All of the vocalizations that Andy Serkis makes could be, and should be, described with those words. His voice is ‘creaking’ and ‘hissing.’ He ‘croaks,’ he ‘whines,’ he ‘whimpers,’ he ‘shrieks,’ and makes the miserable ‘gollum’ noise in his throat. Tolkien describes him as having a ‘large head,’ ‘scrawny neck,’ long arms and legs,’ clammy fingers,’ ‘thin lank hair,’ with ‘pale eyes’ and ‘sharp teeth.’ The filmmakers certainly managed all that. It would be unfair and incorrect to say that they completely missed the mark with Gollum. He is the only main character who has a chance of being a hero but has no redemption whatsoever. Tolkien ‘ most grieved by Gollum’s failure … to repent.’ That is ‘the tragedy of Gollum.’ While the filmmakers characterised him correctly, by changing six key scenes they missed the point of him as the chief tragedy of The Lord of the Rings in the way Tolkien had envisioned, and by doing so, they cut the heart out of Gollum in favour of drama. The filmmakers spent a lot of time at the front end and back end with the digital effects to get Gollum’s physical characterisation right, and while they certainly achieved what they wanted, his physical characteristics and mannerisms, they failed to achieve the tragedy of Gollum that so resonated with Tolkien. However, despite the success of the films, they did not correctly portray Gollum. Jackson managed to create the films to critical acclaim, winning a number of awards and even sweeping the Academy Awards with the final film. The case can be made that they were successful. What’s more, they had to contend with the difficult and elusive character of Gollum Producer Rick Porras said that ‘if Gollum didn’t work, it all just would have fallen apart, it would’ve been like a house of cards.’ As it is written, it is ill-suited for the silver screen – not at all following a conventional film story. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings, they had the monumental task of putting a beloved and almost sacred novel on screen. When Peter Jackson and company set out to adapt J.R.R. Samantha Reynolds gives us her contribution to the 25th Anniversary Miruvor issue: an essay on the portrayal of Gollum in Jackson’s film trilogy.
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