My precious.
(Noise) - We're back, and
it's the meat in our 'Lord of the Rings' sandwich, 'The Two Towers'.
So, with absolutely zero ado, and
no restraint on spoilers, it's time to ask, what's the difference?
When last we left our trilogy part one,
the fellowship of the ring was a fast forwarded exercise in urgency.
The film adaptation, while mostly straight forward, took all the furry, tough hided,
hobbit feet dragging from the novel right out, opting instead for what seemed like
an exhausting sprint across middle earth over the course of a few weeks.
- But that is much less the case with Tolkien's second installment,
The Two Towers.
The structure of these stories are crazy different.
Most obviously, the first half of the book tells the story of Aragorn,
Gimley, Legalos, and friends, from start to finish.
- (Sound) - Then, backtracks to follow Frodo, Sam,
and Gollum in the second half.
- The movie on the other hand, cuts back and
forth telling both halves of the narrative concurrently.
So, while these separate adventures take the same amount of time to unfold,
Tolkien doesn't mess around with cross cutting.
- (Sound) - And because the narrative structure
is so different,
the ripple effects of any given change become difficult to track chronologically.
So, this episode of What's the Difference will have a bit of a different
structure, too.
- And full disclosure, we thought about doing this with graphs and charts and
an easel, but well, we just didn't want to, so here we go.
- Let's start by grouping three characters together, Aragorn, Gimley, and Legolas.
In the movie they've been hot on the trail of the orcs who kidnapped Merry and
Pippin for three days and nights, much to the dwarf's chagrin.
- Keep breathing, that's the key.
Breathe. - The book opens (Sound) with the
Fellowship scattered and Aragorn racing to answer the call of Boromir's horn.
However, he's too late to help, because Boromir is already riddled with arrows.
He apologizes for trying to steal the ring from Frodo and for not
protecting Merry and Pippin from the band of orcs before dying in Aragorn's arms.
And after packing Boromir up in a boat all ceremonial like, Aragorn, Gimley,
and Legolas float him over a waterfall before they take off orc hunting and
hobbit rescuing.
All that stuff happens exactly the same way in the movie, just not this movie.
As we pointed out in the last episode,
all of it takes place at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring.
So Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, collectively known as AGL from now on,
hustle across the plains hunting the Uruk-hai until they run into Eomer
a Marshall of the Riddermark and his horsemen.
The group throws some shade back and forth.
- I would cut off your head.
If it stood but a little higher from the ground.
- But ultimately, they get on the same page about how deadly Orcs are, and
how probably dead Marry and Pippin are.
- The one big difference is kinda a carryover from the first book.
At this meeting, Eomer is in awe of Aragorn because of his sword.
The elvish blade reforged, that proves Aragorn is of human descent,
making him a legend more than a man in Eomer's eyes.
Either way, the shade throwing is basically the same in the book and movie.
- But we have to rewind a little on Eomer.
(Sound) At this point movie Eomer has been banished by the obviously evil
Grima Wormtongue.
I mean, the dude's name is Wormtongue and he looks like this.
(Sound) Could not be more obvious Book Eomer,
while no longer in the favor of the King, thanks to Wormtongue's treachery,
has not at this point been banished.
So being out on the plains hunting orcs, is still technically his job.
- From the conversation with Eomer, AGL moves on to the smouldering pile of orcs.
The discovery of Merry and Pippin's escape is dealt with in a roughly similar
non-linear fashion, in both the book and
the movie, with Aragon tracing the steps of the hobbits into forest.
In the book however, AGL camps out on the edge of the forest for a night where they
briefly see a spectral old man in white just kinda hanging out and watching them.
Is it Saruman, is it Gandalf?
Kinda spooky right?
So the next morning they head into Fangorn where they encounter the old man in white
again to find out, yay, it's Gandalf back from the dead.
- In the book and movie, Gandalf explains how he defeated the Balrog and his
subsequent journey through space and time to rejoin his companions on Middle Earth.
Then all four of them, AGL + G now I guess, head swiftly to Edirus and
the Hall of Theodon, King of Rohan, where they find Theodon under Saramond's spell
closely guarded by obvious bad guy, Grima Wormtongue.
- Theodon however, is being controlled by Grima himself using, quote,
subtle poisons.
As opposed to the movie where Gandalf draws Saurumon out as poison from a wound
book Gandalf simply tells Grima to cut it out.
Grima doesn't get sent away like he does in the movie.
Instead, he's offered the chance to ride to war with the rest of Rohan.
But surprise, surprise evil mcbad dude guy chooses to take off in fear.
Meanwhile Eomer who again in the book has not been banished comes back home to
happy to see Grima running away.
- At this point in the movie Gandalf debriefs Theodon on all the bad
news in middle earth and Theodon decides to march all of his people to
the refuge of Helm's Deep, where he knows they can defend themselves.
But Gandalf knows they'll need reinforcements, so
he takes off hoping to find Eomer who, again, in the movie, has been banished.
