Lord of the Rings War of the Rohirrim: The Real Heroes Always Rode Horses

By John Kirk

Rating: B+

I’ve been a fan of The Lord of the Rings ever since the multi-coloured box set of the trilogy was a featured Scholastic Book Fair sales item. But it was never Gondor I was rooting for. It was always Theoden, Eowyn and the Riders of Rohan.

I loved the Kingdom of Rohan because it had to make some changes if it was to save Gondor in the third volume. If you’re like me, then you’ll get that and that’s the fan base this anime story is trying to reach. To an extent, they succeed, but the anime medium gets a little bit in the way.

The story: nearly 200 years before the time of the Ring, the kingdom of Rohan undergoes a civil war. Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), son of Freca (Shaun Dooley), a Dunlending lord, seeks revenge against the King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) for the death of his father in a duel.

Wulf drives the bulk of the population into seeking refuge at the fortress known as the Hornburg, or as it will become known, Helm’s Deep. There, he lays siege to the fortress, defended and led by the daughter of Hammerhand, Hera (Gaia Wise.). She is the hero of the story as narrated by Miranda Otto.

This is a tactic tried and true in the past by Peter Jackson and writer-collaborator, Phillipa Boyens. Leaning into their knowledge of the obscure parts of J.R.R. Tolkien’s extensive world history of Middle-Earth. It’s essentially correct. Hammerhand was insulted by Freca, who proposed that Wulf wed Hammerhand’s daughter. But Freca had low-caste bloodlines and his son was not worthy of Hammerhand’s daughter. This starts the war of the Rohirrim.

Though, it is of note, that the low-caste nature of the Dunlending blood isn’t emphasized. In the film, it’s seimply Freca’s wounded pride that gets the focus. Tolkien’s 20th century values clearly do not make for 21st century film story appeal.

However, the daughter of Helm Hammerhand was not named in the histories. Nor was she given any sort of role in the war, and this is where Boyens gets to exercise some creative license in creating a new female protagonist for the female character-deficient franchise: Hera.

Hera is a likeable but predictable heroine. With some touchstone features that fans will recognize in Eowyn, played by the narrator of this story, Miranda Otto in the original trilogy, Hera wields a sword, rides like champion horsewoman and clearly doesn’t let her gender define her choices. There’s not a lot of mystery in her and frankly, she’s a little dull.

The whole aim of this film is to attract the diehard fans who are eager to see a short history story of Middle-Earth that they can relate to. Middle-Earth isn’t a place that leaves a reader easily, and readers are viewers who don’t want to leave Middle-Earth. It’s a compelling place with a rich history and fans love to immerse themselves in it.

Of course, an animated version is easier to present the epic, near-mythological features of this world. Fantastic creatures who would require CGI to present in a live-action film are simply a matter of pen-and-paper artistry in an animated production. The vast landscapes, the heroic feats, and of course, larger-than-life characters themselves are all easier presented through animation.

But anime? That might be another story.

Anime is a medium that lends itself to exaggeration. Humans have over-dramatized abilities to leap what seem like tall bounds over others. They can take four arrows to the chest, withstand near-arctic snowstorms wearing the lightest of clothing and somehow still manage deliver hand to hand combat damage that seems inhuman.

Though the world of Middle-Earth is a fantasy, this film manages to put some scenes over the top and render moments campy and downright silly. When you hear the audience laughing at an exaggerated moment that was supposed to be serious in the film, this is a confirmed opinion.

Still, there are those moments that incorporate the score of the original trilogy soundtrack that manage to inspire the same sense of wonder that was present in Peter Jackson’s first foray into presenting The Lord of the Rings. When you get a chill down your spine as the music plays to show a cavalry charge by the Riders of Rohan, you know that the filmmakers had the right idea in mind when presenting the scene. In an anime format? Not so much.

I like that Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boy provide cameos in this film, I don’t want to give it away who they are. See if you can identify them before the credits come up, I’m betting you’ll know them right away,

Plus, the archived sound history incorporated for Christopher Lee’s Saruman is so cool. The whole theatre breathed a sigh of acceptance on this one.

Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a glorious production of anime art that is simply awesome to behold, even for someone like me who isn’t an anime fan. The level of detail and precision of display is something that I was expecting in this film and was somewhat lacking. If this was done in another animated style,

I honestly think that the production would have been a lot more easily accepted than when Helm Hammerhand is shown as frozen in a rigour pose that seems unlikely. Even though Tolkien’s writings were fantasy, they were explainable and realistic. That’s what was shown in Jackson’s production of the trilogy.

Of course, I can’t forgive Jackson for omitting Tom Bombadil, but that’s my issue, not yours.

All in all, this is probably the best production of the litany of Tolkien pre-Ring stories I’ve seen on the big screen and I’d count The Hobbit in that estimation. There is a part where it drags a little, and some moments that are campy (I blame those on the anime elements), but all in all, this is definitely something that I would recommend seeing on the big screen.

In fact, if there is an IMAX opportunity, I would take it. The cavalry charges and gross combat scenes are epic and will give you that same sense of thrill when seeing the original trilogy. But I always loved when the Rohirrim rode to the rescue… and that’s in this film.

Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama, produced by Peter Jackson. Starring Gaia Wise, Brian Cox, Miranda Otto, Luke Pasqualino, Shaun Dooley, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and Christopher Lee. In theatres December 13.