The book is always better. This is a general rule in my life, and it would be really, really hard to find an exception to this rule (and
Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street doesn't count because the movie actually came before the book). But every now and then I find an amazing quote from the movie that isn't in the book. One is from the
The Two Towers, the second book in the
Lord of The Rings trilogy. I searched and searched for this quote in the books, but I couldn't find anything even slightly similar. So for once I found one tiny thing, one single quote, that I like better in the movie than in the book. (And that doesn't mean that I like the
Lord of The Rings movies better than the books. Tolkien was a master, and I dream of being able to write something that could in any way compare to his work.) Anyway, here's the amazing quote, which happens to be from Samwise Gamgee, who I'm a little bit in love with. Yes, I know he's only four feet tall. And I know that he's a hobbit. Whatever. He is so brave, so loyal, so...just wonderful. I could go on and on and on. But here are some wonderfully wise words from Sam.
Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be
here, but we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that
really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the
world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end,
it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even the darkness must pass. A new day
will come, and when the sun shines it will
shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant
something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr.
Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk
in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They
kept going, because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and
it’s worth fighting for.
I love those words! And I love the incredible message. Yes, there are problems in our world today. There always have been, and there always will be, because no one is perfect. But when we're afraid, when we have the chance to turn back, to run away from the storm, the words of Samwise Gamgee, the brave hobbit, ring true as a reminder that there is some good in this world, and that it is worth fighting for. It is always worth the fight.
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