Analysis of Film

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Scene #2 “The Shire”
In this scene, the audience is introduced to Frodo Baggins and Gandalf; Frodo is a hobbit and Gandalf a wizard, with a somewhat bad reputation in the Shire for his influence on Bilbo Baggins’ adventures. We first see Frodo reading under a tree, he hears Gandalf’s cart and runs to great him. Frodo and Gandalf catch up as they ride into town in Gandalf’s chart. Gandalf drives by a group of children and shoots off fireworks from the back of his chart. They continue onward through town and out toward Bilbo’s home; Frodo jumps off leaving Gandalf to go and see Bilbo.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is clearly a cinematic masterpiece combing an outstanding score, excellent cinematography and top notch acting. The scene I selected is at the very beginning of the trilogy and is very happy and innocent seen through the use of music, sound effects, wide shots and intercutting.

The part of this scene that sticks out the most to me is the music; it captures the main recurring “theme song” of the films; take a listen. To me, the music is very innocent and happy. It swells when there are long shots of the Hobbit countryside and stops all together when a wife looks at her husband with disgust, emphasizing her anger. When Frodo is reading under the tree, there are environmental sounds (atmos) of birds chirping. I feel that music is a very strong component; I have instrumental soundtracks for Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Titanic, Pirates of the Caribbean and Pride and Prejudice and listening to the score allows me to develop a stronger connection to the film, the scene and the characters. I feel that without the music in Lord of the Rings, the movie would be lacking deeper feeling and emotion; music speaks when the character cannot.

The scene begins with Frodo reading under a tree; there is an over-the-shoulder shot, which I felt was an excellent way to introduce Frodo’s character as one of innocence and goodness, who is content reading under a tree. Frodo and Gandalf’s relationship is clearly seen when there is parallel cutting (intercutting) between Frodo’s race to meet Gandalf and Gandalf’s continuation along the road. The first thing the audience hears Frodo say is “You’re late” to Gandalf, implying that they have a comfortable, familiar relationship.

As Frodo and Gandalf ride into town, there are many wide shots to show the Hobbit countryside. This shows the audience the beauty, purity and peacefulness of the Shire and why Gandalf is so eager to protect it. The wide shots are breathtaking and serve to establish the setting for the next few scenes. As the camera pans across these scenes, the music swells which contributes to the effectiveness of the peacefulness and beauty of the Shire.

In my classroom
In one of the classes I just finished teaching 10 International Baccalaureate prep, the students do many commentaries, discussing the author’s purpose and how it is achieved using multiple literary devices. I think it would be really interesting to have students write a commentary on a movie version of a text they are reading. For example, it would be interesting to compare a text like Pride and Prejudice, The Things They Carried or Dracula to a film interpretation of the text. They would give a brief summary of the film, define context of the clip and show the clip. Next, describe the “author’s purpose” and the techniques being used to achieve it. This way it is still pertaining to the IB ideas of author’s purpose and how it is achieved but giving students a chance to pair a text to something potentially more accessible.

I also think it would be interesting to have Literature Circles of 5-6 students reading the same choice book and have them find a film that would be able to be paired with their text. For example, reading The Things They Carried and showing a clip from Forest Gump. Students would critique how the text and the film portray similar elements/situations/themes and which they think was more effective. Granted, it would be important to choose books that have film counterparts, but that could also be the challenge of the group.

I really like the idea of viewing a film without sound or viewing a film without the image. It would be interesting to see the differences in student interpretations, especially if you turned on the movie and only have the title, without any further background knowledge.