3.04Summing up Jackson
Altogether I have to say that both Peter Jackson’s movie and Andreas Fröhlich’s translation are very professionally done. Concerning the movie’s plot, it is true that many details were changed from Tolkien’s book, some after the fashion of the changes Bakshi had already made some twenty years earlier, some other even bigger ones in a different way.
I had the luck to be able to speak to Andreas Fröhlich on the phone while writing this. He confirmed many of my findings, corrected others and gave me a number of new ideas.
As he told me, he himself was responsible for a first choice of German voices for the dubbing, but Jackson, after hearing audition recordings, had the final word. The German translation was written not according to a draft script, but to a transcript created after the final cut of the movie was finished. This means, however, that many lines, especially ones by Pippin, played by Billy Boyd with his strong Scottish accent, were transcribed in a wrong way. This slowed work down somewhat, though it was not as difficult with the first movie as it was with the second and third, when time was even shorter.
The correct pronunciation of the Elvish lines was especially difficult, as there was no language coach present in Germany. Fröhlich, the dubbing director, and the Actors providing the voices would listen to the original version dozens of times, and then produce a new version of that as close to the original as possible. Some lines were not redubbed, as they were not even on the dialogue channel, but on a different channel together with sound effects. One example of this technique from the first movie would be Saruman’s lines in the Elvish language Quenya as he creates the snowstorm on Caradhras.
Fröhlich claims that, whenever possible, he used passages, especially dialogue, of course, from Carroux’ version, which he calls the ‘Bible’, switching to Krege only when there was no other way. This does certainly not mean, that he ever tried knowingly to write a better script than the English one presented to him. In general the aim was to produce a German version of Jackson’s movie and not to recreate Tolkien or Carroux.
This may become apparent in a short passage, which I wrongly accused Fröhlich of having mixed up.
J 2/7
Frodo
I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Frodo
Ich wünschte, ich hätte den Ring nie bekommen. Ich wünschte, all das wäre nie passiert.
Gandalf
Das tun alle, die solche Zeiten erleben, aber es liegt nicht in ihrer Macht, das zu entscheiden. Wir müssen nur entscheiden, was wir mit der Zeit anfangen wollen, die uns gegeben ist.
J 2/18
Frodo (VO)
I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf (VO)
So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.
Frodo (VO)
Ich wünschte, ich hätte den Ring nie bekommen. Ich wünschte, all das wäre nie passiert.
Gandalf (VO)
Das tun alle, die solche Zeiten erleben, aber es liegt nicht in ihrer Macht, das zu entscheiden. Du musst nur entscheiden, was wir mit der Zeit anfangen willst, die dir gegeben ist.
This dialogue, originally from an early scene in the book in Hobbiton, is delivered twice in the movie. The first example is from a scene with Frodo and Gandalf in the mines of Moria. The second example is from the end of the movie, as Frodo is standing next to the boats after Boromir attacked him, and is trying to make up his mind as to what to do now. He remembers the earlier discussion with Gandalf, and the lines are delivered again, only this time as a voiceover. Hearing this for the first time, I believed that Fröhlich had made a mistake, changing ‘Wir müssen...’ into ‘Du musst...’. He himself told me that this mistake, if it even is one, originates in the English original as ‘All we have to decide...’ is replaced by ‘All you have to decide...’. The fact that Frodo remembers lines spoken earlier in the movie, but remembers them differently from how the audience heard them, does not make much sense, but it is Fröhlich’s philosophy not to try and be better than the original.
Altogether Fröhlich told me that, although this was a very difficult and straining piece of work, he is very glad to have had the chance to be part of this and work with Tolkien’s wonderful literature.