Lord of the Rings: Peter Jackson’s Movies Made Isildur More Heroic
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy made the Isildur character more heroic by changing a key element of the battle against Sauron.
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The Lord of the Rings movies made a vital change to the story of Isildur, casting him in a more heroic light. While Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy proved divisive among die-hard Tolkien fans, the adaptation was relatively faithful compared to other book-to-movie endeavors. Tom Bombadil and the “Scouring of the Shire” epilogue were cut due to their minimal impact on the central story, the timeline was hastened to kick Frodo out of the Shire quicker, and the sequence of events between The Two Towers and The Return of the King is shuffled around to create a more traditional film structure. A myriad of other changes were put into motion during Middle-earth’s transition to the big screen, but the core plot and characters remain largely untouched.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, a flashback sequence reveals the history of the One Ring and the initial defeat of the Dark Lord Sauron, turning the spotlight onto Aragorn’s predecessor, Isildur. In the movie version of The Last Alliance of Elves & Men, “all hope is lost” as Sauron looms dominant over the battlefield. In a final, desperate move, Isildur seizes his father’s sword, only for the blade to be shattered under the boot of Sauron. With the remaining shard of metal, Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron’s hand, felling the villain and putting an end to the long-standing war against Mordor. Infamously, Isildur is then seduced by the power of the Ring and refuses to destroy it.
In the works of Tolkien, the tide of battle flows quite differently during this historic event, which is referenced in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Silmarillion and other appendices and letters. Thanks to the brave sacrifices of both Gil-Galad and Elendil (the respective leaders of elves and men) Sauron was already defeated before Isildur took the sword Narsil. Instead, Isildur finds his father’s already broken weapon in the twilight of battle, approaches the weakened Sauron and cuts off the One Ring with considerably more ease than his film counterpart. Technically, Isildur still delivers the finishing blow, but the hard work had already been done, whereas Isildur in the movie becomes the savior of Middle-earth by cutting down Sauron while the Enemy was in his pomp, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
This is quite an important distinction between the two versions of The Lord of the Rings. If Elendil and Gil-Galad together were responsible for Sauron’s defeat, the alliance between their two races feels more equal, proving that Sauron could only be defeated if the species of Middle-earth put aside their differences and united. In Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the flashback’s focus remains squarely upon Isildur and his father, tacitly awarding men the lion’s share of the glory.
More important is how the change to Sauron’s defeat affects Isildur’s character. In the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Isildur has two big moments – taking the Ring, and refusing to destroy it. This two-part arc casts Isildur as a fallen hero, where the man who saves Middle-earth is corrupted by the power of the One Ring, and condemns his descendants to misery by refusing to finish the job. Isildur’s journey in Tolkien’s books is closer to a traditional, almost Shakespearean, figure of tragedy. Isildur isn’t the hero of the Last Alliance, but he dutifully (perhaps opportunistically) removes the Ring from Sauron’s hand. Isildur inherits the burden of the Ring, rather than earning it by defeating Sauron, making his fall from grace less extreme. The tragedy of Isildur is continued in the time of his death. After finally agreeing to relinquish the Ring, Isildur travels to Rivendell but is assailed by orcs on the journey, who were attracted by the Ring’s call. The Ring then intentionally slips from Isildur’s finger, revealing him to pursuers and causing his death. Isildur’s original story portrays him more as a victim of the Ring, whose demise came about by fate.
Although Peter Jackson’s change to Isildur inherently changes the emphasis of the character, the deviation makes sense in the context of a Hollywood movie. The Lord of the Rings is already packed with an abundance of characters in the story’s present day, so streamlining the flashback material helps ease that burden. Isildur cutting the Ring from Sauron’s hand simplifies the history lesson, even if it does inspire less sympathy for Elendil’s son.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-isildur-sauron-fight-movie-change-heroic/