Well, here goes then:
Part Twenty-One: The Game Attempts-Part Ninteen
Straight off from the wizard’s dual, the film gets back to the hobbits. We first see Sam stepping out of a row of corn and onto a narrow lane in the middle of the field. Sam looks both in front and behind and does not see Frodo. He becomes nervous and is soon going at a jog through the lane shouting his master’s name.
Frodo appears from around a corner the lane takes up ahead. Sam stops and breathes a sigh of relief. Sam utters that he thought they’d gotten separated to which Frodo asks what on Middle-earth is the gardener talking about. Sam explains that Gandalf instructed him to stick by Frodo, always, and that he intends to follow that to the letter. Frodo light-heartedly chuckles and asks, “Sam, we’re still in the Shire. What could possibly happen?” Cue Merry and Pippin coming crashing through the corn stocks and into the master and gardener.
While Sam and Merry climb to their feet, Pippin remains on all fours on top of Frodo for whatever reason and excited exclaims the obvious to Merry, who also greets Young Baggins with equal enthusiasm. Sam pulls Pippin off of Frodo and helps his master to his feet while an explanation is demanded. Frodo and Sam notice the vegetables Merry and Pippin have deduce that the two have been pilfering from Farmer Maggot. I understand that some people have a love-hate relationship with this concept, questioning why Merry and Pippin would bother since they come from high born (by hobbit standards, anyway) families: the Brandybucks and the Tooks. Well, the answer is simple. Merry and Pippin can still be referred as “boys” at this point in time. Boys do stupid things, plain and simple. These actions always later cross into old shame once we're older, but hey, they looked like good ideas at the time. Right? …Right?
Anyway, cue the vicious guard dogs barking. Merry and Pippin load vegetables into Sam’s arms and position facing the approaching incensed farmer as they and Frodo make off towards the woods. Sam stupidly stands there a minute before realizing that he’d be blamed for the theft and takes off after them. Never fails to make me laugh.
Merry, meanwhile, has the nerve to ask why Farmer Maggot is so upset, and that hey only took a little bit which he lists off. Pippin then cuts in with a bunch of additions to the list leaving anyone who has to rely on growing things for income with little wonder why Maggot is out for their skins. The three cousins literally reach the end of the line as they come to a steep hill, only to be rammed into by Sam sending them all over the edge. A good bit of slapstick, but as a friend once uttered to me in the theater: “When did this become a Three Stooges sketch?”
The hobbits take a ride head over heel down until they dog pile at the bottom. We get a funny bit with Pippin landing face down and just shy of a pile of plop, uttering: “Ooh, that was close!” This is followed up by Merry thinking that there’s a bone sticking out of his skin to discover that he just landed on a carrot. Sam mutters sorely about “trust a Bandybuck and Took” to get them into trouble. Merry tries to defend him with, “What? That was just a detour. A shortcut.” Sam: “A shortcut to what?” Pippin: “Mushrooms!” I have to hand to Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh for the clever wordplay of working a chapter title into the dialogue here. Well done.
The three younger hobbits, ironically played by actors older than Wood, huddle around the mushrooms and begin picking through the nicest ones while Frodo carefully scans the area. Yeah, to those unfamiliar, think of mushrooms as catnip to the hobbits’ cat. Frodo tries to get the three off the road, but is ignored until the supernatural presence of an approaching Ringwraith starts to cause the environment to turn dark and menacing as its cry erupts from ahead on the trail they landed on. A powerful gust of wind (in the middle of the heavily wind-breaking forest) rushes through and swirls some leaves with unnatural force. This is evidently enough to make Frodo freak out and call out the anxious order for them to get off the road. Here, again, Elijah’s acting is really effective with the fear shining through very convincingly. Too bad the consistently good acting from Elijah is about to become slowly more uneven switching back and forth from being absolutely spot on with his character to just looking like he’s either constipated, high, or like a deer in the headlights, with the bad portions of his acting reaching its high by the second movie. Fortunately, Wood gets his act back together again in Return of the King.
You see, once the hobbits get huddled under the roots just off the steep slope at the edge of the road opposite from where they fell, the wraith shows up and drops off its horse to investigate the presence it senses nearby. In an instant, the thing is hovering over them leaning on the roots hiding them. Whispering noises pick as Frodo’s eyes roll back and his mouth hangs open. Of course, he also pulls the Ring out and extends a finger to accept it, preparing to put it on. I know he’s being influenced by the Ring here, but Wood’s acting just makes it look like he’s a druggie who just had one hell of a fix of his habit. I guess the Ring certainly has elements of drug abuse so the portrayal is somewhat justified, but it’s not really that simple. The Ring itself is the blood of evil that works its wearer over both by being a malevolent force from outside that must be resisted. While its doing that, it plays on your inner weaknesses and bringing them to the surface thus making the individual weaker to its direct outer temptations and manipulations. On top of that, it makes its users physically stronger within the boundaries of the type of being they are and it has the added bonus of making you invisible (actually, it just puts you one foot in the shadow realm basically blanketing you in darkness rather than turning you truly invisible, where you will eventually be drawn in and turned into a wraith yourself after a while. Yeah, this thing is pretty terrifying once you've sat thought about it for while). In other words, there is no successfully warding off the Ring’s temptations for good. I can imagine, maybe, being able to relinquish it if you’re particularly strong-willed and have only had it for a few moments. Long term exposure? Forget it. You might as well just put on a black cloak and get yourself a same-colored horse. You’re going to be playing tenth-fiddle amongst the Witch King’s ranks.
