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EW: Sean Bean on why Boromir is his favorite onscreen death

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L

LordOfLore

Banned
Link.

Sean Bean has been beheaded, pulled apart by horses, crushed by a flaming satellite dish, and skewered with an anchor, but there’s one onscreen death that stands above all.

As Boromir in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Bean takes three arrows to the chest while defending the Hobbits from brutal Uruk-hai. “It’s my favorite death scene, and I’ve done a few,” he says, laughing. “You couldn’t ask for a more heroic death.”

Director Peter Jackson considered using CG arrows, but he ultimately opted for the old-fashioned approach: sticking arrows into a metal breastplate under Bean’s clothes. As soon as Jackson called “Action!” Bean would mime getting shot.

For that final moment with Aragorn, he and Viggo Mortensen met with Jackson and co-screenwriter Fran Walsh the night before shooting. Over beers and a bottle of wine, they came up with Boromir’s dying words: “My brother, my captain, my king.”

As for his actual dying breath? Bean has a few guidelines for how to make a death scene believable.

“You can’t show off,” he explains. “You can’t be vain or posing…. Because every time you die, it’s a big f—ing moment!” Take it from the expert.
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For this and other deaths, watch them all here.
 
K

Kastrioti

Persecution Complex
giphy.gif
 
A

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
"I would have followed you, my brother. My captain. My king" is that real shit.
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
DOWN said:
Why?? That would have been similar tbh

Liam Neeson did a Boromir type character very well in Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
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Don't get me wrong, I like Liam Neeson as an actor, I just can't really see it. I don't feel that Neeson would have had the right qualities as a performer in relation to that particular character.

Then again, I've never seen Kingdom of Heaven so perhaps I'm wrong on that score.
 
H

HomerSimpson-Man

Member
I did a full rewatching of the trilogy extended edition with my dad about 3 weeks ago, we both adore these films so much together, that last stand and and his final words with Aragorn and that kiss on the forehead with "Be at peace" still gets me choked up a bit after all these years
 
O

Obliterator

Member
Yeah I mean it's one of the most heroic deaths in any film ever imo. The entire last 30 minutes of Fellowship are just spectacular.

I remember being at the theatre when it released and you could hear lots of people getting choked up all around
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
jelly said:
So the line wasn't in the book. Pretty cool and excellent line to come up with.
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For one of the DVD commentaries for The Fellowship of the Ring, Phillipa Boyens stated that she believed Boromir's death scene is a particular moment in the movies which she felt they managed to do much better in comparison to how it ended up playing out in the novels.

She's absolutely right.
 
F

f0lken

Member
I loved Sean as Boromir, such a tragic character, and so human, specially against his larger than life companions, he was great and can't imagine anyone else as Boromir
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
I love the fight scene in Fellowship. This small, ancient tower or Fort on an ordinary looking wooded hillside beside a river. The trees and the leaves really add a lot to everything that happens, especially when Borimer gets involved.
 
S

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
SpaceWolf said:
Don't get me wrong, I like Liam Neeson as an actor, I just can't really see it. I don't feel that Neeson would have had the right qualities as a performer in relation to that particular character.

Then again, I've never seen Kingdom of Heaven so perhaps I'm wrong on that score.
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Liam doesn't work as a supporting actor like Bean does. Liam owns a scene while Bean works with the scene.
 
M

milanbaros

Member?
I sometimes just marvel at how right they got the trilogy. It could have been spectacularly bad and instead it's magnificent.

Only got half way through the first hobbit film...
 
F

farisr

Member
SpaceWolf said:
Don't get me wrong, I like Liam Neeson as an actor, I just can't really see it. I don't feel that Neeson would have had the right qualities as a performer in relation to that particular character.
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I can totally see it being done justice by Neeson. But I'm glad it went to Sean Bean, he benefited from the role more than Neeson would have.
 
A

Aske

Member
kingocfs said:
GIVE THEM A MOMENT FOR PITY'S SAKE

He was so good in that movie.
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This made me explode with laughter.

It also reminded me that while I love LOTR, I feel like the films have aged weirdly. The serious moments all kind of just crack me up now, because they're so serious. When I watch the Indiana Jones trilogy, everything serious is still serious, and everything badass is still badass. When I watch the LOTR trilogy, a lot of serious and badass moments feel ridiculous. Not sure why, because they're objectively superb movies; but the combination of language, English accents, and aggressively earnest delivery feel like (brilliant) self-parody.
 
A

Arkeband

Banned
farisr said:
I can totally see it being done justice by Neeson. But I'm glad it went to Sean Bean, he benefited from the role more than Neeson would have.
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Bean plays corruptible sympathetic characters so well, Neeson is a better "teacher" or avenger-type, but I'm sure he could pull it off.
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
Mr. Poolman said:
Boromir is awesome on FotR, even better on the extended editions where you can see his relationship with Faramir.
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I often wonder what might thave happened if Faramir was sent to Rivendell as a means of representing Gondor in Boromir's place, ultimately leading to him joining the Fellowship instead.
 
N

NastyBook

Member
zeemumu said:
Yet he survived Silent Hill
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Which is hilarious given that it's Silent Fucking Hill. You're half expecting Pyramid Head to tear a hole through the two realities and skewer him on the spot with the Great Knife at the end just because he's Sean Bean.
 
T

Thequietone

Member
SpaceWolf said:
I often wonder what might thave happened if Faramir was sent to Rivendell as a means of representing Gondor in Boromir's place, ultimately leading to him joining the Fellowship instead.
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Boromir would have caught Frodo instead of Faramir and gave the ring to his father possibly leading the ring falling into the hands of Sauron. As much as Boromir's death is a tragedy it had to happen the way it did. I blame the dad's actions for Boromir's death since he would likely not have fallen to the ring's influence without his father's unrealistic expectations he had for Boromir.
 
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