TTee commentary

[fileg]

As most of you who spend time in the mail with me know, I have no problem with movie!Faramir - in fact, I am quite besotted with him, though he will never be book!Faramir for me. That's only partly to do with movie plot, it has much more to do with nearly fourty years of the image in my own head.

But, while I don't struggle with the movie interpretation of Faramir, I am getting more and more annoyed listening to the commentary from Peter, Fran and Phillipa. You made a choice, don't get all defensive about it now!

And good grief, the visuals and dialog in the movie allow me to give Faramir, in my own interpretation, in my own head - the strength I know he has, and that I *need* his mythic avatar to have. So just stop explaining, because the more you do, the more pissed off I am getting.

I am *crazed* at Peter talking about Faramir's ring temptation, which visually I never see -- and I would like to keep it that way, thanks! I watched the scene with the sword tip and the ring. I never hear the ring call Faramir by name. What I see is Frodo getting crazed

Fileg puts fingers in ears and concentrates on the sound of Faramir's voice saying "I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee."

I have been trying since last December to say this coherently, but here is part of a note Azalais wrote to the Henneth Annun mailing list:

given that in the EE they'd set us up with Denethor's assumption that Faramir is too weak to handle the Ring, it would have been fantastic to show F as too *strong* to contemplate taking it. Huge opportunity lost :(

That's it -- that's what I have been trying to say. Not all temptation is about giving in. Thank you, Azalais!

I just came in from watching the director's commentary, and at the end, Fran or Phillipa talks about Sam's speech - how there is still some good in this world, and goes on to say there are some things that are just inviolable, above the dark. Yes, there are - and Faramir is my avatar for that. How can you say this and not get it?

And while I am having a moment of personal melt down - Boromir in the boat is Not a dream.
ok, I think I feel better now.

Comments

[fileg.livejournal.com]

Faramir is very much capable of being tempted! What makes him strong is that he recognizes that and resists it. Thats what he is talking about when he tells Frodo Don't show me the ring - knowing about it is hard enough. "I do not wish to see it, or touch it, or know more of it than I know (which is enough), lest peril perchance waylay me and I fall lower in the test than Frodo son of Drogo."

He is saying that again when he says "I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee." - he knows the limits of his strength, and he finds the thought of crossing them for no reason foolish.

I know not everyone sees this Faramir, and I know that you know I love movie!Faramir. The movie leaves enough room for us both to reach for the interpretation we need - just as the best of the book does. The commentary is what pissed me off. I don't want to be spoonfed Peter's Faramir (especially since Peter often does NOT seem to have a clear myth- he seems to be changing his mind over and over as he talks.) I want to embrace Faramir's movie archetype with my own heart. I have plenty of space for others to do the same.

[cruisedirector]

I didn't feel like the commentary was spoon-feeding me Jackson's Faramir so much as showing what Jackson and Boyens went through to come up with a Faramir who would make both a certain group of Tolkien purists (since that group is by no means homogenous) and the studio that wanted an action movie happy. There were bound to be inconsistencies, and he seems quite aware that he is making not definitive myth but myth constructed within the boundaries of the marketplace of popular entertainment, which doesn't really bother me; I still think there's less formulaic pandering in the films of LOTR than in ninety percent of the genre fantasy I see coming out of the big publishing houses. They took a lot of criticism from serious Tolkien fans and I don't blame them for feeling defensive and wanting to try to explain; I like the fact that they even bothered, which is something that, say, George Lucas never did with any of his more absurd-seeming decisions in the SW films.