Watching The Two Towers

Gandalf and the Balrog fall into a vast subterranean chamber all aflame.

[Read Part One]

We are flying over mountains.  From a distance we pieces of dialog when Gandalf fought the Balrog in the first film.  Soon we enter a small crevice in a mountain going inward until we see Gandalf fall into unknown depths with the Balrog, engaging him in battle with his mighty sword.  At a moment of sudden impact, Frodo is awakened from a dream.  He is in Emyn Mul with Sam.  Rocky, treacherous, arid and nearly lifeless.  The rope Galadreil gave Sam comes in handy as they have to repel off cliffs now and then.

Then Gollum appears for the first time, brilliantly portrayed by Andy Serkis.  We've had glimpses of him in the first film and but now was have full embodied character,  Jackson's use of CGI with Serkis is not ground-breaking but it is damn near it.  The character seems just as alive as Frodo or anyone else.  It's as magical as Avatar in that way, predating that film by a number of years.  Creeping at night, Gollum attempts to take back the Ring but he is subdued by the two fighting hobbits, particularly Sam.  Frodo, probably remembering what Gandalf said to him about “pity” while the Fellowship was in Moria, allows Gollum to be freed from being bound, much to Sam's consternation.  So begins the most important relationship in the whole trilogy, the tense triad of Gollum, Frodo, and Sam.

Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin are being taken to Saruman by a crude, gruesome band of Uruk-hai.  The hobbits display the stoutness that the halfings are semi-known for, while still maintaining their sense of humor.  They are not frightened though they are in dire straits, Merry is barely conscious.  Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimili are in fast pursuit.  Pippin has let the broach from his elven cloak drop to the ground.  Aragorn tracks it and continues toward Isengard.

Saruman's madness is finally revealed in his speech about the power of “the union of the two towers”; meaning, Orthanc and Sauron's Barad-dûr (under construction throughout the first two films).  The white wizard's thirst for power and his belief that he is about the receive the Ring makes him feel equal (if not superior) to the Dark Lord.  In doing so he over-reaches, of course, a basic theme throughout Tolkien.  There's a heavy emphasis on how industrial production for war burns the forests and destroys nature.  It is something Jackson appropriately chose to accentuate in the films.  There is a distinctive, relevant environmental message to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.

Caught between the two towers is Rohan, the realm of the horsemen.  Grima Wormtongue, brilliantly portrayed by Brad Dourif, serves as Council to King Theoden (Bernard Hill).  Theoden is made decrepit under the subtle magic and maligned influence of Grima, who secretly serves Saruman.  Actually, considering everything “in play” at the moment, Saruman is playing the winning hand.  All the power seems to be coming his way.  He does not know that the captured hobbits do not, in fact, have the Ring.  And when he orders that Fangorn, the oldest forest left in Middle-earth be burned for production, he basically seals his own doom.  But, at this moment in the film, he seems all-powerful, his plans are working, though we have yet to see the full extent of them.

We are introduced to Éowyn (Miranda Otto), a strong female character straight out of the novels themselves.  She needs no embellishment, nor enchantment over what Tolkien wrote.  She factors prominently in the second and third novels.  She is fair and beautiful, yet brave and dexterous with a sword.  She has always wanted to be a warrior but is blocked at every turn by the culture of her times.  Her brother is Éomer (Karl-Heinz Urban), a mighty horseman.  They share a strong sibling bond of mutual admiration and respect.  She is as desired by Grima whom Éomer naturally despises, further perpetuating the intimately treacherous feel of this part of The Two Towers.

Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimili ultimately enter Fangorn Forest and come upon, of all characters, Gandalf, which is quite a remarkable and grateful thing to happen even after reading or watching it the first time.  The void of Gandalf was unfillable and his return marks the slow shift of momentum away from the dark powers back toward the forces of light, though it is by no means apparent.  Things look bleak right now.

Gollum, Frodo and Sam make it through the Dead Marshes to the Black Gate of Mordor.  Galadreil's cloaks come in handy here.  The hobbits can see that this way into Mordor is too heavily guarded.  There are far too many sentries and armies marching into Mordor preparing for war.  Gollum knows of a “secret” path into Sauron's land.  Frodo realizes they have to trust him even though he is conflicted with suspicion.  Sam doesn't trust him at all.  They head further south.

