Lord of the Rings, The: Book IV - The Journey of the Ringbearers

I continue to enjoy Kerr's reworking of these movies. There's a lot of cutting and restructuring here, and for the most part it works very well.

Faramir in particular is saved. He comes across more how it seems Tolkien intended. Removing the beat down of Gollum, and taking the Hobbits to Osgiliath really helps that part of the story. Also cutting down the Frodo-as-drug-addict scene helps a lot; now you just get the sense of the toll carrying the ring is taking.

Trimming out the bickering and out of place comments in the trek through the wilds helps, especially Frodo's swim in the Dead Marshes. All the characters come out better now. My only quibble is to me a continuity issue of them getting to the Black Gate, then back into the wilds. But I can live with that considering the narrative improvement. Particularly losing the slide and use of the cloaks.

The way Kerr cut the hidden stair climb worked well, especially implying Gollum pushing Sam; again eliminating some out of place strife between the friends. The final sequence with Shelob works very well also, and the nice ending point.

Review by TelboyD — September 2, 2010 @ 9:18 pm

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Review by buzzkill007 — October 6, 2009 @ 9:22 pm

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Review by Brumous — June 11, 2011 @ 5:44 pm

A fine chapter in the series. In the original, the Rohan and Helms Deep scenes benefited from intercutting with Frodo’s story, but it turns out the opposite is not true. The Ringbearers’ journey stands fine on its own, and I think the consolidation makes Gollum’s scenes a more intense character study. The relationships among the three main characters seem to develop more naturally.

The big payoff was deleting Faramir’s abduction of the hobbits, for me the most annoying departure from Tolkien’s book in the entire movie trilogy. The editing gets a little rough toward the end of this, but I am impressed at Kerr’s cleverness in assembling a reasonable narrative from the original materials. Faramir is a more thoughtful and sympathetic character, which makes a better setup for the next episode.

Another important cut is Gollum saving Frodo from drowning in the marsh, which changes a lot about their subsequent relationship and makes Frodo seem a much more patient and generous character, and Sam less harsh. Overall the story flow is handled well and any moments of confusion or discontinuity resulting from the edits are few and minor. 9/10.

Review by Haltiamieli — September 12, 2009 @ 11:51 am

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