Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies seem to be back in the zeitgeist lately. I’ve noticed an uptake of borrowings of the films in the library, and there have been some TV programs about it, including a doco series I watched today called Lord of the Rings, Icons Unearthed. What’s going on? Anyway, it was an entertaining and informative overview of the making of those films, and also of Tolkien’s road to writing the books. I know a fair bit of the lore of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because the original dvds were so chock full of behind the scenes information, but this documentary had even more. I didn’t know exactly, for example, why Liv Tyler’s Arwen character 
arc was watered down from warrior woman to inspirational/ethereal love interest for Aragorn. Turns out one of the main reasons was that good old Liv couldn’t ride horses and was afraid of them, and riding horses well was essential to her character. Even the scenes that were shot in the first film of her riding a horse to save an injured Frodo were done from on top of a fake horse-riding rig.
I have to say I’m very glad of this. One of the first online spoilers I learned about the film’s initial shooting was that Arwen’s character was being beefed up to replace the other warrior woman role in the story, namely the wonderful Eowyn, who is my favourite female character in the book. Spoiler indeed. From then on I ignored any and all spoilers about the films because I was so gutted about this new, stupid development. So it was a very pleasant surprise to come to the second film, The Two Towers, and find that Jackson and co had reinstated Eowyn, in the wonderful form of Miranda Otto. Man, what were they thinking in the first place? Can you imagine Lord of the Rings without Eowyn, without Miranda Otto? It’s like imagining Aragorn being played by, original choice, Stuart Townsend (the doco gives us some poop about his departure as well). No thanks. So thanks Liv Tyler for your aversion to horses! The series continues next week, and I’ll be there.
Watched two more of those Icon Lord Of the Rings docos on SBS On Demand tonight. I hoped one of them would delve into the machinations that brought us Miranda Otto’s Eowyn to the screen, but it was not to be. Instead there was some mildly interesting goss about the WETA studio that provided the special effects. Apparently some Newline studio bean counters were sent packing when Jackson and WETA realised they could use their own bean counters – or at least, that’s how I interpreted it. But most of all it would seem the main problem with the production was the controlling monster that Peter Jackson had become. He was forever making last minute creative and clever changes to the film that gave the staff and creatives a hard time to catch up to. One example was how, when he decided to change one scene, a frustrated Howard Shore, the film’s composer, had to re-score the entire scene. Going by the cast and crew’s struggles with Jackson on the later trilogy, The Hobbit, he did not change his ways.
I watched the last two eps of those Icons Lord of the Rings docos, though this time the focus was on the Hobbit movies. There were apparently no less than five different studios involved in the making of those films, which goes a long to explaining why they turned out so bloated. The bloat meant more profits for the studios. The main take away therefore was that the blame for stretching the relatively short story over three films lies with the studios. It was not so much a creative decision that could be blamed on Peter Jackson, but a corporate one. Jackson basically had no choice. As the doco made very clear, he was told by the suits he had to direct (after Guillermo Del Toro bailed) or they would give it to someone else, and the films possibly would not be made in New Zealand. The other interesting tidbit was the fact that the original actor who played the dwarf Fili was sent packing because of his lazy on-set attitude and preparation. His departure required some reshoots, and the other dwarf actors had to adjust to having a new actor in their company. It was a damn fine series, adding much important detail to the ever-growing body of Lord of the Rings movie lore.