#as in: jackson believes like denethor that war can save middle-earth

[nochd]

I have Thoughts about what the movies did with Denethor, but this scene is where they come closest to getting him right.

"What would you do in my service?" "I thought, sir, that you would tell me my duties." "I will, when I learn what you are fit for," said Denethor. "But that I shall learn soonest, maybe, if I keep you beside me. The esquire of my chamber has begged leave to go to the out-garrison, so you shall take his place for a while. You shall wait on me, bear errands, and talk to me, if war and council give me any leisure. Can you sing?" "Yes," said Pippin. "Well, yes, well enough for my own people. But we have no songs fit for great halls and evil times, lord. We seldom sing of anything more terrible than wind or rain. And most of my songs are about things that make us laugh; or about food and drink, of course." "And why should such songs be unfit for my halls, or for such hours as these? We who have lived long under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it? Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless." Pippin's heart sank. He did not relish the idea of singing any song of the Shire to the Lord of Minas Tirith, certainly not the comic ones that he knew best; they were too, well, rustic for such an occasion. He was however spared the ordeal for the present. He was not commanded to sing.

The context is different; at this point in the book Faramir has not yet come home to Minas Tirith, and Pippin has not met him nor seen how his father treats him. Pippin has sworn service to Denethor mainly in an attempt to repay the debt he feels he owes Boromir for dying trying to save him.

We don't get a song here in the book because the songs in the book, of which there are many more than in the films, serve a different purpose. Some critics of the book point out how the songs take us out of the plot and slow down the pace of the story; which is true, and on occasion they do go a bit longer than is really justified, but they don't do it for no reason.

In The Lord of the Rings, good is good because it values beauty and nature and life and art and poetry for their own sake, and evil is evil in large part because it sees no value in anything except as means to its own ends. The songs take us out of the plot because destroying Sauron is not the only thing that matters; nay, it matters at all only because the good things threatened by Sauron, which the songs celebrate, matter more. There are songs in Rivendell and Lothlorien because Elrond and Galadriel still value the good things; there are no songs in Minas Tirith because Denethor has forgotten them. Devaluing everything that is not useful for fighting Mordor, he has become a mirror image of Mordor itself.

...and now you might be able to guess some of my Thoughts about what the movies did to him, that I alluded to above... but moving on.

Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless.

Insofar as he thinks of the outside world at all, Denethor's attitude towards it is resentment for its ingratitude. In his mind, Minas Tirith and its army is the only thing standing between Middle-Earth and total destruction, and the right order of things would be for the rest of the world to bow down in thanks for their service.

Then Faramir comes back. Again things are a bit different in the book. It starts with him reporting on the events of The Two Towers that he was involved in, as a captain to his commander. The fact that he let Frodo go instead of bringing him back to Minas Tirith becomes a point of contention.

"If what I have done displeases you, my father," said Faramir quietly, "I wish I had known your counsel before the burden of so weighty a judgement was thrust on me." "Would that have availed to change your judgement?" said Denethor. "You would still have done just so, I deem. I know you well. Ever your desire is to appear lordly and generous as a king of old, gracious, gentle. That may well befit one of high race, if he sits in power and peace. But in desperate hours gentleness may be repaid with death." "So be it," said Faramir. "So be it!" cried Denethor. "But not with your death only, Lord Faramir: with the death also of your father, and of all your people, whom it is your part to protect now that Boromir is gone." "Do you wish then," said Faramir, "that our places had been exchanged?" "Yes, I wish that indeed," said Denethor. "For Boromir was loyal to me and no wizard's pupil. He would have remembered his father's need, and would not have squandered what fortune gave. He would have brought me a mighty gift." For a moment Faramir's restraint gave way. "I would ask you, my father, to remember why it was that I, not he, was in Ithilien. On one occasion at least your counsel has prevailed, not long ago. It was the Lord of the City that gave the errand [which led to Boromir joining the Fellowship and ultimately to his death] to him." "Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself," said Denethor. "Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse yet lay in the dregs? As now indeed I find..."

The idea of "I wish you had died instead of Boromir" is very subtextual here in the book, but it's there. A few pages later, in Denethor's war room, while talking strategy with other high-ranking military officers who don't appear in the film, we get the exchange

"Much must be risked in war," said Denethor. "Cair Andros is manned, and no more can be sent so far. But I will not yield the River and the Pelennor unfought -- not if there is a captain here who has still the courage to do his lord's will." Then all were silent. But at length Faramir said, "I do not oppose your will, sire. Since you are robbed of Boromir, I will go and do what I can in his stead -- if you command it." "I do so," said Denethor. "Then farewell!" said Faramir. "But if I should return, think better of me!" "That depends on the manner of your return," said Denethor.

Faramir, like Elrond and Galadriel, still values the good -- including treating innocent travellers with mercy -- for its own sake. There are lines he won't cross even to further the war effort. That is why Denethor despises him. Denethor as written by Tolkien is a masterpiece of subtle characterization; we are gradually shown, step by careful step, what is wrong with his priorities and why his pragmatism leads to disaster.

As I say, this scene in the film does him justice. I just wish the rest of it had as well.

I don’t think any movie will make me feel the same ethereal sense of otherworldly sorrow and disembodied awe as that scene in Lord of the Rings where the loyal son is sent off into a doomed battle to please his vindictive father while Pippin sings a mourning song of his people

I was like 12 and high off this shit