I think I may now loathe Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies as much as I was thrilled with their making back in the early 2000s. I saw The Fellowship of the Ring seven times in the theater. At that time, I had only read the books five times, The Hobbit maybe twice, and none of the rest of Tolkien’s works or works about Tolkien. I have since lost count of how many times I’ve read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. I’ve read much more of Tolkien’s works and about Tolkien. I am a perennial Tolkien student.
I have the classic issues with the movie: Why is Frodo so young and weepy eyed? He’s older than Sam. Why do we have no scouring of the Shire? Where is Tom Bombadil? Why is Faramir so wrong? Why is Pippin so one dimensional? Why is Gimli comic relief? Why does Legolas’s combat get sillier and sillier? Why in the world are there elves at Helm’s Deep? What is even happening with the ents? Do not get me started on the charge of the Rohirrim. (It’s only one of my most loved passages in the book and the movie ruined it.) On and on and on it goes. Granted, the music, cinematography, costumes, and even some of the castings are fantastic and brilliant. Boromir’s death is one of my favorite scenes in all of film history. But I have long held a not-so-secret dislike for movie-Aragorn.
Lord bless him, Viggo Mortensen poured himself into that role. I appreciate all the work he put into the character. But movie-Aragorn is fundamentally wrong. Early on, I thought this was just a casting issue. Viggo didn’t look like how I’d pictured Aragorn when I read the book. I pictured him more like a dark-haired Vladimir Kulich as he was in The Thirteenth Warrior. Movie-Aragorn lacked the grim, stern, veiled-majesty that Aragorn has in the books. Movie-Aragorn wasn’t as bold or strong as the real Aragorn. The extended editions helped. Movie-Aragorn got a bit of his strength back with some extra scenes. Over the years, I grew to appreciate the humility Viggo brought to movie-Aragorn, but something still didn’t sit right with me: movie-Aragorn’s reluctance to take up his kingship. Never once does the book communicate that Aragorn was reluctant to be king. In fact, from the start, Aragorn is the king. His lack of titles and pomp isn’t because he’s reluctant. He’s in the wilderness, fighting the war, waiting for when the time is right to claim his kingship. But he was fostered from the beginning by Elrond, as the last heir to the throne of Gondor. This was never an issue. This was never in question. The question was the timing. Narsil reforged into Andúril wasn’t brought to him by Elrond at Dunharrow. It was reforged when he first set out on the quest. The quest was his path to returning as king. But Aragorn isn’t a tyrant, and he isn’t proud. He doesn’t just force his way in, demanding to be accepted as king. (And he could have.) He walks the long, dark road (literally) to his kingdom and goes quietly amongst his people, but it isn’t because he’s reluctant. It’s because he’s good and kind.
The root problem I have with movie-Aragorn is that Aragorn is the Christ-as-King-type character. Thus far, in my forty years of reading, I have yet to find a better fictional illustration of Christ as King than Aragorn. He is a mighty warrior with an iron will, who stoops to help hobbits, pities greatly, humbly walks his path, is longsuffering, and gently heals. He leads, and those who follow him love him greatly. Aragorn makes me long for a good king even as an American. Christ’s might and will was veiled while he was here on earth. He spent time in the wilderness. He healed and pitied. He didn’t take the easy path to his kingship. He walked the Paths of the Dead before claiming his kingship. He is not proud but humble. We who follow Christ love him. I love Aragorn because he helps me love my Jesus better. He points me, with every reading, back to my dearest Savior.
One of our pastors has been preaching through Luke, and we’ve gotten to the moment of Gethsemane when Jesus is praying in such agony. Pastor Jarrett took great pains to explain to us that this wasn’t reluctance on Jesus’ part. He wasn’t a reluctant savior. He wasn’t having second thoughts about saving me. He wasn’t giving up on saving me. As my pastor took us through Christ as 100% God and 100% man, the death Jesus faced, the wrath of God that would be poured out, he gently guarded us from thinking that Jesus was having second thoughts about redeeming his bride, about taking my sin on his shoulders. This is when it struck me that the reason I truly hate movie-Aragon was because Peter Jackson doesn’t understand Christ. He doesn’t understand Tolkien’s faith. He doesn’t understand the Christ-likeness that Tolkien built into Aragorn. He misread Aragon’s humility, pity, and the path he was on as reluctance. He mistook suffering before glory while having a veiled glory as reluctance. He didn’t understand the training, the leading of the Dúnedain, the prophecies passed down from father to son indicating the appropriate timing to reforge the sword, defeat Sauron, and reclaim the throne. Aragorn wasn’t a reluctant king; he was a king from the start. He knew it, accepted it, and lived his life as the King returning.
Maybe this is why the Paths of the Dead is a joke in the movie. I was so excited to see that scene when I first sat in the movie theater, but how do you pull off the Paths of the Dead when Gimli is comic relief? How do you pull that off when you haven’t brought in the Dúnedain or Elrond’s sons? How do you pull that scene off when Aragorn has been a reluctant King up till then? He has none of the strength of the real Aragorn because he wasn’t a full Christ-like character in the movie.
During The Council of Elrond, when Boromir questions Aragorn’s claim of kingship, Bilbo is the one who stands up for Aragorn, but Aragorn doesn’t hush Bilbo like movie-Aragorn hushes Legolas. He smiles at him, forgives Boromir’s doubt, and then defends himself. He’s not arrogant. He’s not belittling. He’s not proud. But he is the King. He doesn’t even demand that he be blindly followed. He explains to Boromir exactly who he is and what he has been doing, but he doesn’t back down. He is the King.
I am at the point where I wish I’d never seen the movie, and I wish all those who write about Tolkien would stop using pictures from it. I am at the point where I wish the Tolkien estate had not allowed them to be made. I wish I didn’t have these actors or voices in my head when I read the books. It pains me to think that huge swaths of people have only seen the movies and think that that is The Lord of the Rings. And right now, I’m sad that it could potentially be communicated to a young believer that Christ was a reluctant savior and a reluctant King. He wasn’t, not once, not ever. Humility, longsuffering, kindness, pity, endurance, and a willingness to wait for the right time isn’t weakness or reluctance. It is actually strength, true strength, and courage. Movie-Aragorn misses the mark because the writers, directors, and actors do not understand Christ. That’s not shocking, but it is sad. So I’ll keep reading and rereading The Lord of the Rings, and I’ll keep avoiding the movies as much as possible. And, as you can imagine, I have no plans to watch anything else that is made about Middle-earth.
Who is He born in the stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall? Who is He in deep distress, fasting in the wilderness?
Who is He the people bless for His words of gentleness? Who is He to whom they bring all the sick and sorrowing?
Who is He that stands and weeps at the grave where Laz'rus sleeps? Who is He the gath'ring throng greet with loud triumphant song?
Lo! at midnight, who is He prays in dark Gethsemane? Who is He on yonder tree dies in grief and agony?
Who is He that from the grave comes to heal and help and save? Who is He that from His throne rules through all the world alone?
-Benjamin Russell Hanby-
Thank you, as always, for the edits!
