Lord of the Rings is an amazing story. (I have to confess that I've only seen the movies and have never read the book. But the movies were superb.)
There's one scene in particular towards the end of the story that I think is incredible. Frodo has been hauling this little ring all over creation to destroy it. It's an evil ring, and as the journey drags on, Frodo becomes increasingly worn down by this burden. He finally reaches the last leg of his quest. He has to cross this dark, rugged, barren, dangerous mountain to get to the only fire that can destroy the ring forever. Frodo is tired. He's exhausted, weary, beaten, bruised, and alone.
Alone, except for his best friend Sam, who has refused to leave his side.
When he cannot take another step, Frodo collapses in a heap. Take a look to see what happens next*:
Frodo has become utterly lost in the darkness of his burden. It has closed in around him, choking the very life from his body. All he can feel is hopelessness and despair.
But Sam does a beautiful thing. He shares the burden. He knows he can't make it go away. There isn't a thing he can do to ease Frodo's suffering.
But he can carry his friend.
What a beautiful picture of bearing one anothers' burdens. Some people are carrying burdens so heavy and dark that their very lives are being smothered. They can no longer move forward, and there is no way out. All they see is the darkness surrounding them, and all they feel is hopelessness and despair.
But we can carry them.
_________
*I apologize for the bilingual subtitles. It was the only clip I could find.
1 comment:
Love it!
BTW, you really don't need to read the books, the movies are WAY better! The books have a lot of rhetoric and the story sometimes just feels like it's progressing much to slow.
One thing I thought was interesting - that really cool poem that Arwen recited about the sword in the third movie - "...renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king." In the book, that was written by Bilbo and seemed much more comical when he quoted it in the book, I believe in the first book to Aragorn.
On the flip side, Faramir and Eomer were much more gentle and kind-hearted than they seemed in the movies. In fact I heard that Peter Jackson purposely tried to make Faramir a bit of a jerk in the second film to not take focus away from good King Aragorn. But in the book, Faramir was never tempted by the ring and never made Frodo and Sam his prisoners like he did in the movie. He was always very kind towards them.
Is my geekiness showing through yet?
Have you watched the Extended editions? I can't ever go back to the theater versions, those extended editions are so much better and tell a much fuller story!
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