Analysis of a Film Scene

I will be using scene 29 from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Jackson, 2002) for this assignment. In this scene, Gollum, a computer-generated character obsessed with a ring, experiences a great internal conflict.

It may be necessary, for those who are unfamiliar with the story, to describe Gollum for a moment. Gollum is a character who could easily be argued as having multiple-personality disorder. His two “sides” are Gollum and Smeagol. Gollum, the dominant personality, is willing to do whatever is necessary to regain possession of the ring around which the film is based. He will lie, cheat, steal, and kill to get it back. Smeagol is the submissive personality. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone and is looked upon as weak by Gollum.

The scene starts with a medium-shot of the other two characters in the scene, the hobbits Frodo and Sam, sleeping. This is also the establishing shot of the scene. They are on the border of Mordor, a dark and forbidding country. The mood and setting is established by using low-key lighting and a blue lens, which creates the feel of night and gloom. The lighting stays the same throughout the scene.

The music also helps to relate the scene to the setting. It is sorrowful and a bit creepy. Mordor is a land in Middle Earth that has been tainted by evil; it is basically part volcanic wasteland and part swamp. Very few creatures live there, and the ones that do aren’t very nice. The music influences the audience in this scene to feel some of the despair that our characters are feeling at this point in the film series.

The camera then uses a zoom lens to get a close-up shot of Frodo holding a chain, which holds “the ring,” a fact established in the previous film of the series. We then hear Gollum’s voice off-screen. By having the lines of dialogue come from off-screen, and while the other two characters are sleeping, the fact is established that Gollum is doing or planning something that perhaps he shouldn’t.

The camera then zooms back out of the close-up of the chain and we see Gollum for the first time. Gollum finishes his first line looking away from the camera at the two sleeping hobbits and then looks into the camera with a look of contempt on his face. By having Gollum look directly into the camera, the audience can get a sense of his mood and deep desire for the ring by his facial expressions. The camera stays in mid-shot range during Gollum’s first few lines.

Next, a cut is made to a medium close-up of Gollum. It is here that the audience will now see this character’s personalities play out. The camera pans from left to right and, at the end of the pan, we get to hear from Smeagol, the submissive personality. Smeagol delivers a few lines and the camera pans back right. At the end of this pan we hear again from Gollum, the dominant personality. Most of the remainder of the scene is a series of short cuts between each of the personalities and the voicing of their sides of the main argument. Doing the shot this way really brings out the internal struggle that this character is facing.

As the argument ensues, the camera zooms in to a more close-up shot of Gollum each time he speaks. His final accusation in the argument is that Smeagol is a murder. By having the camera get closer to Gollum during his arguments, and being in close-up range for his final point, emphasizes for the audience the severity of the accusation.

The camera then cuts back to a mid-shot of Smeagol and we see the reaction that this accusation has brought about. Smeagol is downcast, almost crying. The camera then cuts back to Gollum and zooms back out to a mid-shot. The discussion continues, and eventually the camera zooms back in on Gollum stating that he is the reason this character has survived so long. By zooming back in, the audience can see the intensity of the emotions in Gollum.

The camera again cuts to Smeagol, who has a realization that he doesn’t need Gollum’s influence anymore. It then cuts back to Gollum’s close-up, which shows the absolute puzzlement of this aspect of the character. This happens for a few more cuts as Smeagol asserts his personality for the first time in many years (at least 50 if you following the chronology of The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings). Each shot of Smeagol shows his increasing joy as he tries to banish Gollum, and eventually succeeds. The scene does one last cut to where the audience has established Gollum’s point of view to be, only to discover that it is Smeagol still! By doing this, the audience realizes that Gollum is, in fact, gone, and only Smeagol remains on both sides of the argument. Smeagol then does a celebratory caper as he (and the camera) move towards the two sleeping Hobbits once more. Good has triumphed, but for how long?