- Book Theoden, as soon as he wakes up, decides it's time to muster the Rohirim
and go join the forces that are already battling Isengaard to kick Sauroman's ass.
Literally he says, let's have some lunch, and then let's go do this thing right now.
He leaves the city defenseless, and Eowyn, his niece and Eomer's sister, in charge.
- (Laugh) - Let's rewind just a little bit
on Eowyn, now.
In the movie, we first meet Eowyn as her cousin,
the king's son, is dying from his wounds fighting the orcs of Isengard.
Then Grima hits on her using Middle Earth's version of
- Like a morning with pale spring
still clinging to winter's chill.
- This threat of Grima, wants Eowyn real bad is in the book, but only very briefly.
The film expands on it,
making her a character strong in her desire to contribute, but
painted into a corner by her gender, and the male dominated world around her.
- You have some skill with blade.
- In the book, she's just said to be pretty and that people seem to like her.
Then her uncle leaves her in charge and that's literally it for
her in 'The Two Towers'.
Again, we're reading these as we go here so
if that changes in 'Return of the King', keep it to yourselves.
- Fast forwarding back to the march away from Eterous.
In the movie, it's a slow moving column of retreating civilians.
Along the way, Aragorn talks to Arwen, his lady elf, in his dreams.
And in another memory, thinks about her difficult decision between leaving with
her people or staying with a mortal man in Middle-Earth.
This scene by itself is more than she appears in the book.
But for the movie, it further develops the love between Aragon and
Arwin while reminding us that Aragon and Eowyn probably ain't gonna happen.
- In a book, they march away from Ederos in a spirited march to war.
AGLG is still a four man band and
everybody seems pretty stoked about battling Sauroman.
Until a rider coming back from Isengard tells them the Orcs of Isengard are too
many and it is in fact the Rohan's side getting their ass kicked.
This is the point where the army decides to ride to Helms Deep, but just the army
not the This is also about the time that Gandalf takes off unexpectedly and
without explanation.
The dude just goes saying, I'll be back later and the rest of the men and
AGL included, make it the rest of the way to Helm's Deep no problem.
In the movie a group of riders attack the caravan in route to Helm's Deep
making the situation of the people of Rohan even more desperate.
But it also sends Aragorn over a freaking cliff.
And, since we've already seen movie Aragorn communicate with Arwen via dreams,
she's able to find him and send a horse to pick him up.
So it's Aragorn that sees the giant army of orcs headed to Helm's Deep
that warns Theoden as opposed to the soldier that turned
the riders away from their course to Isengard in the book.
- Once at Helm's Deep,
the actual battles are both very similar save for two glaring differences.
One, no elves show up to help.
(Sound) Once Theoden and
the rest of his men of Rohan are in Helms Deep it's just them fighting off the orcs.
And two, when Gandalf shows up with reinforcements it's not with Eomer (Sound)
and his Rohirrim because remember,
Eomer's been back with Theoden for awhile in the book.
Instead Gandalf has Erkenbrand in tow, a semi-retired solider of Rohan who is part
of the forces that were getting their asses kicked by Isengard (Sound) along
with as many men as Gandalf could track down.
- He's also got a bunch of trees, just a big spooky forest pops up outside
Helm's Deep out of nowhere and sort of eats all of the orcs.
Gandalf doesn't even know where it came from.
But, aside from super rad shield-surfing elf action,
which frankly would've been hard to imagine in Tolkien's day, the actual
fighting part of the battle plays out much the same in the book and the movie.
And this is where AGL's part of the story ends in the movie.
Gandalf has returned, the Orcs have been defeated and
they all look out to the East super majestically.
- All our hopes now lie with two little hobbits.
- But the book keeps going.
In fact, the rest of AGL's side of the story in the Two Towers book
takes you through like the first 30 minutes of the Return of the king movie.
So, we'll get to that in our next episode,
because we now have to rewind to cover Merry, Pippin, and the Ents.
Okay, where's the rewind button?
There we go.
Rewind.
(Sound) - They fresh.
- They are not for eating.
- Okay, way back at the beginning of the Two Towers,
when still held captive by the Orcs in both the book and movie, Merry and
Pippin escape when Eomer and his men attack the Orcs.
In the movie, Merry and Pippin take off into the forest where "Treebeard" the ent
stomps on their orc pursuer and takes the hobbits straight to the White Wizard who
we are meant to think is the villainous "Saruman".
For the movie's purposes, this replaces the "Is it Saruman?
Is it Gandalf?" kind of spooky right moment that AGL has
Seeing the specter of the old man on the edge of the forest the night before.
So while both the book and the movie each feature tensions surrounding the identity
of this mysterious white wizard it took two changes to the book to keep it for
the movie.
- Gandalf.
- I am Gandalf the white.
- In the book however, the Hobbits escape from the Orcs on their own and
it isn't until a bit later that they are found by Treebeard and
never run into a white wizard, Gandalf, or otherwise.
