Sean Bean's thoughts on Boromir...

weaver

weaver

Half-elven
Here are a few quotes from Sean Bean on playing Boromir and on being in the LOTR films -- posting them here for your enjoyment and discussion:

On character moments

"I just think the battle scenes were great, the effects were great...but what I found most moving were the times between those scenes," he continues. "There are moments of intimacy and stillness, where you can see into their souls and discover the kind of people they are. You see their weaknesses and strengths. Certainly it's not very often that you work on a film of this magnitude and still get the time and space to make such well developed characters."

On Boromir's death scene:

Bean was impressed with the manner Jackson staged his demise in battle because most movie death scenes "are messy and violent -- which is not very nice." Boromir dies as he regains his nobility in a scene shared with co-star and fellow human character Viggo Mortensen.

"It is good I suppose to go with some kind of dignity and knowing that you've learnt something on the way. He's a better man for it, I suppose. He's in good shape (emotionally) and he leaves in peace." "It was great doing that scene with Viggo because he is such a generous, truthful actor and I'm glad he was there with me at the end, as it were, and he brought a sort of peacefulness to it and a spirituality to it, which I think he naturally has as a person. So that was of great help to me."

On filming in NZ:
"If you¹re away on vacation for two weeks and become attached to the place, it makes a strong impression on you. Just imagine what it¹s like living with something like this for so long."

He talks about the powerful experience when a helicopter took the actors over the mountain tops, to a set none of them had ever seen before.

"I don¹t think any one of us knew what we gave ourselves into."

On reading for the part:
"The room was incredibly small, and I was reading a scene from the script where I try to steal the ring from Frodo. And I sat there in the chair in the hotel room and tried to enact the role, but it was such a physical scene and hard to do in there... so when I later left the room I felt like '@#$&, I could have done that a lot better'. But I obviously did something right, since I got the part."

Some of the scenes were very physically demanding.

"They sucked so much power out of you, physically as well as mentally. Mostly physically. We fought with snow and ice cold water in the winter, and heat in the summer, always wearing heavy equiptment, carrying sword and shield during long battle scenes. You fed off the adrenaline."

On the character:

"Boromir's not a bad guy..."

"He was a complicated and complex man. I found that really interesting to get to grips with. He's very mixed up, trying to do what's best for his people - a gentleman really, but he's in an environment where he's been on the forefront of war so he's had to be strong. But within there is a gentleman of very good quality."

It was this human aspect of the character which appealed to Sean in the first place.

"He's constantly fighting this battle, to keep down this desire to own the ring," he says. "He goes through quite extreme emotions during the course of the film. And that's what I was trying to get across, this kind of inner struggle."

Any comments or observations welcome!

Does Sean Bean's take on Boromir match up with the book character, to you?
 
I think Sean Bean, Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee delivered the best acting performances in the trilogy.
 
than I ever did while reading the book multiple times. While I wasn't happy when Boromir died at the end of FotR/beginning of TT, I never felt nearly as much empathy/sympathy for the man until I saw Sean playing the part in the movie. It's not that he added things to Boromir's character that weren't there, it's that he expressed them all so well it made the character really come alive for me.

The scene in the TT-EEE of Faramir and Boromir together in Osgiliath is heretical in its relationship to the plot of the book, but is inspired in that it gives us something the book didn't give, the brothers together.

Thank you, weaver! Very interesting!
 
Sean did an excellent job with Boromir. Showing us his loyalty, courage, bravery, wisdom and of course his faults.
His death scene is very touching, it's also a good thing when you see him repenting his actions concerning the Ring.
And he died defending the hobbits, it was very noble.

One of my favorite scenes is when he is with his brother in Osgiliath.
Just seeing them both so happy and together and laughing brings joy to my heart.
I love it when he says to Faramir: "Remember today, little brother, today life is good."

Sean did a great job with Boromir, yes of course there were a few tweaks and changes to the book, but I think they did rightly.
 
This kind of topic makes me see the characters in a new light (SCOD also does a good job with this too).

I never appreciated or noticed that Boromir's death was non-gory until now. Sometimes, mess and violence distract from the emotion of a character's demise. PJ really understood that you don't need to make a death gory in order for it to be heart-wrenching. I also agree with him that PJ knew how to get to the emotional heart of the story.

Here's a another quote from his IMDB profile that's not already included:

"He's a fallen hero, a very gentle man under that exterior. He's lived in an environment always ravaged by war and had to be realistic. He wants to use the ring against the enemy instead of destroying it. He doesn't understand the complexities this piece of metal can have on human beings."

Sean hit the nail on the head on why I love Boromir. Despite his image as the big, strong uber-warrior, he can be very gentle. He was a teddy bear for Merry and Pippin. And in the EE, he showed his empathy when he told Frodo not to carry the weight of the dead.