Gandalf rides the grand horse Shadowfax alongside Aragorn and Legolas/Gimli (Dwarfs can't ride at a gallop so he holds to the Elf).  Éowyn watches them approach.  She is immediately attracted to Aragorn, who treats her kindly.  They have come to take council with Theoden.  Gandalf breaks the spell that Saruman cast upon him through Grima.  At this, Grima is suddenly tossed out.  Theoden regains his wits and his strength but wishes to stay out of the coming fight.  He is grieving too much over the recent death of his son in a skirmish with Orcs.  Jackson masterfully handles the telling here, taking his time to get Theoden back to full health from such frailty.  The twisted Grima-Éowyn attraction, played up far more here than in the novel, keeps you interested and adds suspense.

There is another special moment in the film where Theoden visits his son's burial mound.  The area is filled with little white flowers invented for this place by Tolkien.  They are Simbelmynë.  Jackson includes them visually and slows the film down here to honor Tolkien's fondness for nature and flowering things, which lies near the heart of the trilogy.  This is another nod to those who, like myself, were well aware of the depth of Tolkien long before the films ever came out.  Their inclusion in The Two Towers is further proof of Jackson's profound appreciation for Tolkien's world, to the great enrichment of these films.
 
Ultimately, Theoden realizes he has no choice.  War is upon him.  In fact, his son died because it is upon him.  He finally takes Gandalf's advice and abandons the capital of Edoras, making for the old fortress of Helm's Deep.  Masses of women and children are shepherded by the horsemen.  Meanwhile, as they make their way south, Frodo and Sam are captured by armed men.  Gollum skillfully eludes them, however.   

Frodo takes pity upon Gollum and removes the rope from around his neck.  Sam looks on distastefully.

 

The Eye of Sauron becomes manifest as his tower is nearing completion.  The lava of Mount Doom in the distance flows to the tower.

Gandalf summons Shadowfax as Aragorn and Legolas look on.

 

Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ride to Rohan against a sweeping background.  New Zealand was the perfect place to film Middle-earth.

The film then ventures back in time to just before Aragorn left Rivendell.  His intimacy with Arwen is reinforced along with the significant of the Evenstar.   He senses Éowyn's attraction to him and he thinks Arwen is sailing away from Middle-earth with the rest of her kind.  That he will never see her again.  Aragorn now becomes even more conflicted, the woman he loves is leaving him while the woman before him is so appealing.  Again, this is all handled so well and not sentimental in the least.  Great film-making.  

I'm glad Jackson allowed the necessary time to develop this part of the story.  It helps humanize all the grand action taking place.  Which soon returns when Warg riders attack the citizens being escorted by King Theoden.  It is an opportunity for Legolas to do some more expert killing, while Aragorn does his share.  Gimili falls off a horse and fights from the ground which provides some welcomed comic relief even as there is bloodshed everywhere.

Something then happens that is not in the books.  Aragorn appears to fall into a river to his death.  This seems to be an unnecessary change in the narrative.  Jackson tries to recreate for his audience the “Gandalf moment” from the first film.  It is somewhat effective.  By the time the company reaches Helm's Deep, Éowyn learns of Aragorn's demise, which accentuates this “love relationship” part of Jackson's story.

Meantime, Saruman's breeding of an army of Uruk-hai is complete.  Grima is now at his side and is amazed at the power the wizard has wrought into being.  He orders the army to war as it stands where trees once stood surrounding the great tower of Orthanc.  Their destination – Helm's Deep.  The war is beginning as Frodo and Sam are taken to Faramir (David Wenham), the leader of Gondor's guard along the border with Mordor.

Jackson has Faramir reminisce about his brother Boromir.  This enables the retrospective return of Boromir to the story.  The director strikes gold with this addition.  It is great to see Sean Bean again, given a slightly larger role than in the books.  It is also an interesting way to introduce the complex relationship of Boromir and Faramir, with their father, the Steward of Gondor, Denethor (John Noble).  

Bringing these three characters together in a remembrance, Jackson establishes the tense dynamic between the three even better than the novel.  It is another humanizing moment that makes the viewer feel connected and invested in these characters as they play out their roles against this grand epic story, evil on the verge of recovering the Ring and ruling Middle-earth.

