I find I always want more when I watch the movies, even though I believe they're wonderful and as good as most anybody could have done. I just wanted them to make us realize what the quest had done to him.
I am not faulting EW's job in the scene, they just didn't direct even what they had in a way that let viewers know the degree to which he was still suffering. They would not even have had to change the lines. They could have shown him at his desk really suffering a stab of pain, maybe with an infinitesimal flash from Weathertop to remind folks without a word what he was suffering from(they'd used this device well before, outside Minas Morgul - "I can feel his blade"), show him reacting with the full strength of that, just for an extra second or two or real time before he hears someone coming. They could start out with his make-up not quite so pale so that he could be seen to blanch. That would take another split second. Then they would show a shot of him quickly and heroically pulling himself together before Sam comes in. They they could show Sam do the slightest reaction shot, showing that he sensed something amiss instead of just blithely strolling to the desk and beginning to speak, only then marginally noticing something and asking if Frodo is all right. In real time, these changes would have taken perhaps footage running to the count of ten seconds. I think it would have been a huge help to viewers and greatly enriched the "plight of returning wounded" thread of the film's story.
But, like you, I really did love the films and still do. It's just one of the faults I felt, "Aw, too bad!" about, as a sort of missed opportunity for a really easy fix that would have accomplished so much.
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Date: 2006-04-23 01:27 pm (UTC)I am not faulting EW's job in the scene, they just didn't direct even what they had in a way that let viewers know the degree to which he was still suffering. They would not even have had to change the lines. They could have shown him at his desk really suffering a stab of pain, maybe with an infinitesimal flash from Weathertop to remind folks without a word what he was suffering from(they'd used this device well before, outside Minas Morgul - "I can feel his blade"), show him reacting with the full strength of that, just for an extra second or two or real time before he hears someone coming. They could start out with his make-up not quite so pale so that he could be seen to blanch. That would take another split second. Then they would show a shot of him quickly and heroically pulling himself together before Sam comes in. They they could show Sam do the slightest reaction shot, showing that he sensed something amiss instead of just blithely strolling to the desk and beginning to speak, only then marginally noticing something and asking if Frodo is all right. In real time, these changes would have taken perhaps footage running to the count of ten seconds. I think it would have been a huge help to viewers and greatly enriched the "plight of returning wounded" thread of the film's story.
But, like you, I really did love the films and still do. It's just one of the faults I felt, "Aw, too bad!" about, as a sort of missed opportunity for a really easy fix that would have accomplished so much.