When you watch him with Denethor, you can see why Boromir doesn't understand what the Ring can do to people. If someone ever decides to make a list of movie moments where Father doesn't know best, "you are strong" should be on it. That's the worst piece of fatherly advice he can get. Sure, it's good to build your kid's self-esteem but not when you have no idea what your child is getting into.

I love the scene where he is with his brother for so many reasons. But it's the only time, besides his sword lessons with Merry and Pippin, where you see him relaxed. Who knew he could be a party boy? I can hear him giving Faramir sage advice one second and then do a quick 180 to say "let's have a drink."

I never read the books but I love that even the EE's of the films leaves us so much to imagine about Boromir. I always wondered what he was thinking in the scene where he cries at Galadriel's mind probe.



 
you went here:

When you watch him with Denethor, you can see why Boromir doesn't understand what the Ring can do to people. If someone ever decides to make a list of movie moments where Father doesn't know best, "you are strong" should be on it. That's the worst piece of fatherly advice he can get. Sure, it's good to build your kid's self-esteem but not when you have no idea what your child is getting into.
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My sense, given his immediate reaction to Denethor's idea, was that if he didn't fully understand the power of the Ring, he at least understood the ancient lessons of his people.

As we know, Boromir was put in harms way (within reach of the Ring) at Denethor's bidding and at first at least, was simply trying to honour his father's wishes. Once within reach of the One Ring, his desire to please his father changed to a desire for the Ring itself. But this desire, unlike fealty to his father (who I still say was already on the road to madness), was one he wrestled with and eventually, to his great credit, overcame.

Yes, thank goodness for the EE's for making Boromir's defining struggle and personal victory an important part of the story of the One Ring.
 
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That's a great addition to the ones I came up with -- and glad you like what we have to offer here!

On the Galadriel mind probe -- that's a good question! I always got the feeling that she made him aware of the truth -- and that what was keeping him going was denying it, so it really pulls the rug out from under him.

After this scene, he confides in Aragorn about what's really going on with Gondor,, but instead of staying in that reality, he goes back to romanticizing the situation at the end. Aragorn, by contrast, totally accepts that a strong man can fall, and worries about it happening to him. Aragorn can "see" the truth and deal with it, Boromir cannot, at least not until the very end, and that is what he asks forgiveness for from Aragorn, when he recognizes that Aragorn could do what he could not.

You really should read the books you know -- highly recommended! I love them both, and they really do offer great insights into each other.
 
There was more to Galadriel's mind probe than her seeing his desire for the Ring. As he said later to Aragorn, she told him there was still hope. But given how weak Gondor was, he couldn't see it. What I find the most fascinating about that scene was what he didn't tell Aragorn. He said that Denethor looks to him to make things right. What he didn't reveal was his family's dirty laundry. Not only was he under pressure but he was also upset about not being able to protect Faramir from where he was. The other thing was that he was an emotional time bomb. Having someone read your mind is going to bring up some issues that you don't want to think about. I believe the Ring was able to capitalize on Boromir's emotional nature. This is why he turned into the Hulk when Frodo refused to give it to him.

After this scene, he confides in Aragorn about what's really going on with Gondor,, but instead of staying in that reality, he goes back to romanticizing the situation at the end. Aragorn, by contrast, totally accepts that a strong man can fall, and worries about it happening to him. Aragorn can "see" the truth and deal with it, Boromir cannot, at least not until the very end, and that is what he asks forgiveness for from Aragorn, when he recognizes that Aragorn could do what he could not.
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I never thought of that before. "Have you seen it" is a way of distracting himself from the situation in Gondor, which he can't do anything about at that point. He feels helpless. Obviously no one likes feeling that way but it's extra hard for Boromir. I'm not sure why but I think him being the favorite son put him at a huge disadvantage in learning how to deal with that.
 
Sean Bean: The question of the Ring, is something that has been nagging Boromir since the journey began. Because he's a human in a land of men, he is more susceptible to its power. And more likely to be tempted. This is a thing, that throughout the journey he is always trying to keep down. And keep back this temptation, this sort of need, to hold the ring. To just have it in his presence. At the end , when he sees Frodo, in one of his weak moments, it finally overcomes him. It’s like a drug. Eating away. He's overcome with it at that point. Then he's totally sorry. He's devastated by that. And in a way, he feels he can't go on anymore. He feels he can't be whole again. He's let everybody down. So he's made a journey and he's a better person for it. Because he's come to see that there is actually more to his existence in Middle-earth than he originally imagined. He originally imagined it military and fighting. Gondor keeping the enemy at bay. He wants to just use the Ring to fight the enemy. This is foolishness, let’s use it. He becomes more world-wise and open. He says to Aragorn at one point, "I didn't realize what I know now." But by then, it was too late.

