Hey, Mike, my friends tend to joke about Galadriel’s “condition” in that scene, it seems to fit. She’s perfectly capable of delivering such good lines under her own steam, and absolutely doesn’t need the flavour-enhancers that Jackson imposed - not even had they been done well, rather than in such a way that they obscure the words. McKellan needs no such treatment, because (unlike some of the cast, it must be said) he can act. Gandalf is not lit up in flourescent lights, and his voice is not artificially raised in pitch to chipmunk levels. It’s half-whispered, spoken almost as much to himself as to Frodo, more a meditation than a lecture. When Gandalf delivers the “and some that die deserve life” speech, Jackson trusts McKellan to do it right, and so he does. But that’s how Jackson interprets it.Īnd I find this mystifying because Jackson’s touch is so sure elsewhere (not least in the condensation of the speech noted above). He is not saying that Galadriel flipped into photographic negative and her voice became deep, distorted and ring-modulated. When we read that she stood before Frodo, “seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring”, we immediately understand that the key word is “seeming”: Tolkien is describing what goes through Frodo’s mind as he understands what it would mean for Galadriel to take the ring. In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!īut Jackson can’t accept the obvious metaphorical reading of the second paragraph. In the film, Galadriel’s speech is slightly rewritten - and I hope I will not be thought a heretic if I say that I think the Jackson/Walsh/Boyens version is, if anything, an improvement:

“I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.” Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. It’s the scene in Lothlorien when Frodo has freely offered the One Ring to Galadriel. In fact, the three LotR films are arguably my three favourite films of all time. And they are overwhelmed by the huge amount of good stuff.

Yes, all the films are flawed but they are mostly flaws of ambition, and so they are easy to forgive. I may not be able to disagree with any of the specific criticisms Andrew Rilstone makes in his fine reviews ( Fellowship, Towers, Return), but I am a million miles away from agreeing with his downbeat conclusions. I bow to no man in my admiration of Peter Jackson’s fine trilogy of Lord of the Rings films (and indeed his ongoing Hobbit).

Lotr frodo feet reference images