Witch King? Oh, he’s just the Lord of the Nazgul. The mightiest of the nine Ringwriaths. Yeah, those swift footed killing machines that suck away any light and hope of escape, put you under a supernatural Fear, scourge the earth with their very presence, have blood-curling shrieks that will set your bladder free, and carry weapons that will make you one of them? Yeah, one is far worse than the other eight which at base are exactly what I described. Let that sink in for a while. There’s a reason I said these things are nightmare fuel in its rawest form.
In fact, just to drive how terrifying just one of these things are, while the hobbits hide under the tree roots all manner of insects begin scurrying out of the ground as it is infected with the wraith’s dark power at full speed. Immediately, the hobbits are put under the Fear as well and the off-putting reaction of the bugs further disconcerts them. Merry allows a spider which crawled onto his shoulder to climb onto the palm of his hand and then setting it on the ground while exchanging a scared and confused look with Samwise. Each one not getting a fix of Ring shares an “ohshitohshitohshitwhatthehell” look as they stay perfectly still, minds clearly reeling on how to get out of this mess.
Meanwhile, Frodo continues to wear his “whoa men that’s some good shit” expression as his hands tremble while he grapples with Ring’s temptations. Yep, this is the only actor Jackson claims to have given a good reading for the role of Frodo, folks. Yeah, I’ve never completely bought that, either. Anyway, Sam gives Frodo’s shoulder a light jab, bringing his employer out of his drug craze. Then Merry throws his pack which lands with a heavy thud. The wraith just basically pounces like a frikkin cougar off in the direction of the noise giving frightening implications that it bore down onto the pack with full force. Now just imagine if that had just been some poor passing animal or hobbit? Yeah, when did the Bakshiwraiths ever make you think that it'd be in a for very sticky, gooey end if that they did run into a wraith? Never. Jackson’s make the idea of anything unable to defend itself running into them terrifying and pitiable, indeed. These things are dangerous, and Jackson is delivering on that.
Moving on, once the hobbits have put some distance between them and the wraith, they stop to rest and Pippin inquires about that thing they just encountered. The camera focuses in on Frodo as he pants and then looks down at the Ring which he’s still holding. He wears an expression saying, “Oh wow. This thing really is dangerous! I had to no idea it would be like that!” The good thing about Wood’s performance in the first film is that for every moment of inadequacy he has one of greatness to make up for it.
So how did the scene work out altogether? Well, aside from Elijah’s less than stellar acting in this scene, it worked perfectly, and the other actors covered enough for the sole weakness of Wood that the scene carried enough weight to get me on the edge of my seat every time.
From there, the audience is greeted with the dead of night as the hobbits slip through the trees of the forest as the wraiths scour every inch of it looking for them. They do so in a methodical, organized fashion (you can tell if you’re looking), further raising the dread we the audience feel at this point. Back with the hobbits, Pippin asks what is happening, to which Merry replies that the wraiths are obviously looking for someone or something. He questions Frodo about before the hobbits are forced to duck down again. This bit displays Merry’s intelligent and quick mature quite nicely as opposed to Pippin’s more oblivious persuasion. One just has to wonder what Bakshi was thinking with the Huey, Dewey, and Louie approach to this duo.
Frodo, after apparently stringing these two along for hours, finally fesses up to a point and announces that he and Sam have to reach Bree. Merry nods, and after moment in which Jackson and co. leave for unfamiliar audiences to be unsure of what Merry will do, the Brandybuck begins leading his friends to the Buckleberry Ferry.
After having taken about three steps, they spring a Ringwraith which proceeds to get between Frodo and the other three long enough for the Baggins to fall behind. This turns out to be in their favor as Sam, Merry, and Pippin rush ahead and are able get the raft ready without being hassled and Frodo is able to get on and take off straight away. This was an excellent way to show how the wraiths aside from the Witch King just couldn’t act outside of their direct orders, and thus had it was imperfect strategy to send them without free thinking guidance. This, in retrospect, just shows what a smug and overconfident fool Sauron can be.
As such, the trio manage to get the ferry going and start sailing. On one hand, this forces Frodo to make a leap to it, but it prevents the Nazgul from boarding. Admittedly, the ferry was used under much less duress in the book, but the logic of how this scene works is sound, and therefore….well, it doesn’t suck. On top of that, the hobbits truly do have a reprieve from being chased at the moment, since the next bridge is twenty miles away. Again, the entire sequence, with Merry and Pippin’s introductions adding some relief, keeps the tension on.
To be continued...
There'll be another part along shortly, guys.
