The Two Towers

Who's lost the plot?

THE TWO TOWERS

Lord of the Rings Part II

Director: Peter Jackson

Cert. 12A

The Lord of the Rings on screen continues to pull in the crowds. We waited for a week after the new film made its debut, but even so we could only get tickets for a late night performance.

The film begins fairly abruptly and I wasn't sure that anyone who had not seen the first episode would have cottoned on to what it was all about - thus someone in the seat behind us had to keep explaining various connections to his companion. For those who know the book, the story takes us from the breaking of the fellowship, when Frodo and Sam strike out for Mordor alone, through to the victory at Helm's Deep and the ruin of Saruman at Isengard. However, though the beginning and ending are recognisable, much of the plot in between has been changed or lost from Tolkien's great book. Some changes simplify the story, some seem to just add dramatic effect. The overall impact is a loss of depth in various characters, but it is still a highly impressive film which grabs the imagination.

It leaves us with a vast amount to think about. As the ring seems to take a greater grip on Frodo, we are confronted with the terrible fascination of evil power. Environmental questions, of course, surface with Saruman's destruction of the forest and the revenge of the Ents. But, most of all, as the story speaks of 'the West' - weak, and under attack from a fanatical foe - one cannot help but hear echoes of our own times. Secularism has robbed our leaders and our culture of Christian principle, direction and value and sold us into the hands of consumer pragmatism. As we see the demise of social building blocks like the family and the nation state and as we face challenges from such diverse directions as militant Islam and the gay lobby it seems impossible that the free world will stand in the form we know it. The resolve is missing. In the film hope comes in the form of the return of 'the White Rider' - Gandalf redivivus at the head of a conquering army. The Second Coming must loom large in Christian minds at this point.

The crucial speech comes from Sam Gamgee, the bucolic side-kick of the despondent ring-bearer. Why carry on? The task is impossible. 'We must believe there is some good in this world worth fighting for', or words to that effect, is the answer. As I left the cinema and went out into the night I wondered what my fellow members of the audience saw as the good worth fighting for. Then I realised that such questions may, sadly, not even have registered. For many of them life is about entertainment and this was just another rip-roaring action adventure with bags of special effects. Perhaps it's not just the director who has lost the plot.

JEB