Spineless Captains and Rebellious Shieldmaidens

Disclaimer: While not graphic, this article discusses PG-13-rated films. Younger readers please read at your parents’ discretion.

When Peter Jackson released his Lord of the Rings movie trilogy in the early 2000’s, Christopher Tolkien recorded his consternation over the adaptation of his father’s work by stating, “The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away” (“Christopher Tolkien’s Views”). He describes his overwhelming disgust in the production by highlighting the watered-down nature of the entertainment and mourns the deflation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s intended deeper design. Of all the incongruences possibly causing such mortification, one of the greatest appears in Jackson’s latter two films, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, with the controversial representations of Faramir and Eowyn. Debatably the most hated character in the film, Faramir’s cinematic portrayal unfavorably diverges to create a character nearly opposite that of the text; additionally, while Eowyn’s performance receives general approval from viewers, her character likewise warps from its intended mold.

The most scalding of Jackson’s manipulations of Faramir occurs in one of the final sequences in the movie version of The Two Towers. Tolkien writes that when discussing Isildur’s Bane—the ring—with Frodo and Sam after encountering them on their way to Mordor, Faramir states, “I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory” (The Two Towers, 887). Later given that chance to take the ring, he resists the allure, keeping true to his promise, helping the hobbits on their way, and creating a stark comparison to his brother’s reaction to temptation. In his rendition, Jackson completely demolishes the intent for Faramir’s constitution, manipulating Tolkien’s quote, “A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to show his quality,” for David Wenham to say as he marches the hobbits and the ring to Minas Tirith for his glory (890). Stripped of the discernment, the honesty, the loyalty, and of all the qualities endearing him as a favorite from the books, he becomes a weak-constitution captain and nearly duplicates his brother’s folly, dismantling Tolkien’s comparison between the two. 

Some of the explanations for this degradation of the character include the instinctive logic behind taking the ring, the argument that otherwise “nothing visually exciting” would happen during that interval when they pushed the Shelob’s Lair sequence out to The Return of the King (“In Defence of Peter Jackson”), or that “if Faramir was shown to renounce the Ring without batting an eye, it would have undone all their hard work establishing its supernaturally irresistible, corrupting nature” (Miller). The plot construction of the films leading up to the moment has a flawed design since the only way to keep the storyline canon is to morph one of Tolkien’s most admirable characters into one evoking such outrage and disgust. As Faramir’s narrative continues into The Return of the King movie, his character arc slumps into that of an insecure, depressed boy bullied by a father favoring the elder son, and his self-doubt and inferiority complex become the defining factors of his personality. While the relational tension between father and son appears in Tolkien’s book, the movie fails to convey Faramir’s self-possession amid weariness or his air of nobility when in conflict with Denethor. Character already spoiled beyond redemption in The Two Towers film, his continuation into the victimized younger son role receives little sympathy from the audience and causes serious believability problems with his union with Eowyn. 

In the movie trilogy, Jackson handles Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan, more gently than the extreme, contradictory conduct inserted into Faramir’s character.  The movie predominantly utilizes Tolkien’s description of her greatest fear of being kept in a cage, restrained till “all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire,” as her driving motive in life along with her inflated one-sided love trope with Aragorn (The Return of the King, 1027). Rather more subtly distorted, her character still misses the intended maturity and dignified aura seen in Tolkien’s Eowyn scenes as the over-emphasized personality traits give her the mannerisms of a rebellious teenager, brash in action and inconsolable in temperament.  

As for the romantic drama between her and Aragorn, the movies miss the source and reason for her affections, instead stretching it into a surface-level attraction that is easily filled by Jackson’s deformed rendition of Faramir. Eowyn’s core desire, her yearning to serve a worthy king, causes her attraction to Aragon, fueling her decision. When this is replaced by a shallowly-founded love, her character lacks its driving conviction. With these two characters misinterpreted, their marriage makes little sense. Would Tolkien’s Faramir truly desire the insubordinate, wishy-washy shieldmaiden? How could Eowyn, with a heart burning for a King to follow, settle for a man like the spineless Captain of Gondor depicted in the film? Thus, when they join hands at the end of The Return of the King, the immense sense of completion emanating from their union in the books falls flat, replaced by a mushy sentiment. Perhaps, as Christopher Tolkien described, there is only one solution for adaptations like this: to turn our heads away.

Works Cited

“Christopher Tolkien’s Views on the Peter Jackson Adaptations.” Ask Middle Earth, https://askmiddlearth.tumblr.com/post/77655914105/christopher-tolkiens-views-on-the-peter-jackson

“In Defence of Peter Jackson Part 2– Why Faramir Needed to Change.” The One Ring, May 25, 2022, www.theonering.com/in-defense-of-peter-jackson-part-2.

Miller, Leon. “The departure of Faramir – Why Peter Jackson’s most controversial Lord of the Rings change was also his best.” The Pop Culture Studio, January 14, 2021, https://thepopculturestudio.com/2021/01/14/the-departure-of-faramir.

Tolkien, J. R.R. The Return of the King. HarperCollins Publishers, 2007, Based on the 50th Anniversary Edition, pp. 977-1347.  

Tolkien, J. R.R. The Two Towers. HarperCollins Publishers, 2007, Based on the 50th Anniversary Edition, pp. 537-971.  

Photo Credit

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