Gollum may well be the most interesting non-protagonist character ever developed but I have to wonder who is more to blame for that fact in light of the recent LOTR franchise? There is a strong argument that Peter Jackson may be more to blame than J.R.R. Tolkien. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Tolkien fan. That said, Peter Jackson did many things to the LOTR and Hobbit movies to make them more enjoyable than the books. Apart from removing all of the tedious songs and genealogies that any other movie director would have removed, Jackson changed the whole premise behind how the one ring’s power, he reorganized the storyline well, he breathed depth into characters that were otherwise a little bland, and he made Gollum an unbelievably interesting character (hat tip to Andy Serkis as well of course).
What am I talking about and why do I bring this up in my blog? Originally, I was simply looking to post a famous quote and a picture – a Daily Wisdom or Daily Humor type post but when I started looking into the quote, I discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) what die hard Tolkien fans probably already knew: Gollum’s monologues are not taken directly out of the books. Jackson has taken a half dozen dialogues and even narrative sequences to create some of the best monologues of all time. Here is one of the more memorable dialogues (the one I was originally looking up):
“They cursed us. Murderer they called us. They cursed us, and drove us away. And we wept, Precious, we wept to be so alone. And we only wish to catch fish so juicy sweet. And we forgot the taste of bread… the sound of trees… the softness of the wind. We even forgot our own name.”
Wow – you couldn’t ask for a better quip to give your character than this one if your goal is to create some empathy for a creature. You can review the entire recreation of this monologue by clicking the image above. And of course, the “We told it to go away and away it goes!” dialogue is probably the best monologue of all time … all thanks to Jackson’s genius. Part of me would like to see Peter Jackson do the Silmarillion as he has hinted he will. Another part of me hopes that he can find something fresh and breath some new life into another iconic storyline. What do you think?
