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I really don't get this whole "there are no characters and nothing happens and certainly no character development" take on the film that some people have (although I agree with Deva on the Ring being the main character - of course, the Ring = Sauron = the Lord of the Rings, so it *is* the title character... but that's nicely fucked up though, the nastiness being so much the centre of it).
It makes me want to spurt cliches like "were we watching the same film?". Here are some characters, and how they develop (note: I don't care if it's not in the books - fuck 'em):
Aragorn/Strider: when we meet him he's in self-imposed exile, owing to massive 'issues' about the fact that his great-great-great-great-grandaddy fucked things up so badly by keeping rather destroying the Ring. Aragorn's afraid that it'll be "like ancestor, like heir" and that being a bit crap and greedy and weak runs in his blood. So he's off with his elf girlfriends (Arwen, Legolas) and his wild woods instead of doing the dutiful thing and being king.
The crucial thing is that because he faces up to his own weakness head on, because he has the self-awareness to realise that he wants the Ring but also that he musn't take it, he's able to resist it directly when confronted better than anyone else (even Galadriel). He's also forced into the role of leader, and discovers that he's actually pretty good at it... plus it seems Boromir's constant eulogies to Gondur and "my people" (which becomes "our people" by the end) rubs off at him. One of the themes of the film is power and responsibility (neat that the Spiderman trailer came before it when I first saw it), and by the end of the film, Aragorn is ready to accept his. Which he wasn't at the start. Thus: character development.
Boromir: conversely, as Aragorn comes into his own, Boromir falls. He's in soooo much denial about the Ring, the same way he is about the broken sword in Rivendale (which is a key scene for these two) - "pah, a mere trinket! I care not!, etc". Basically the Ring and the sword are both symbols of rulership, specifically a kind of kingly rulership that Gondur doesn't curently have, something which Boromir claims it doesn't need.
The contradiction is that Boromir knows deep down that *he* couldn't be a decent leader of Gondur really, that even his father's 'stewardship' (republican?) regime is failing, and that what's needed is for the king to return (cos in Tolkien's opinion, you need someone with royal blood in charge...). If the Ring is the atom bomb Boromir's almost like this USSR figure: he's got valid grievances (ie, Gondur being used as cannon fodder by the snooty elves), and admirable principles, and he clearly cares to an excessive extent about his "people" - but he's also tempted by the thought of taking power into his own hands (supposedly benevolent paternalism? "let me have the burden of the Ring, Frodo, I'm a lot bigger and older and wiser than you", etc). The more he tries to pretend that this isn't the case, the worse things get...
(You could also read into it that Boromir desperately wants in on the Aragorn/Legolas action despite himself...)
And that's without even mentioning Frodo, who by the end of the first film has gone from fresh-faced innocent eager for adventures to mildly traumatised and grief-striken but resolute loner. Although really this is just softening up for the *really* evil shit he goes through in the next two films...
God, I'm obsessed. Star Wars geeks: have your revenge and laugh... |
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