Film Review: "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim"
Though sometimes grim, there's still a great deal of magic in this animated Tolkien adaptation, which captures the beauty, the nobility, and the tragedy of Middle-earth.
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Welcome to Tolkien Tuesdays, where I talk about various things that I love about the lore and writings of Tolkien, whether in a chapter reading or a character study or an essay. I hope you enjoy reading these ruminations as much as I enjoy writing them and, if you have a moment, I’d love it if you’d subscribe to this newsletter. It’s free, but there are paid options, as well, if you’re of a mind to support a struggling writer. Either way, thank you for joining me!
I’ll be perfectly honest. I was a bit on the fence about The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, mostly because I wasn’t convinced that aime, for all of its aesthetic beauty, was quite the right medium to bring Middle-earth to light. I’m also just increasingly hostile to Warner Bros. Discovery and its increasingly desperate attempts to make the most out of its existing IP, regardless of the quality of their productions. As it turns out, however, all of my reservations were not really warranted. War of the Rohirrim is one of those magnificent pieces of filmmaking that really does immerse you in the breathtaking, beautiful, and sometimes heartbreaking world of Middle-earth.
When the film begins, Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) is King of Rohan, with three children to his name: sons Hama and Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) and daughter Héra (Gaia Wise). When Freca, a lord with Dunlending blood in his veins, tries to convince Helm to betrothe his daughter to his own son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), he takes a very abrasive tone with the fiery-tempered king and, after a duel, he is struck down by Helm. This sets in motion a tragic cycle of revenge that results in Helm’s forces being driven to the Hornburg, where everyone’s strength, particularly Héra’s, will be tested.
War of the Rohirrim nicely captures the sense of stubborn nobility that is such an essential part of the national character of Rohan. Helm is the most obvious exemplar of this spirit, with his blunt outlook, his contempt for the Dunlendings and their desire to wed one of their own to his daughter. I cannot think of a better actor to voice Helm than Brian Cox, who brings his gravelly Scottish brogue to the character, imbuing him with a powerful presence that often overshadows everyone around him. While Helm may not be quite the same sort of hero as Théoden, and while his pride may ultimately lead to both his downfall, he comes to see the error of his ways before the end and, when it comes down to it, he does sacrifice his life to help protect his people and his daughter.
For her part, Héra is the type of badass heroine who is still vanishingly rare in far too much fantasy. I’m sure the “anti-woke” brigade will rail against the imposition of having an empowered woman in their fantasy realm, but for my part I loved her. I wasn’t sold at first on her waifish design, even though I’m very aware that this is rather de rigueur in much anime. However, such is the power of her characterization, and of Wise’s voice performance, that you can’t help but fall in love with and admire her. A fierce and bright spirit burns in her breast, and she won’t let anything–not a spurned lover, not the patriarchal authority of her father, not even the deaths of her brothers and many that she cares about–stand in the way of her desire to defend her people from ultimate defeat.
Nor is Héra the only heroine in the film. She is frequently joined by her loyal companion Olwyn, a former shield maiden (voiced by Lorraine Ashbourne). Like her mistress she is a formidable warrior, and she remains steadfast by Héra’s side even during the darkest days of the siege. She is in many ways a relic of an older period, as she is one of the last shield-maidens still living in Rohan, and in that sense she provides a useful bridge between the past and the present for this kingdom. And, of course, it’s worth noting that both Héra and Olwyn are precursors to Éowyn herself, whose own deeds on the field of battle will have a profound impact on the history of Middle-earth.
War of the Rohirrim also captures a great deal of the visceral horror and terror that is sometimes overlooked in screen adaptations of Middle-earth. The oliphaunts, as one author notes, are very frightening in this adaptation, particularly the one that Héra and her entourage encourage while out riding sentry. Seeing one of these beasts rampaging around the fields of Rohan–its little eyes agleam with maddened malice–is truly something to behold, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment when Héra manages to trick the rampaging beast into stumbling into the maw of yet another infamous monster, the Watcher in the Water (or at least its cousin). This is fantastic stuff, and animation brings it to life in a way that’s a wonder to behold.
As frightening as the fauna are, however, they pale in comparison to Wulf, who is driven nearly mad by grief at his father’s death By the time the siege has come to an end there is nothing left for him but vengeance and hatred. Like any good tragic villain his soul has been utterly corrupted and overthrown by his desire to destroy the line of Helm and all that it represents, even if that means that he has to rule over a realm of ashes. This is quite literally true, as Edoras and Meduseld itself are reduced by fire during his conquest, leaving him to sit in the ruins of the Golden Hall and put on Helm’s abandoned crown. Wulf is too brutal and cruel to ever really sympathize with–he even goes so far as to cut the throat of Prince Hama at the gates of the Hornburg–but there’s no denying that he is a captivating screen presence, all curdled rage and destructive might.
War of the Rohirrim is, on the whole, a very grim movie, which is perhaps one of its greatest departures from the template laid out by Peter Jackson. After all, Jackson’s films had the advantage of having at least some of its scenes set in the Shire, and you could always count on Merry and Pippin and Sam (and Gimli) to lighten up the more dour moments. There’s very little comic relief in The War of the Rohirrim, which can make for sometimes grim going. Again, though, this is in keeping with the type of story that it’s trying to tell and with the spirit of the Rohirrim themselves.
Yes, I can hear you asking, but how Tolkienian is it? Though, as I’ve written before, I find that question personally rather frustrating and not particularly illuminating, I will nevertheless try to answer it, because I know this is an issue for some viewers. To put it plainly: this is a remarkably Tolkienian piece of filmmaking. The War of the Rohirrim grapples with some of the heavy questions that often motivate so much of Tolkien’s work, particularly focusing on what constitutes good leadership and the wages of pride and folly. And, for all of the grimness in tone, there is still a triumph of the human spirit here, made most manifest by Héra who, in fine epic hero tradition, is quite prepared to make the final sacrifice for her people. Furthermore, it’s also worth noting that, despite the fact that the screenplay adapts just a few paragraphs of the Appendices, it still remains remarkably true to the text.
While I loved this film, it does have a few flaws that become more glaring and troubling the more I think about them. It still traffics in the same sort of Orientalism as Jackson’s films, as Susana Polo notes. Moreover, it does try a bit too hard at times to tie the film in with the existing Jackson oeuvre rather than allowing it to stand on its own two feet. I love hearing Miranda Otto as Éowyn again, and it’s fitting that she is the narrator, but There’s also the requisite eagle ex machina to help get the Rohirrim out of the jam imposed by an unbreakable siege, as well as a brief cameo by Saruman (which uses some archival recordings of Christoper Lee) and even a mention of Gandalf and his search for the One Ring. It’s all fine, as far as it goes, but these reminders of the larger problems facing anything set in Middle-earth: the all-consuming shadow of Peter Jackson, the stranglehold of nostalgia, and a Hollywood ever more averse to any kind of risk and therefore determined to keep mining the same veins in the hope of producing new results.
By this point it’s clear that Warner Brothers Discovery is going to do everything it can to stripmine the works of Tolkien and other authors to make sure that it makes maximum use of established IP. While I personally enjoyed the film quite a lot and continue to cheer for its success, it doesn’t seem as if it’s going to make much of an impression at the box office. An anime adaptation of Tolkien’s work–particularly one with a badass heroine at its heart–was always going to struggle a bit financially, given how stubbornly conservative, indeed downright reactionary, many segments of the Tolkien fandom remain.
However, there’s a lot of magic to this film, and I continue to think that animation is uniquely primed to capture the beauty and the poetry of fantasy. I can only hope, futile as it may be, that we see more such visually stunning productions in the future.