They spend a great deal of time with the Ent, even crashing at his place for
a night and unlike the movie there is no confusion on the part of the [Ents as to
Merry and Pippin's identity.
- We're not Orcs, we're Hobbits.
- Hobbits?
Never heard of a Hobbit before.
- The Ents do meet in a conclave that takes two full days, and
by the end they've easily decided that Saruman has turned into evil and
something must be done about him.
- In the movie, the Ents, instead, decide to do nothing,
opting to stay out of the affairs of Middle Earth the way they always have.
It isn't until Pippin tricks Treebeard into walking past Isengard
to see the destruction Sarumon has wrought there firsthand that Treebeard and
the rest of the Ents are roused sufficiently to go to war.
- In the book, these events are not described in realtime, but
instead recounted by Merry and
Pippin when they're reunited with AGLG in the flooded ruins of Isengard.
But again, that's second book stuff that wound up in the third movie.
And now we're like ten minutes into this episode about 'The Lord of the Rings', and
we haven't even mentioned the ring yet.
So let's rewind and start this thing over with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum.
(Sound) We first find Frodo and Sam lost on a foggy, smelly mountain.
And as they wander,
they gradually become aware that Gollum is now tailing them from a shorter distance.
And remember, this is the beginning of the second half of the book,
picking up three days after the fellowship has disbanded,
roughly the same time AGL is sprinting across Rohan chasing orc.
In the movie, they lay in wait for him and pounce when he gets too close.
And in the book Gollum falls from a rope while climbing down a cliff and
Frodo and Sam hop on him that way, but the taming of Smeagol
is largely the same in both versions They have a little knockdown drag out with him,
tie him up with the elvish rope.
But as it turns out- - It burns, it burns us.
- And it all ends with Golem agreeing to guide them to Mordor.
The first stop along the way is the Dead Marshes,
a creepy swamp full of dead bodies that beckon the travellers into the water.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum, or FSG from now on for brevity's sake,
make it through the Dead Marshes in basically the same way in the book and
the movie, including an encounter with a Nazgul.
The only real difference is,
book Frodo doesn't fall into the water like Like it's movie counterpart.
- Also, in both the book and movie, FSG gets to the black gate of Mordor
only to have Gollum talk them out of heading into the Black lands that way.
Then after a debate with himself Smeagle decides to ditch Gollum for a while and
they even cook up a together.
Stupid fat hobbit.
- Everything happens in basically the same way up until they run into Faramir,
Boromir's brother and captain of Gondor.
- In the movie FSG stand by and
watches Faramir's men attack a bunch of Southrons on oliphaunts.
Gollum sneaks off, but Frodo and Sam get bound and taken hostage.
In the book though, Faramir is a much nicer guy.
They run into each other before the attack on the and Faramir is nothing but cordial.
- Frodo and Sam are taken back to Faramir's cave, where a long and
respectful discussion takes place over food and wine.
Faramir is even courteous to Smeagol after finding him in the Forbidden Pool.
The biggest difference in the book and movie,
though, is that book Faramir is never seduced by the Ring.
He discovers Frodo is indeed carrying the One Ring, but
understands the Ring's deceitfulness and lets FSG go,
as only a warning to Frodo that Gollum does not seem a trustworthy guy.
Movie Faramir, much like his older brother, desires to keep the Ring for
Gondor and decides to bring the Hobbits with him to Osgiliath.
And so FSG remains Faramir's captives for the rest of the movie.
Faramir is not moved to released FSG until he sees Frodo in the presence of a nazgul
and begins to understand the burden he truly bears.
FSG's half of the book much like AGL's takes the hobbits
much farther from their story.
In fact, as of the last pages of The Two Towers, Frodo has been stung by the giant
spider and the seemingly lifeless corpse captured by Orcs.
A point to which their movie counterparts don't arrive until two hours into 'The
Return of the King.' - At the end of all this, a few things
become clear about 'The Two Towers.' One is that the two halves of the tale,
AGLs and FSGs, have literally nothing to do with the other.
For Tolkien, it may have just been easier to tell the tales separately.
And for Peter Jackson, the modern language of cinema demands the stories be intercut.
But the challenge of lining up the halves of the two towers chronologically,
is that they just kinda don't.
So you wind up with things like Faramir dragging FSG
to Osgiliath to kill a little time, so AGL's story can keep up.
And you wind up with an episode of what's difference, that talks about stuff from
one book, that's in a different movie, which is kind of a drag.
- Guess what?
We'll be back next month with the Return of the King.
In the meantime make sure to subscribe to Cinefix so
you don't miss the epic conclusion of the epic adaptations of J.R.R.Tolkein's epic
fantasies right here on what's the epic- I mean, what's the difference?
- What's happening out there?
- Shall I describe it to you?
Or would you like me to find you a box?
- (Laugh) - (Sound)