As preparations are made at Helm's Deep, Merry and Pippin with Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies) experience an Entmoot.  This is a wonderful moment that could have been easily ruined if Jackson attempted to maintain the pace of the action.  Ents do everything sloooooowly and we get to enjoy this glimpse into their culture.  The film pauses here as the Ents discuss what to do next and we watch the people of Rohan preparing to be attacked at Helm's Deep.  This also allows a moment for the relationship between Aragorn (platonic and compassionate) and Éowyn (desirous and adoring) to be reestablished after his near-death.  So, even though Jackson slows the pace, he actually has four different story elements going on simultaneously to the viewer.  It's wonderfully done.

It is also an opportunity for a seemingly unnecessary change. Jackson has Elves come to Helm's Deep.  There is no reason for this to happen.  Elves are secretive and isolated.  They are leaving Middle-earth.  This is well-established, and yet we are supposed to believe that they would send a company of archers to help the Rohirrim against the Uruk-hai.  This calls back to the alliance of Elves and Men in the First Age as told in the first film.  It casts Elves in a positive light as friends and comrades.  

This does not really add anything to the film.  Plus, it contradicts what the first film established, the Elves are pulling out.  Perhaps Jackson is trying to include the considerations of Elrond and Galadriel as they worry about Sauron's rising power and the fate of the One Ring.  Their concern for events is indirectly important to the Arwen- Aragorn dynamic but whatever it adds, it does not improve the story much at the expense of doing something sort of ridiculous with the Elves of Lothlorien.  This is one of the film's weaker moments.  Though many like the idea of Elves at Helm's Deep.  It is a matter of taste, as it is with all film watching.

Gollum, Frodo, and Sam watch men of the south heading to Mordor.  Two giant Oliphants are in the distance.

Merry and Pippin walk through Fangorn Forest, the oldest in Middle-earth.  Treebeard is with them.

From a balcony on Orthanc, Saruman and Wormtongue behold the magnitude of the wizard's Uruk-hai.

Saruman's massive Uruk-hai army prepares to march upon Helm's Deep.

Saruman consults the Dark Lord Sauron through an ancient palantir, another fragment of a much earlier Age.

Then we come to the first great battle of the trilogy.  Everything up to now has been but a skirmish.  This is a big, set-piece battle with 10,000 Uruk-hai assailing the ad hoc Rohirrim defenders in the mountain fortress at Helm's Deep.  Jackson handles this battle sequence with consummate skill.  We follow each of our characters present simultaneously through different parts of the battle while also telling the story of the battle itself is very difficult balancing act, but Jackson manages to make it look easy. The editing for this sequence is superb as it is throughout the trilogy.

There is even a couple of more moments of humor from Gimili, who specializes in it during battles.  One of them calls back to his line in The Fellowship of the Ring where he proclaims: “Nobody tosses a dwarf.”  He and Aragorn have managed to access a side gate to flank the attack along the fortress's main gate.  But it involves a long jump that the drawf cannot make.  He pauses and tells Aragorn to toss him so he can fight.  “But don't tell the Elf!”  A wonderful little touch by Jackson.

In fact, the Battle at Helm's Deep begs to be visualized in the books.  What Jackson does with this sequence is one of the triumphs of the films, on par with the entire Moria sequence in the first film.  As such, I deem watching Helm's Deep (except for the addition of Elves) to be a more rewarding experience than even reading the book itself.  The build-up to the massive explosion leads to the same solid impact on the viewer that the main characters experience.  It is a gut punch. Unbelievable.  But the abrupt arrival of Gandalf and Éomer's mass of horsemen with the rising sun turns certain defeat into glorious victory.  It is a bit cliché, of course, but it truly reflects the spirit of Tolkien and leads to a powerful end to this heroic part of the story.

Another excellent piece of film-making follows with how Jackson integrates the action (or lack thereof) of Merry and Pippin at the Entmoot with the brutality of Helms Deep.  When Treebeard discovers that Saruman has ordered the butchering of Fangorn Forest (the oldest forest left in Middle-earth) for his industrial furnaces, it leads to the Ents becoming enraged.  This is a spectacular end to a long process that has been frustrating, especially for Merry.

Another interesting change from the books occurs when Jackson has Frodo actually come face to face with a Ringwraith at Osgiliath.  This actually works out to be an important moment, witnessed by Faramir.  The Gondorean hits the winged beast ridden by the Wraith with an arrow and drives him off; a bit unlikely and kind of silly to think a single well-placed arrow would cause a Nazgûl to back off from the physical presence of the Ring.  

