Ok but– I want to talk about a small but extremely powerful difference in how Tolkien vs Ralph Bakshi vs Peter Jackson handled Boromir’s death.
This little difference gets me emotional every time, because it shows me the way adaptations have the potential to gradually build on the things that came before them.
When Book!Boromir is dying, he never physically reaches out to Aragorn–but Aragorn reaches out to him, taking his hand and kissing his brow.
Aragorn knelt beside him. Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. ‘I tried to take the Ring from Frodo ’ he said. 'I am sorry. I have paid.’ His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. 'They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.’ He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again.
'Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.’
'No!’ said Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his brow. 'You have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!’.
'Which way did they go? Was Frodo there?’ said Aragorn.
But Boromir did not speak again.”
In the Ralph Bakshi film, it’s the opposite.
As Boromir is dying, he desperately reaches out to Aragorn, grabbing Aragorn by the shoulder and clinging to him. And even with the Questionable character designs and animation, this strong powerful warrior suddenly falling apart and desperately clinging to someone in a moment of rare vulnerability, is…the idea behind it is moving, at least.
But unlike book-Aragorn— Bakshi-Aragorn never takes Boromir’s hand. Bakshi-Aragorn never kisses him.
It almost makes him come across as cold…. Boromir is reaching out to him so desperately, but he’s not really responding with the same level of vulnerability.
Then you get the Peter Jackson version.
While this is another post, Jackson and co drew heavily from the Ralph Bakshi film when they made their version of Lord of the Rings– mainly in the structure/pacing of the story (adding a prologue, eliminating Tom Bombadil/the Barrow-downs, replacing Glorfindel with a character who was more relevant to the main plot, etc.)
So their version of the death scene combines elements from the books and the Bakshi version.
Boromir desperately reaches out and clutches Aragorn’s cloak, like he did in the Bakshi version. It’s the pathos the Bakshi film was trying to get– the pathos of a strong warrior character suddenly breaking and hopelessly clinging to someone, showing a vulnerability you know they would never show unless they were certain they were about to die.
But unlike Bakshi!Aragorn…..Jackson!Aragorn takes Boromir’s hand, the way he did in the books.
And kisses him, the way he did in the books.
To me this is an example of like…the way storytelling, and adapting stories, is ultimately a conversation. Tolkien started the conversation, and then Bakshi looked at Tolkien’s ideas and gave his own input, and then Jackson and co looked at their ideas and gave their own input.
Tolkien came up with the idea of Aragorn taking Boromir’s hand and kissing him.
Bakshi came up with another idea– Boromir reaching out to Aragorn, and desperately clinging to him like he was his last hope.
Jackson and co. looked at both scenes and were like “these two versions were both emotional in different ways– we’ll be inspired by both of them, and our version of the scene will be this moment where the two characters are both reaching out to each other.”