Also:

Bean: I think he learns a hell of a lot during the course of the film. He's a much wiser man. He understands the complexities of Middle-earth and its different cultures much more clearly than when he first sets off from Gondor to Rivendell to plead his case. He seems to have found his spirituality, his soul. Even though he's been ripped apart, he's not going to let the ring defeat him.


Bean regarding Boromir’s accent:

It's sort of a mixture of Yorkshire and RP. It's not the Queen's English, hoity-toity...it's a sort of quite neutral accent. It's got the flat vowel sounds...which actually quite suit the character.


Mortensen on Boromir:

Mortensen: I know Tolkien, when he began to write the character of Strider, he was someone who was a forest guide. Someone skilled in hunting and woodcraft. And he didn't really know where it was going to go. But I had the benefit, as did anyone who read the book, of knowing who he really is. He is sort of, in one sense, an orphan soul, who does know. As opposed to Boromir, who knows another aspect of the history of middle-earth, because of his upbringing, and understands the danger of the Ring in a different way. You are less likely to trust elves and dwarves. Whereas Aragorn, because of his upbringing with the elves, has a knowledge of his own history and his race of men, and their connection to the Elvish world in particular. He places a value on the different intelligent species in Middle-earth. He sees the value of the Alliance throughout. On the other hand, by having the knowledge of what his antecedents had done, men who were strong individuals, but in the end succumbed to the evil attraction of the Ring and lost their individuality, and their souls so to speak. He does not know whether he will be able to do something, or do right by it. In a way it’s a curse, having too much knowledge about the Ring. He would never even touch it. While Boromir on a practical level understands it as a weapon, "Let’s use the damn thing." But it’s not. It's sort of a curse knowing that. And also, knowing the frailty, the weakness of men and their history; the way they behaved towards elves and to their own people, with greed and all that. It makes him doubt himself and his own abilities. So, in the case with his relationship to Boromir... Boromir teaches him that there is something inherently valuable about man, and brave, and worthwhile, and that in spite of whatever doubts Strider/Aragorn has about himself and about the value of man, as a race in itself, apart from the others, there's great strength in men. That's what he tells him. What he shows me.
 
I do like the Viggo comments, especially, about the difference between his perceptions of Middle Earth races, and men, and Boromir's -- it's like Aragorn can see the big picture, that Boromir can't, but Aragorn misses some of the detail that Boromir can see.

I love how they start out glaring at each other -- it's like each represents, to each other, the thing they each have resented/been most biased against in terms of their knowledge/perspective on life. As they each grow in knowledge, from each other, they learn to value the other and their biases change.

In the books, we get that mostly from Gimli/Legolas, so they kind of refocus that theme on the men characters in the film.

I tend to think of the Theoden/Aragorn pairing in TTT as the best example of two characters teaching each other something, but the Boromir/Aragorn is a great one as well. They teach each other something on the personal level about character kinds of things, for Theoden/Aragorn it's more on the professional level and about leadership.
 
Book-Boromir was a petulant, arrogant warrior who didn't listen to advice and overrode his brother's wishes. He claimed to have the same dream as his brother and played on his father's preference for him so he could be chosen for the trip to Rivendell. He needed 110 days to travel from Gondor to Rivendell and lost his horse on the journey. His one moment of grace came too late to overcome his earlier behavior.

I certainly liked movie-Boromir, but he was not at all the same character from the book.
 
I know many people have found movie Boromir a more sympathetic and likable character. But that's no reason to paint book Boromir as worse than he was.

Why should we doubt that Boromir had the dream, albeit once to Faramir's many? Boromir is not a liar, it's clear throughout the book.

Faramir freely admits that Boromir was the right man for the journey to Rivendell from Gondor's point of view, although we readers may suspect otherwise.

Tolkien comments in a note that Boromir's 110-day journey was of heroic and unappreciated scope, worthy of an epic in its own right.

Boromir's behavior may be arrogant by our standards, but all noblemen seem arrogant by today's standards - even Aragorn, I have found. By Middle-earth standards, Frodo liked him ("I was his friend") and Pippin even more positively "admir[ed] the great man's lordly but kindly manner".

I'm not sure about petulance; possibly that is one way to read his frustration with the indirect ways of the wizards and elves he encounters. He is a great lord and captain, engaged in a stealthy and magical mission he was never prepared for.

Book Boromir is great but flawed, and one of the more interesting underwritten characters in the book for that reason. As charming and fun-filled as movie Boromir is, he also comes off as a bit of a self-pitying whiner and moral lightweight. The characters are different in tone, but that doesn't mean they are "not at all" the same.
 
