The Lord of the Rings and Journey Essay Example for Free

The Lord of the Rings and Journey Essay A journey will always consist of travelling from one place to another, whether it be physical, where you actually embark over a distance or inner, where you learn something new from your campaign. Throughout my speech I will be talking about 2 texts that resemble a journey in different ways and text types. My prescribed text is Touching the void. Touching the void is a docudrama composed by director Kevin McDonald. And my chosen text is the book Lord of the rings by author J. R. R Tolkien. The book of lord of the rings, consists of many mini journey. Both these texts outline the main points of the concept journey. Touching the void is about a pair of climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, who go on a expedition up the treacherous Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. It becomes a survival story after Joe breaks his leg and is cut loose by Simon. Kevin McDonald uses a variety of film techniques to convey and explore the different details of the concept of ‘journey’. At the beginning of the climb, you can see that these two men aren’t truly prepared for what they are about to take part in. Kevin has purposely used quotes such as ‘we climb because it’s fun’ because it gives the viewer the impression that Joe and Simon did not expect everything to go wrong so badly, and therefore not be prepared. Lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring by J. R. R Tolkien, is an imaginative book about a great journey, a journey to destroy the evil ring of power. At the beginning of the book a young hobbit named Frodo is given the ring by his uncle Bilbo, not aware of its history and power. Gandalf, a wizard sees the ring and tells Frodo to leave the shire. Even though Frodo was warned of the rings power he did not leave straight away, whether it be because he was scared or not ready. This gives the impression that Frodo really did not know what he was getting himself into and wasn’t truly prepared. This relates to Joe and Simon not being prepared for their journey up the mountain in touching the void. Both Joe and Simon and also Frodo learn now that in order to overcome something you have to be prepared. This signifies that they have all embarked on an inner journey and learnt something from it. Kevin uses the non-diagetic sound of music to first set the scene of the movie. The music provokes the feeling of mystery and fear, like you don’t know what’s going to happen. This is what a journey needs, it needs mystery because mystery is travelling into the unknown and out of your comfort zone. Tolkien also used this image of mystery but through different techniques. The quote â€Å" it’s a dangerous business going out of your door, you step into the road and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you’ll be swept off to† , also represents mystery. Tolkien and Kevin both knew that in order to properly symbolize a journey they needed this mystery, it provides the best way to keep the audience intrigued. To represent how enormous a task the climb is going to be for Joe and Simon, Kevin uses a wide angle rolling shot over Siula Grande, this gives the impression that its huge and treacherous and that they have a massive and demanding journey ahead of them. Kevin also uses a wide angle shot to zoom to a close up on Joe and Simon as they climb, this represents how insignificant and small they are compare to the giant mountains that surround them. this directly relates to some of the concepts in Lord of the Rings. To depict the treacherous and demanding landscape, Tolkien uses imaginative and descriptive metaphors and similes, also he describes each characteristic of the environment with great detail. A good quote that supports this is â€Å"looking ahead they could only see tree trunks of several sizes and shapes, straight or bent, twisted, leaning, smooth or rough, knurled or branched and all the stems were green or grey with moss and slimy shaggy growths†. This is heavily descriptive and is a great example of how Tolkien uses descriptive language to describe the physical journey of the fellowship. When Joe and Simon make it to the mountain peak they become overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment and relief. There are many indicators to what they are feeling in this scene. For one the facial expressions and laughter of the actors in the scene, they seem very happy, secondly, the music in this also produces the feeling of overwhelmed bliss, a almost heavenly tune coupled with the wide/high angle pan shot overlooking the mountains, giving the indication that, yes these mountains are massive and intense but we finally had overcome them, and we are happy. This links to the dark forest chapter in lord of the rings. After being lost for days, Frodo, Sam and pippin find an opening. The opening is an old bonfire area, this has the same effect on the hobbits, as the mountain peak had on Joe and Simon. The quote ‘it seemed a charming cheerful place, compared to the forest’ is an indication of their relief. As they went into the forest they had little hope of making it out but as they did, it shows a great deal of physical and mental toughness in the hobbits. And that they have overcome another physical and mental journey. In conclusion both these texts are great examples of the concept of journey, the composers use different techniques to get their stories across but both effectively show the inner and physical journey of their characters in great detail. â€Å"We don’t receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us†.