FotR: Boromir's characterization

One thing I really disliked about Jackson's FotR was how heavy handed the Boromir/Aragorn dynamic was handled.

Take this scene right here, his introduction to Aragorn. All Boromir is doing is wonder-gazing at a painting (that is relevant to the history of his people), yet Aragorn is sitting there, glowering at him about it. There is really only one, brief scene where he is shown as a likeable guy, and a full member of the company: as the company crosses the land of Hollin (before attempting to cross the Redhorn Gate of Caradhras), he is practicing swordplay with Merry and Pippin.

But it seems like everytime Boromir speaks, the camera cuts to a shot of Aragorn or Gandalf looking scornful. There is even a scene in Lothlorien where Galadriel flat out says "Boromir's going to try and take the ring."

Why?

Why did they feel the need to do this? It would have been much better to foreshadow Boromir's betrayal more lightly, while placing a greater emphasis on his sympathetic motivations in relation to his city / his people, and the expectations his father has on him. Insodoing, this would make that scene that much more surprising, as well as meaningful and significant.

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Because you need a bad guy for the dumber movie audience.

Did you watch the extended version?

Because he genuinely wants to help his people. He sees the writing on the wall. He knows there are enemies massing and are going to wreck their shit. He sees the ring as something that could help them. That is the rings power. It attacks the strongest.

Aragorn is literally a layabout running from his duty to his people. He'd rather run around the forest having circle jerks with elves than take his rightful place leading his people. This is why he is immune. It takes him 3 movies to get his shit together.

Basically Aragorn is a fucking hippie to stupid to be a threat.

After Boromir's betrayal, the movie deviates from the book, and has Aragorn encounter Frodo at Amon Hen. This was done, again, to emphasize the comparison between Aragron and Boromir, in having Aragorn resist the ring immediately Boromir fell to it. But it also creates quite a ridiculous plothole, because Frodo openly acknowledges his trust in Aragorn, and his faith that he could be trusted with the Ring. Yet for some unexplained reason, Frodo does not then take Aragorn with him into Mordor as a guide. In the book, Frodo separated himself from everyone but Sam precisely because he felt that nobody could really be trusted with the burden.

>Insodoing

Stopped reading right there.

One fucking line away from the end. Please be unacceptably pretentious earlier on in your posts in the future.

>edgy 4channer turns his Tolkein headcanon into unoriginal memery, the post

Yea, I guess that wasn't really necessary there

I agree they could have portrayed Boromir a little better. But keep in mind they're cramming like 900000 pages into a 3 hour movie. It's hard to pull off subtle.

The story is already long and confusing. Your average audience member can barely tell the difference between Aragon and Boromir. So if you try to have like that, it wil leave most people confused.

Actual fans or book readers are a different story. But the movie has to work for non book readers too.

Both. But it doesn't make a difference. The extended just has additional "foreshadowing" scenes where Boromir's character depth is reduced through blunt and obvious vilification.

This is probably the right answer, unfortunately. But still, I can't imagine that most people would not prefer my alternate way of doing Boromir. It just seems so much more meaningful that way.

>It's hard to pull off subtle.
>So if you try to have like that, it wil leave most people confused.

I don't know. I just don't think people are that oblivious. They could've cut the vilifying foreshadowing scenes by half, and replaced the difference with scenes that depicted his camaraderie with the fellowship, and his brotherhood with Aragorn instead (themes which were, despite his general portrayal, still not absent from his character as it was), and I think it still would have been perfectly clear to most people.

Because humans are more susceptible to it etc. etc. Aragorn acknowledges that himself by letting Frodo go.

Denethor had it even worse. He was a military genius, rivalling Sauron himself, and managed to hold Mordor at bay until Sauron fed him enough lies through the Palantir to erode his hope. In the movie he's just a defeatist asshole without any explanation as to how he became this way, nor does it show any of his positive qualities. Plus he gets that ignoble death.

my question is what were Denethor and Boromir even trying to do with the ring?

yeah it has power but a human can't use that power. It's literally a useless burden to any human kingdom.

I understand that people might be against the idea of carrying the ring straight into mordor, but why take it for themself as a weapon?

It made sense for Saruman, Gandalf and Galadriel to crave the power of the ring, but because they as individuals could use Saurons power, unlike Gondor, who can't use it to power ballistic missiles

Does making it more surprising make it better?
I'd imagine if they went in that direction that it'd draw way too much attention to a 'who's going to betray the fellowship' mystery, and make the 'twist' incredibly predictable and unnecessary.

By playing it straight, there is more of a focus on Boromir as a representative of the world's view of the Ring and the Gondorian(?) lineage, which then made Boromir's exchange with Aragorn when he died much more satisfying.

So they kind of completely changed Aragorn as a character from what he was in the books

Exactly this, you need to be a more powerful being to even wear the ring without going invisible, let alone wielding it.

The answer I think is they didn't know exactly what the ring could do, they just assumed it could be weaponised in some way.

It's made more clear in the books, but the ring was pretty much completely forgotten by everyone except a few like saruman and Gandalf. When it resurfaced, people had no idea what it could do or what power it possessed

Isildur had it for like 60 years and they never managed to leave a note saying "It's basically useless beyond driving the owner crazy and making him invisible at times"

Or Elrond could have sent them a letter or something.

Isildur was attacked by Orcs and that was the point the Ring went missing.

Did no one suspect the Orcs might have taken the ring and were on their merry way to mordor?

>Aragon
>Hippie peacenik
U wot m8. Aragon was literally the Marine pasta. He was killing orcs, wolves, Corsairs and Southrons long before most of the human characters were born. Theoden remembered Aragon leading Rohirrim riders when he was a child.

Very few people even knew what the ring was at that point

They did a bad job with Boromir in general. Boromir is supposed to be this larger-than-life individual. Like a God among men. Super bad ass hero worship inspiring kind of dude. Like when Boromir enters the room, people should be forgetting Aragorn's name.

Then when that's all set up, he's corrupted by the ring and then we all know how powerful the ring really is. If a beast like Boromir could fall to it, no one is safe. It must be destroyed.

In Fellowship, the ring is more of a macguffin. It doesn't do anything. It's just an object that the plot centers around. What it is, what it means, what it can do, none of this matters. All that matters is the good guys have it and the bad guys want it. It might as well be a nude picture of Sauron's girlfriend.

They did a lot better in the next two films when we get to see the physical effect it has on Frodo and Gollum. But in the first film, it just didn't work and they made Boromir the bad guy, instead of the ring.

I think what the movie does is better because it shows that Aragorn may not be as easily corruptible as Boromir, but that he does acknowledge that eventually he would too be corrupted. So they both make the right choice in letting Frodo go alone... even that is safer than him being with the Fellowship because who knows who could snap next? And Frodo is a little hobbit that nobody would care about unless they knew he had the Ring of Power... he could get around easier and safer theoretically.

The extended edition of Fellowship greatly expands upon Boromir's motivations and shows a greater range of interactions between him and Aragorn. I would always recommend watching the first movie in extended edition as it fleshes the whole film out so much. Watching the other two in extended are optional however.

>a nude picture of Sauron's girlfriend
Post it, faggot

A lot of what you have mentioned is provided in flashbacks and dialogue of Faramir. I think having everyone guffaw at how great a dude Boromir is in the FOTR might detract from the story.

>U wot m8. Aragon was literally the Marine pasta

Not the guy you're replying to, but I'd say he was more like Rambo and not a hippie. He doesn't want to fight, but if you bother him and his stupid path of peace, then he'll fuck you up

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