One year, I was listening to LOTR as I drove my son back to college and a principal part of the story that day was Boromir's death and the early Rohan stuff: the Three Hunters, meeting Eomer, thinking Merry & Pippin were dead... it remains one of my favorite parts of the book. I was in a conversation about Boromir so I came home and wrote the following:

From Book 3, Chapter 2, The Riders of Rohan:
Aragorn has just told Éomer that Boromir was killed by orcs...
‘Your news is all of woe!’ cried Éomer in dismay. ‘Great harm is this death to Minas Tirith, and to us all. That was a worthy man! All spoke his praise. He came seldom to the Mark, for he was ever in the wars on the East-borders; but I have seen him. More like to the swift sons of Eorl than to the grave Men of Gondor he seemed to me, and likely to prove a great captain of his people when his time came.”​
It is interesting to note his comparison of Boromir to the Rohirrim. Earlier in this same chapter, Aragorn described the Rohirrim...
‘They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years.’​
These sound (somewhat simplistically put) like ‘doers’ not ‘thinkers’, again the yin/yang of Boromir/Faramir.

Then from Book 3, Chapter 5, The White Rider:
Gandalf has just learned of Boromir’s death...
‘Poor Boromir! I could not see what happened to him. It was a sore trial for such a man: a warrior, and a lord of men. Galadriel told me that he was in peril. But he escaped in the end. I am glad. It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir’s sake.”​
These sentences are loaded with meaning.
‘It was a sore trial for such a man: a warrior, and a lord of men.’​
It seems that Gandalf views Boromir as having succumbed to the temptation of the ring, not as having a weak character.
‘Galadriel told me that he was in peril.’​
The concern expressed here isn’t for the ringbearer. That would be “he was a threat to the ringbearer.” The concern is for Boromir: “he was in peril”. To show concern for a person’s well being means valuing that person.
‘But he escaped in the end.’​
Boromir escaped temptation by having the courage to reflect on his flawed actions and then choose to act differently. And he was given the opportunity for redemption by trying to protect the hobbits.
Thus...
‘It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir’s sake.’​
I don’t think that Tolkien viewed Boromir as evil (which some were contending during that old conversation). I think he viewed him as human. A man highly respected, honorable, brave, valiant. And a man open to temptation, possessing flaws, capable of self-reflection, and exercising choice of actions.​
​
 
After he dies, the things people say about him, as you've quoted here, do a lot to develop Boromir's character in the books -- it's only after he's dead, that the characters, and the reader, get the kind of perspective needed to put him, and his actions, into context.

The films, by contrast, put him into context upfront...he's more or less the same character, I think, it's just that we discover him after his death in the books, and before in the films.

Hope that makes sense...
 
and I've always thought he faked the dream, regardless of what his admiring younger brother says. I wouldn't call it lying - I think Boromir heard of his brother's dream, and had a similar one as a result. As the older, stronger brother, he naturally thought it was his duty to undertake the journey to Rivendell. From what we know of young Faramir, his father found fault with him, and Boromir probably grew more protective.

Boromir always had good motives, but I question his decisions.

I don't think of Aragorn as arrogant, but I do see it in Boromir. Aragorn was willing to admit he wasn't perfect, but Boromir was convinced of his own awesomeness until the moment of his death. Pretty convenient time to repent, I must say.

I like the character of Boromir, both in book and movie, even though I don't like the person in the book. They are just different.
 
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Faramir agrees with you that Boromir is like the Rohirrim:

"For as the Rohirrim do, we now love war and valour as things good in themselves, both a sport and an end; and though we still hold that a warrior should have more skills and knowledge than only the craft of weapons and slaying, we esteem a warrior, nonetheless, above men of other crafts. Such is the need of our days. So even was my brother, Boromir: a man of prowess, and for that he was accounted the best man in Gondor."​
But I can't help thinking that Faramir is a little bitter about it, and when he says this, too:

"Boromir, the proud and fearless, often rash, ever anxious for the victory of Minas Tirith (and his own glory therein)"​
In Tolkien's story, Boromir's kind of showy valour is inferior to the quieter, nobler kind of courage that Faramir and Frodo have. But the perfectly good don't provide much drama, or much for an actor to work with, which is perhaps why Boromir comes over so well in the movie, and why Faramir and Frodo both have demons to fight in the movies too.
 
30 years ago and have discussed it several times in the Reading Room. While I appreciate magpie's comments, they are not new to me and don't sway my opinion. I've never liked Boromir as a person, while I enjoy the character. I like the way he was depicted in the movies, and the movie character is much more likeable, but the movie character is not the same as the book character.
 
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