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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Movie Discussion: The Lord of The Rings:
the line didn't work at all:
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Semper Fi
Rohan
Sep 29 2013, 8:24pm
Views: 2551
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the line didn't work at all
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It was obviously envisioned to become the next "get away from her, you ****!" and failed epically. Nobody ever quotes it and few who remember it often cringe because it was too Buffy for Middle Earth.
IMO, the whole scene in the movie was a complete failure. So, first, I'm going to breakdown the problems with the scene itself, and then compare it to superlative Arwen chase from FOTR because they operate on the similar level.
What Went Wrong in the movie
In the book, Eowyn reveals herself to WK as soon as he assumes she is a male. This works on 2 levels:
a) it evokes Beauty and the Beast, which is one of the most powerful images in fiction, successfully re-played in iconic monster movies such as original King Kong, Creature from Black Lagoon, and Dracula also heavily borrowed the undertones. We have Eowyn's beautiful face pit against the hideous WK and his beast. The contrast is so powerful it inspires Merry to spring into action.
b) it shows Eowyn's chivalry. She masked herself to go into battle but she honorably shows her true face to the enemy. Since he revealed to her how he could be defeated, she shows him that she could fulfill it unless he backs off.
In the movie, Eowyn keeps her really unflattering helmet, that made her look about as hideous as WK, for way too long. There's no Beauty and the Beast contrast which robs the scene of its powerful archetype. The idea is to bring the element of surprise to WK once she takes off her helmet. But that doesn't work because the audience knows who the masked warrior is. The beauty of the book reveal is that nobody - readers, Merry and WK - knows Dernhelm's true identity and then we all find out at the same time. It's powerful because nobody could see it coming and because of the strong archetype mentioned above. In the movie, none is present.
So, the scene goes like this: Hideous Green Helmet tries to defend her fallen uncle from Hideous Black Helmet who wants to feed his Hideous Beast with king's skin and bones. HGH cries (as in battle cry), HBH growls some more (including a crash course on How I Can Be Defeated) and HB howls most. HGH decapitates HB prompting HBH to pull out a mace, smash ground around HGH and grab HGH by her throat and start choking her. With his iron glove. She should be dead in 30 seconds. But...
Cut to "In the meantime, other characters are busy too" which lasts for additional 20 minutes or so creating an impression that HBH was choking HGH with his iron gauntlet for, yes, 20 minutes, when we pick up where we left of.
Merry springs into action, stabs HBH, who has a few seconds to recover from the shock so time shouldn't be wasted. However, HGH gets possessed by the spirit of L'Oreal and decides to waste those precious seconds on:
Ceremonially taking off her helmet (while leaving herself defenseless in those moment when helmet passes over her eyes and one of her hands is busy with the helmet)
Shaking her hair (that obscures her vision while hair flies into her eyes)
Delivering a Cheesy Power Line that sounds like something out of a LOTR fanfic written by a 13 years old Buffy fangirl
Finally, she does what she should have done many moments ago - stabs the HBH who by some miracle didn't compose himself while all the L'Oreal and Buffy nonsense played before his eyes.
So moment when HGH becomes Eowyn again was too short for Beauty and the Beast archetype to kick in, L'Oreal was just  and the line was laughably bad. In short, what could have been an iconic scene became a poster for all that's wrong with girl power scenes.
Arwen Chase vs WK Slaying - Why the Former Works Even Though Arwen Haters and Glorfindel Purists Won't Admit It
Arwen Chase: Beautiful Arwen takes Frodo on her white horse. She is chased by Black Riders on their black horses. The Beauty and the Beasts (s) contrast is haunting. The scene in beautifully shot with the iconic image of Black Riders half-circling the rider on a white horse. The scene is simple yet effective and helicopter shot give it an epic feel. It feels larger than life.
WK Slaying: HGH confronts HBH and his CGI HB. Green screen is felt, HB isn't very well incorporated into the scene (there are some issues with proportion) and camera is too close so the scene feels small and overstuffed.
Arwen Chase: Shot as one scene. No interrupted flow.
WK Slaying: Was intercut with "In the meantime, other characters were up to ________". Interrupted the flow by making the strangulation seem to go for ridiculously too long.
Arwen Chase: When Arwen hits the Ford, the only misstep here is Cheesy Power Line. But it didn't sink the scene because, unlike WK Slaying, it wasn't supposed to be the highlight. The deception of Nazgul, that she would fight one on Nine, only to drown them with the spell, worked fantastic especially from non-reader's POV. The twist with the spell wasn't obvious so it came as a genuine surprise. This is the climax of the scene and it produces shock and awe as it should. It closes with an emotional moment that gives another layer to the character with very short screen time.
WK Slaying: Since the Cheesy Power Line was intended to be the highlight, and it didn't work, the whole thing fell flat on its face and crumbled under the weight of bad calls mentioned in What Went Wrong section.
I'll underline once again this is MY opinion, not universally accepted fact.
"RadagaStoner deserves no mercy!" Tauriel the Radagast Slayer, the Chief of Inglorious Elfguards
Tauriel saved us from Itaril. Never forget.
(This post was edited by Semper Fi on Sep 29 2013, 8:28pm)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Semper Fi
(Rohan) on Sep 29 2013, 8:27pm
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Post edited by Semper Fi
(Rohan) on Sep 29 2013, 8:28pm
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