THE TWO TOWERS, PART II OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

By: Chris Wyatt
Review Date: Thursday, September 05, 2002

Out from Random House Audio is the 4 disc CD set of the BBC Radio presentation of THE TWO TOWERS: PART II OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS, a Full-Cast Dramatization. Despite some weird (i.e. crappy) creative choices and some overacted (i.e. hammy) performances, there's still a lot to commend this four-hour presentation of the second book in J.R.R. Tolkien's sainted trilogy.

What commends the project the most is the voice of Sir Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins. Interestingly, Holm plays Bilbo in Peter Jackson's feature film version of the trilogy, so in this version he's playing his own nephew. Of course, Holm is so skilled, and has such an interesting vocal tone, that he could easily read long passages from the phone book and still enrapture audiences. But this isn't the phone book; it's one of the greatest tales ever written...so Holm is showcased even better than usual.

The rest of the cast is a mixed bag, with some performers so embarrassingly over-enthusiastic that you'd think they were acting for children...or perhaps for deaf children.

Speaking of deafness, the sound balance is so bad that you might very well go deaf listening. Whole passages are mixed so low that you have to pump the sound to make them out...which wouldn't be a big deal if not for the occasional BLAST of sound (like whenever Golem screams). These painful hoots and battle cries will shake your unsuspecting cranium.

However the worst, and I mean THE WORST part of the dramatization is when Treebeard sings. Yes...he sings. He full-on, barbershop-style sings. Let me tell you, after hearing the lord of the Ents sing, you'll understand why it's called MIRKwood.

Seriously. His songs have incredibly annoying tunes, and his voice is so bad that I'm sure whenever pipes up, passing birds die spontaneously. I'd be willing to hold a whole Entmoot just on the subject of how best to shut the guy up.

Thankfully, even though Treebeard sings in nearly every scene he can, the character doesn't appear all that often.

Another complaint is not with the production, but with the CDs themselves. While the CDs in the Random House release are well divided into about 10 tracks per disc, there's absolutely no insert card, so there's no way to tell which track is which when looking for a certain scene in the story.

Also, the lack of an insert card means that there's no printed cast list. At the beginning of disc one they read out a few names, and at the end of disc four there are some quickly spoken credits; but without a printed cast list there's no real way to keep track of which actors you're listening to at any given time.


Still, the set can be recommended because the adapted scripts are so well done. I'd give you the name of the writer that adapted the book, but without an insert card I'm not sure I could spell his name correctly...

The script moves along, handling action scenes with great dialogue coverage. Even during scenes that require long Tolkien-esque passages of exposition, the narration is kept interestingly brief.

The set can be recommended to fans of the book, who want to see a new interpretation. It can also be recommended to Middle-Earth newcomers, who want a taste of what the real books are like.

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