I enjoy the films enormously, whilst reserving my right to critique aspects of them.
I can understand people falling in love with Film Frodo, as he is very beautiful! I had quite the fling with him myself, at one point. ;) However, my ardour has cooled since the heady days of LotR film fandom, and I wish now that Elijah had been thirty, not twenty, during filming, as I think that might have made a difference to how PJ saw the character of Frodo - as more mature, with more inner steel.
Book Frodo had his detractors long before the films came out. I joined Tolkien online fandom about two years before the release of FotR and to my chagrin discovered that a few long-time fans really didn't like Frodo very much -they saw him as a depressive wimp who couldn't have completed the Quest without Sam. Which is true, but then Sam couldn't have destroyed the Ring on his own either.
Maybe PJ saw Frodo in a similar way. In which case, it would seem to me that the obvious thing for a film director to do is to beef up the central protagonist (which is exactly what PJ did with Martin Freeman's Bilbo, to my delight) - not wimpify him further.
But I agree with Jan about this. PJ systematically deprived Frodo of all the small signature moments that build up Frodo's heroic profile. E.g. in the book, Frodo has the inner strength to resist putting on the Ring when the Black Rider is crawling towards him in the woods of the Shire - in the film, Sam grabs Frodo's hand to prevent Frodo from succumbing to the Ring's power. And this keeps on happening in the films - do we ever actually see Film Frodo resisting the power of the Ring in his own strength? In the book, Frodo is the ONLY hobbit to actually lash out at the Nazgul on Weathertop: Merry and Pippin are quaking with terror and Sam shrinks to his master's side - in the film, all the other hobbits stand their ground with their little swords, Sam lashes out at the Ringwraiths ... and Frodo drops his sword. I have no quarrel with PJ making the other three hobbits more heroic - again, it's exactly what I would do were I making a film of LotR, because I wouldn't want the audience thinking these little guys are a bunch of useless wimps. What was disappointing was that Frodo's heroism got undercut yet again. And so this pattern in the films was repeated over and over ... Frodo frequently falling over, Frodo acting like a damsel in distress with Sam helping him out, Frodo apparently being a naïve and trusting idiot about Gollum, whereas in the book Frodo has no illusions about Gollum yet is willing to act redemptively and give Gollum a chance.
To this day, popular Facebook memes frequently laud Sam as the true hero of LotR. Yes, I realise that Tolkien did say that. ;) But in fact he describes both Frodo and Sam as heroes. I like Sam, and don't resent his heroic status. I do think it's a crying shame that Frodo got so sidelined. As I said: opportunity lost. :)
I sound more bitter about this than I actually am. I don't lose sleep over it, and there are far more important things in RL to stress about. ;)
There are also Frodo-moments in the films which give me some compensation. I liked how PJ handled Frodo's moment when he claims the Ring in the Sammath Naur, for example. 'Don't mess with me, I'm a Ring-bearer'. I so wanted to see more of that, though. :)
I'll end with one of my favourite quotes from the Letters:
"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... " Letter no. 246
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 10:22 am (UTC)I'm a realist about the process of adaptation and I enjoy the films enormously, whilst reserving my right to critique aspects of them.
I can understand people falling in love with Film Frodo, as he is very beautiful! I had quite the fling with him myself, at one point. ;) However, my ardour has cooled since the heady days of LotR film fandom, and I wish now that Elijah had been thirty, not twenty, during filming, as I think that might have made a difference to how PJ saw the character of Frodo - as more mature, with more inner steel.
Book Frodo had his detractors long before the films came out. I joined Tolkien online fandom about two years before the release of FotR and to my chagrin discovered that a few long-time fans really didn't like Frodo very much -they saw him as a depressive wimp who couldn't have completed the Quest without Sam. Which is true, but then Sam couldn't have destroyed the Ring on his own either.
Maybe PJ saw Frodo in a similar way. In which case, it would seem to me that the obvious thing for a film director to do is to beef up the central protagonist (which is exactly what PJ did with Martin Freeman's Bilbo, to my delight) - not wimpify him further.
But I agree with Jan about this. PJ systematically deprived Frodo of all the small signature moments that build up Frodo's heroic profile. E.g. in the book, Frodo has the inner strength to resist putting on the Ring when the Black Rider is crawling towards him in the woods of the Shire - in the film, Sam grabs Frodo's hand to prevent Frodo from succumbing to the Ring's power. And this keeps on happening in the films - do we ever actually see Film Frodo resisting the power of the Ring in his own strength? In the book, Frodo is the ONLY hobbit to actually lash out at the Nazgul on Weathertop: Merry and Pippin are quaking with terror and Sam shrinks to his master's side - in the film, all the other hobbits stand their ground with their little swords, Sam lashes out at the Ringwraiths ... and Frodo drops his sword. I have no quarrel with PJ making the other three hobbits more heroic - again, it's exactly what I would do were I making a film of LotR, because I wouldn't want the audience thinking these little guys are a bunch of useless wimps. What was disappointing was that Frodo's heroism got undercut yet again. And so this pattern in the films was repeated over and over ... Frodo frequently falling over, Frodo acting like a damsel in distress with Sam helping him out, Frodo apparently being a naïve and trusting idiot about Gollum, whereas in the book Frodo has no illusions about Gollum yet is willing to act redemptively and give Gollum a chance.
To this day, popular Facebook memes frequently laud Sam as the true hero of LotR. Yes, I realise that Tolkien did say that. ;) But in fact he describes both Frodo and Sam as heroes. I like Sam, and don't resent his heroic status. I do think it's a crying shame that Frodo got so sidelined. As I said: opportunity lost. :)
I sound more bitter about this than I actually am. I don't lose sleep over it, and there are far more important things in RL to stress about. ;)
There are also Frodo-moments in the films which give me some compensation. I liked how PJ handled Frodo's moment when he claims the Ring in the Sammath Naur, for example. 'Don't mess with me, I'm a Ring-bearer'. I so wanted to see more of that, though. :)
I'll end with one of my favourite quotes from the Letters:
"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... "
Letter no. 246