Faramir (sketchbook)
Added 2019-07-06 20:42:23 +0000 UTCAnother one underway in my sketchbook (I recently got a whole shipload of Etchr sketchbooks from their kickstarter and need to fill up my old one, haha). Since we're talking about drawing characters that were ill-treated by the Lord of the Rings movies, Faramir needs to make an appearance.
A lot of people say the Special Extended version corrects the faults of the cinematic one, but having rewatched it, I disagree. He gets a bunch of daddy issues to explain away the fact that he treats Frodo, Sam, and Gollum horribly, and he still only lets Frodo go because Sam tells him to. Nope, not my Faramir, PJ!
Especially in The Two Towers, I noticed that the only characters with a working moral compass were the Fellowship. Even Théoden only leads the attack from Helm's Deep after a pep talk from Viggogorn. Naaaaw.
I love the films for a lot of things. They dragged a whole genre out of the dingy, campy corners of its previous existence, and they added a mind-blowing scope and dignity to it that has been its hallmark since 2001. I love them for giving me a Middle-earth that was just as I would have imagined it if my imagination had been capable for coming up with such staggering beauty. I love them for making Fantasy mainstream in a way that still feels incredible every now and then, whenever I think back to the times before 2001.
All of these make the film's faults so much more painful, though.
Oh, and on another note: gilded Galadriel prints are back in my shop! :)
Comments
The very first! Faramir is my single number one gripe with the movies. The second would be Haldir at Helm's Deep. The Last Alliance of Elves and Men was three thousand years ago, folks. And Haldir*s death felt cheesy and like pure fanservice, with a sort of character who should not have had any fans to begin with.
Jenny Dolfen
2019-07-13 14:30:33 +0000 UTCI absolutely love your interpretation of Faramir! I agree 100%. PJ did a lot of things well, but I was disturbed by the interpretations of many of the same characters you mentioned. PJ's Faramir bothered me the most-I was so distraught. Hmm, if you could make any changes to the films, what would you change? Would Faramir's actions and/or character be of consideration?
Emily Sheldrake
2019-07-10 22:05:54 +0000 UTCOh, we've had this conversation before, but I'm just so happy to see such a lovely sketch of Faramir! I remember that thing about Peter Jackson saying his dealing with Faramir was because of his idea of NO ONE being able to resist the Ring's temptation, and that he only invited Frodo and Sam some tea and let them go. That moment was one of the most distressful ones in the book! A lot of modern movimaking underestimates the power of subtlety and the sheer might of words. That "I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway" would have sound beautiful in the voice of David Wenham.
Laura Michel
2019-07-08 23:14:21 +0000 UTCYesssssss Faramir yes please...! Yay, sketches of my favorite character. =)
Ashfae
2019-07-07 21:30:38 +0000 UTCFaramir was always the biggest disappointment in the movie for me! Most of the other ‘creative freedom’ I could on some lever accept, but Faramir not being thoroughly decent? No way!
Liv Klein
2019-07-07 07:42:55 +0000 UTCI totally agree with your point: I love the movies for a galaxy of reasons, but they totally misunderstood Faramir (but arf, not the only bad characterisation of the movies unfortunately), and I already love this sketch *.*
Litsen
2019-07-07 05:50:27 +0000 UTCTHIS, yes! Something I found really interesting was that these over-the-top and out-of-character actions stood out in a way that even my children, who haven't read the books (yes, my parenting was a huge failure) spotted all of them. When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli kung-fu'd their way through Meduseld, or when Aragorn golf-ball'd the Mouth of Sauron, one of my kids always asked, "Was it like this in the books?", already knowing the answer...
Jenny Dolfen
2019-07-07 04:56:48 +0000 UTCThey do have a point in that many characters are rather simply conceived, but they are well rounded in that simplicity. What the film did was take these simple, round characters, and add inner turmoil to most of them. They felt that the characters needed conflict, and so they added *the same* conflict to each of them. They all suffer from self-doubt until one of the fellowship comes along and sets them straight. It's so transparent and gets old really soon, and didn't add a thing to the characters.
Jenny Dolfen
2019-07-07 04:52:48 +0000 UTCI LOVE this sketch of Faramir!
ianflyhi アイアン
2019-07-07 02:24:31 +0000 UTCI remember looking forward to Faramir when the movies came out but feeling so bittersweet when I finally saw him. Like Steven said above, the actor did a beautiful job portraying the character but the adaptation choices were so disappointing. In the books, I loved how he was set as a foil to Boromir, easily turning away from the lure of the Ring and acknowledging Frodo’s great burden, showing that some Men could withstand its corruption and maintain their quality. The movie choices stripped him of that key choice and his character suffered for that.
AJ
2019-07-07 00:47:37 +0000 UTCFaramir was well cast but miserably scripted. What got me was that PJ couldn't deal with true nobility and virtue, especially with the race of men. Aragorn beheading the messenger of Sauron was a particular low point.
Steven Tryon
2019-07-06 23:10:10 +0000 UTCFaramir is my favorite character. Reports on his treatment were one reason why I never watched the movies
Mary Catelli
2019-07-06 22:52:57 +0000 UTCI wholeheartedly agree! I’ve been re-reading and am falling in love with the characters all over again. I love the dignity of these books, and I love that the movies treated the story with such scope and gave it such beauty. However, most of my favorite characters have been reduced to half of their book selves! (Funny when it seems that many modern critics accuse LotR of sparse character development).
Sariah
2019-07-06 22:30:51 +0000 UTC
