Review: No Trampling on Tolkien with ROHIRRIM
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
Screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou
Story by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Philppa Boyens
Produced by Philippa Boyens, Jason DeMarco and Joseph Chou
Directed by Kenji Kamiyama
PG-13, 2hr 14m
[all images: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures]
There are several ways to approach adapting Tolkien’s work to the screen. The best, in my opinion, is a faithful adaptation of existing material. There is an immense amount of story that can be adapted for the screen changing very little. While Jackson’s Lord of the Rings is considered a faithful adaptation, I had a number of things I disliked about it. Many more people seem to have issues with The Hobbit movies. If that’s what you prefer, then it’s likely you will not enjoy The War of the Rohirrim because while it exists within Tolkien’s framework, most of it simply isn’t something Tolkien portrayed.
I don’t have a problem with the “expanded universe” model as long as it remains in the limits of the source material. In my opinion, this movie does stay within those bounds. There are a few significant alterations regarding a few characters, and events, but I think it was done mostly for pacing reasons. The story ends in the same place.
The basis for this story is presented in Return of the King Appendix A, “The House of Eorl” which deals with the founding and history of Rohan. One specific part of the story is about Helm Hammerhand and a siege that happens at the Hornburg (afterwards known as Helm’s Deep) in the winter of 2758-2759 of the Third Age, about 182 years before the events of The Hobbit. Fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy will remember the Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers.
The events of the movie begin somewhat before (in Appendix A, 4 years prior) with Hera, daughter of Helm, and the protagonist of the film. A princess of Rohan is mentioned in Appendix A, but is not named which seems odd for an author who often creates multiple names for characters. It isn’t entirely clear what Tolkien’s purpose was in including this specific story, other than it dealt with Helm’s Deep. In any case, the daughter was not the focus of the original story.
The narrator of The War of the Rohirrim specifically notes that Hera’s story isn’t recorded in history, which means it must have been handed down in other ways—by oral tradition. Observers more astute than myself may have noticed that the narrator is none other than Miranda Otto, who played Eowyn in the Jackson films, and the narrator is listed as Eowyn in the credits. So, they establish that Hera’s story is one the Rohirrim know, and was certainly known by and an inspiration to Eowyn.
The story opens with Hera living a life one might expect of a Rohirrim Princess, riding a horse. She carries swords, and is stated several times in the movie to be one of the fastest riders. We meet her brother Hama, a musician, her Lady’s Maid Olwyn, her cousin Fréaláf (Helm’s nephew) her eldest brother Haleth, and Lief, a young court official. Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, Freca a lord of Rohan (of Dunlending parentage), his son Wulf and their General Targg are also major characters.
The plot of the movie follows the events presented in Appendix A, but greatly expands on it, focusing on the perspective of Hera and her part in these events. Unlike Amazon’s The Rings of Power that blatantly tramples Tolkien’s stories, altering them to the point of incoherence, The War of the Rohirrim stays within Tolkien’s framework as written (with a few exceptions) and instead adds material within the boundaries of a very brief story—about a page and a half. Of the characters listed, Helm, Haleth, Hama, Freca, Fréaláf, and Wulf are named in Tolkien’s story, and Hera is referred to, but the other characters are not.
This style of storytelling that seeks to respect Tolkien’s story and world is what I had hoped The Rings of Power would have been. The less said about that, the better, but there is a wide chasm between that and The War of the Rohirrim.
The animation style has the general look of old school 2D anime, but it clearly uses 3D methods. I didn’t realize this or even think about it, but it is reported that motion capture was used extensively. The animation style may be distracting for some audiences adverse to animation. The opening sequences includes a map of Middle Earth, which shifts from one style of graphic to what looked like a live action film shot, but which was likely 3D animation. After that, I became immersed in the story and didn’t really give the animation another thought until after the viewing.
The other Oliphant in the room is the “girl boss” issue. Popular entertainment in recent years has been (rightfully) accused of pandering to demands of “modern audiences” or rather media’s definition of what a modern audience is. That is often referred to as the girl boss—an absurd version of female empowerment. Whether or not you think that is an accurate description or exists, there is a contingent of people eager to label female protagonists as girl bosses.
As with any contentious issue, accuracy is often an early casualty. I like good characters and good stories. I never really cared much about their labels. Eowyn was a personal favorite of mine decades before Jackson’s movies and that was a decade or more before any of this was an issue.
I’m sure many people will disagree with me, but The War of the Rohirrim doesn’t have a “girl boss” problem. Is Hera a heroic character? Absolutely. Is her story absurd? No.
What I’m less sure of is whether a general audience, who doesn’t care about strict Tolkien lore (or even know what it is), and doesn’t worry about whether someone’s a girl boss, would enjoy this movie? I think they might. There is a good bit of action, some of it rather violent, but it’s a good story if a bit long perhaps for people who aren’t particularly interested in the source material. If you enjoyed The Lord of the Rings, I suspect you’d like this as well.
