Sam's Epic Speech in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS Originally Wasn't In The Film
One of my favorite moments in entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is that moment in The Two Towers where Samwise Gamgee delivered that epically moving speech. Sam was the emotional core of this epic journey as he helped carry Frodo to and across the finish line. He was the true champion of this story and that inspirational speech of hope that he delivered at the end of The Two Towers was incredible and sent chills down my spine.
It's hard to imagine the film without this moment, but it wasn't originally included in the script! This speech almost didn't make it into the film! During an interview with Yahoo, Sean Astin explains what happened and why it was eventually included:
"That scene was not written in the original script. The writers went back to the book, found that speech, and we went back and filmed it. In the middle of a billion-dollar [franchise] and all that comes with that, Peter Jackson was able to navigate that space in a way that was really heartfelt and meaningful."
Aston goes on to say that Jackson decided to include it as a direct response to the September 11th terrorist attacks, which had overshadowed the release of The Fellowship of the Ring the previous year. What's interesting about this is the subtitle of the film was The Two Towers. What I love about this speech is that it's still meaningful today with everything that the world is going through. In regards to that, Astin said:
We’ve gotten to a place in the development of society where people are afraid more than they’re brave, in my estimation. Violence and natural disasters — there are calamities all around the world. I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of something that, when any of these things happen, people can turn to them for a couple of hours and exist in a space where that speech feeds into [bravery].”
If you need a reminder of how that scene with the speech plays out you can watch the clip below.