Screencap of the Day: Marching on the edge of stories

FarFromHome

FarFromHome

Valinor
The original of today's screencap is here.

hills.jpg


Frodo and Sam finally set out on their journey.

For me this is one of those memorable shots that really sets the tone of the movie. I just love those blue hills, because they remind me of something Merry thinks about in the book:

"He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away..."​
This shot just sums up the fairy-tale world of the movie, for me, with the promise of stories out there in the blue.

1. Is this the way you imagined the countryside in the Shire?

The book spends a long time on this early part of Frodo's journey, with details of rain showers, what the hobbits ate for lunch, and the words of their songs.

2. Are these short walking scenes enough to show this early part of Frodo and Sam's journey?

We haven't seen that much of Sam so far (although he did have his moment, when Gandalf caught him eavesdropping). I remember when I first saw the movies, it was only at this point, as I watched the hobbits walking along, that I felt that there was time to absorb what the Frodo and Sam partnership was going to be like.

3. Do you think these short, wordless scenes help us to get to know the hobbits, and their relationship, any better?

4. What are those mountains (or hills) anyway? Should there be mountains so close to the Shire? And (for anyone who's been there) is New Zealand really this beautiful?
 
Yep, on the edge of the story is exactly where they are!

I know some feel that the mountains are way to close to the Shire in the film, but it didn't bother me. The entire journey to Bree is much abbreviated -- no Old Forest, etc. -- so it fits that the landscape gets "abbreviated" too. In the books, the Old Forest marks a "boundary" between the safe Shire and the wild. It's not so clear in the films, since that's omitted, so things like these mountains and the cornfield that Sam has to walk out of help to provide that kind of perspective.

Sam is most definitely the follower here...nicely setting him up to win our hearts later when he finds his courage and takes charge -- starting with defending Frodo from Strider at Bree.

This is an idyllic scene, really -- it's the start of the adventure, when excitement is high and dangers have not yet come to pass. The images and the music here capture a lot of the book feel when the four hobbits are just starting out and it's a less scary adventure for awhile.
 
One of my favorite shots in all three of Jackson's LOTR films.

I always like the beginning of stories the best...conveying the basic premise, introducing the characters, setting the sequence of events in motion. To me, both the book and film don't really start until Sam and Frodo hit the road and shake the dust of the Shire from their feet, and this image captures that perfectly for me. Westerners tend to read pictures, as well as words, from left to right: with this shot, the promise of adventure and intrigue lies to the right, with those mysterious mountains and all they conceal.

It's also nice to see a landscape like this and picture a world without telephone poles, power lines, and strip malls...even if it is a mere fantasy.
 
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I believe it was a deliberate decision of the filmmakers to make the Fellowship travel from left to right - which is also (from a map perspective) west to east. There may be a few exceptions (one that springs to mind is the detour Frodo and Sam make with Faramir to Osgiliath), but mostly the pattern holds.
 
They may be closer than they are in the book, but as you say, the landscape has been "edited down" for the movie and things are much closer together than they are in the book. Besides, I think this shot of green fields in the foreground and blue mountains in the distance gives us a very striking visual sense of just where the hobbits are headed - out into the Blue, as Bilbo might say.

And anyway, these are not "mountains" in the way the Misty Mountains and the White Mountains will be, so Bilbo's line about wanting to "see mountains again Gandalf, mountains" still makes sense. He's seen the snow-capped, dangerous peaks that lie behind these blue foothills, and that's what he needs to see again (or so he thinks - he never actually gets there, does he?)
 
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It is usual practice for filmmakers to shoot people travelling left-to-right, since this is supposedly easier on the eye. At least, this is the case in Western films; I'm not sure whether this is reversed in films of cultures who read from right to left. Watch a travelling shot from a film, and you'll usually find the actors walking left-to-right, or else, the rule will be broken for effect, often to make a scene more visually jarring. In the case of LotR, the decision was made to make the Hobbits' return journey right-to-left to create a symmery with their outward journey, which followed the convention.
 
is also right-to-left, which continues the idea of left=west, right=east. But I've always been puzzled by the scene of the Elves going to the Havens, as seen by Frodo and Sam in the Shire. The Elves were originally travelling right-to-left, but the shot was flipped (you can tell because Frodo and Sam's positions are reversed), so they actually travel left-to-right. What's that about? I've never figured it out.
 
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