But, powerfully, Sam saves Frodo only to have the half-mad Ringbearer ready to kill Sam afterwards.  It is a provocative moment, again revealing the psychological horror of being possessed by the Ring.  It also takes our minds off the silliness of the Wraith incident.  This affirms the important, growing tension between Sam and Frodo as the Ring possesses more of Frodo's mind.  It also gives Faramir the understanding of the importance of Frodo's clandestine mission.  

Unlike Boromir in Fellowship,  Faramir refuses to bring the powerful Ring to Gondor, he let's the Ring go and thereby proves his mettle (but not to his troubled father).  This is another complex moment in the film handled superbly by Jackson.  With only minor quibbles, the entire section of The Two Towers from the beginning of Helm's Deep to Faramir releasing custody of Frodo and Sam is superior movie-making and easily the best part of the film.

Treebeard discovers that Saruman has cut Fangorn Forest.  This sends the Ents to war.

Aragorn tosses Gimli during the Battle of Helm's Deep.

The spectacular explosion of the Deeping Wall at Helm's Deep.

A gorgeous shot of the Moon and Faramir above the Forbidden Pool where he soon captures Gollum.

Boromir briefly returns in a retrospective scene involving his younger brother, Faramir and his father, Denethor.

Jackson ends with two intimate moments.  The first is when Sam and Frodo are talking while on their journey again.  Sam is wondering if anyone in the future will write a story about Frodo and the Ring.  Frodo pauses and tells Sam that “Samwise the Brave” would be part of the story, perhaps even a story unto itself.  Sam shows his selflessness and objects that he was being serious but Frodo emphasizes that he is too.  “Frodo wouldn't have gotten very far without Sam.”  True enough.  Sam is the ultimate hero in the story, as he is beginning to prove in The Two Towers and will demonstrate definitively in the final film.

The other intimate moment involves Gollum, who is always talking to himself in two distinct personalities, the old hobbit part of him (what's left of it) arguing with the Ring-possessed part of him. He is conflicted over the Ring.  He desires it for himself, yet he has sworn on “the precious” to serve Frodo as master.  Then he realizes.  He doesn't have to do anything.  “We could let her do it,” he whispers gleefully.  The path upon which he guides the hobbits into Mordor is a treacherous, secret one.  One where something awaits and perhaps Gollum will get the Ring back yet.  It makes for a great cliffhanger.

The Two Towers film has the challenge of being the middle part of the narrative.  The story picks up in-progress and ends without resolution, potentially leaving the audience feeling flat and unsatisfied.  Nevertheless, Jackson pulls it off, for the most part masterfully.  New characters are effectively integrated into the tale and it all feels like a seamless extension of the first film.  This is the darkest part of the story.  Everyone is truly on their own now.  Though Saruman has been dealt with at Helm's Deep and Isengard, we have little reason to hope that this will carry over to what is brewing under the dark skies of Mordor.  Nothing seems capable of quenching the fires of Mount Doom.

This action-packed film is adequately complemented with the slower pacing of the Ents and the exploration of the Arwen-Aragorn-Éowyn triad (greatly expanded from the novel).  Jackson blends all of this together into a cohesive whole that holds your interest by successfully achieving that delicate balance of spectacle and intimacy so necessary for the story to be told well.  The complex action is interwoven with moments of introspection.  

This was the most difficult part of the trilogy to be brought to the big screen.  That The Two Towers orchestrates all the moving parts in the proper proportion is no small feat for Jackson to achieve.  In that sense, this film is probably the director's best effort out of the whole trilogy.  I prefer the first film, but, strictly in terms of directing, Jackson is in command of his craft under challenging demands.  It is easy to overlook the middle parts of trilogies.  Here, it is a continuum that does not disappoint and leaves you wanting more.

The timely arrival of Gandalf with legions of Rohirrim horsemen snatches victory from defeat at Helm's Deep.

The raging Ents burst the dam above Isengard, flooding the industrial pits of Orthanc.

A Ringwraith upon a winged beast sees Frodo defenseless with the Ring.  Rather ridiculously, it takes only an arrow from Faramir to drive it away.  Not one of the film's best moments though it looks cool.

Enraged with the madness of the Ring's power, Frodo almost kills Sam.

"She could do it."