1. The Fellowship Of The Ring: Death Of Boromir
I dont normally read books that are not full of pictures and speech bubbles, but I have read The Lord of The Rings. As a consequence of this, I was one of many who had my doubts whether Peter Jackson could film the un-filmable journey to destroy the ring of power. Thats because I was stupid enough to think that Jackson would just try to film the entire book, Tom Bombadil and all, in some mad attempt to follow Frodos journey step by step. Jackson avoided this simple minded approach, however, by focusing on the central theme of the ring and its power to corrupt. Those elements of the story which did not focus on this principle theme were dropped or truncated, allowing for a thoroughly absorbing view of the toll the ring had on Frodo, Gollum or any other unfortunate soul who had contact with it. In the Fellowship of the Ring, it is poor Boromir who is captured by the ring's allure and, unfortunately for him, it results in his tragic end. So why was I so surprised by the sheer emotion of it all? Well, what I didnt expect was the amazing way Jackson and his team would write and story board Boromirs death, in a way which not only captured, but surpassed its portrayal in the book. This is so, as in the book there is very little actually written about the death of Boromir. Rather, other than the first born of the Steward of Gondor being found pierced by several arrows after the attack by Sarumans forces we don't really get a detailed account of his dramatic last stand. There was clearly not enough material to be put on the screen for Jackson, who conjured up one of Hollywoods most memorable death scenes. A death scene built on Sean Beans brilliant performance, from the moment of his malice when he tries to take the ring from Frodo, to regret, extreme bravery against hopeless odds and, finally, his parting speech to Aragorn. How they did it is all explained in the The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition Blue Ray, including references to the use of CGI and allusions to the paganistic urge to fight on when hope of victory is lost. In layman's terms it translated to Boromir continuing to swing away while getting pinged one time after the other by that b*****d Uruk-hai. What can I say, other than, 'It just wasn't fair!'. In any case, all I know was one minute I was watching a kick ass display of archery by Legolas and some laugh out loud antics from Gimli and the next I was blubbing away as the future King of Gondor lost the services of the hero of the Battle of Osgiliath.