THE ENTS ARE GOING TO WAR FULL

There was another pause, and then a marching music began like solemn drums, and above the rolling beats and booms there welled voices singing high and strong. Most of the things I have liked in the books that were cut are things that wouldnвЂ™t have translated well, or would have made the movies yet longer still.Then with a crash came a great ringing shout: ra-hoom-rah! The trees quivered and bent as is a gust had struck them. It exchanges a carefully deliberated sense of duty for a mere passionate reaction in anger.Д«ut while there are a few of these discrepancies that donвЂ™t make sense, I think for the most part the spirit of the books was translated fairly well to film (from what IвЂ™ve read so far).

THE ENTS ARE GOING TO WAR FULL

It loses one of the noble things about the Ents вЂ“ they are extremely difficult to rouse, but as soon as theyвЂ™ve made their decision they march in full force. They keep TreebeardвЂ™s flash of anger at the trees he knew and loved being slain, but they put it out of order by making it his decisive call to war, instead of his hasty but quickly supressed anger. I had been wondering why the change in the Ents in JacksonвЂ™s adaptation вЂ“ he still has their deliberation, so its not as though they did it for time or to move it more quickly.

Seeing as IвЂ™m just now reading these for the first time (I know! shame on me вЂ“ if I had known how good they are I would have done it sooner), and seeing as I have just finished the part of the Ents, these two posts happen at just the right time. But they ultimately reveal more about ourselves than about TolkienвЂ™s books. As a result, JacksonвЂ™s characters demonstrate far more angst than TolkienвЂ™s. Only when Treebeard sees the destruction of the forest firsthand can he respond as he should have in the first place. Only when Faramir sees Frodo nearly give the Ring to the Nazgul does he realize his folly. In Peter JacksonвЂ™s Middle Earth, acting deliberately and decisively for goodness is only possible when the evil is seen, touched, or tasted. Such changes reflect, I think, the вЂњspirit of our ageвЂќ and the blurring of lines between right and wrong. Most obviously, Faramir takes the Ring back to Osgiliath. While most of TolkienвЂ™s good characters consistently do the right thing without doing the wrong thing first, Jackson rejects this idea. But there is more to be said: the change in the Ents is one of a number of changes that indicate Jackson thinks characters are more interesting when they are conflicted about their decisions (IвЂ™m going to presume for a second that Tolkien thinks the EntвЂ™s decision is the right one). Perhaps acting decisively after careful, lengthy deliberation is too foreign to many moviegoers today.In this, I think Burglar is exactly right. That is, the majority of people make decisions based on an overwhelming feeling. But that seems to be because modern audiences do not find the method employed by the Ents of the book as a plausible way to make decisions in general. Or, at least if the screenwriters donвЂ™t believe this, they believe that audiences will not find the bookвЂ™s version convincing. It must be the result of a hasty action, which itself is done as a result of passion (usually anger). One conclusion that may reasonably be drawn from the movieвЂ™s вЂњadaptationвЂќ is that the screenwriters think the decision to go to war cannot be the result of careful deliberation. Mere O вЂњneighborвЂќ and Plato scholar Bourgeois-Burglar penned an excellent analysis of Peter JacksonвЂ™s changes to the Ents in response to my post about JacksonвЂ™s different approach to Frodo.

The ents are going to war