YMMV / John Boorman Lord of the Rings

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Early after leaving the Shire, the hobbits stumble onto a field of hallucinogenic mushrooms and eat them, leading to a sequence where they run through a cabbage field (seemingly) imagining it to be filled with naked children. This serves no purpose in the story and is never referenced again.
• Complete Monster: Sauron is the Dark Lord of Mordor who created the One Ring to wield control over the Rings of Power and take over Middle-earth. Turning those loyal to him into his nine Black Riders, Sauron would transplant his soul into the Ring after his demise, corrupting those who possess it. Looking to conquer Middle-earth again, Sauron seduced the sorcerer Saruman of Many Colors to his side, having him act as his Mouth who gruesomely tortures those who stand in his way. Forcing the Orcs to fight for him as he allows them to lay waste to all of Middle-earth in their pursuit of the Ring, while allowing the Nazgul to slaughter whole towns to find it, Sauron's cruelty leaves many dead in his malicious quest for power.
• Ho Yay:
  • Aragorn and Boromir get a lot of this in this version; most obviously, their ritual oath as blood brothers (itself a plot point not present in the book) is rather charged both romantically and sexually.
  • In the expository dance regarding the history of the Ring that's presented at the Council of Elrond, both Sauron seducing Saruman, and Saruman in turn attempting to seduce Gandalf, play the "seduction" part rather... literally.
  • While leaving the Shire, the hobbits pass through a field being tilled by men, one of whom comments that there's a bounty on hobbits (set by the Ringwraiths, one presumes). Frodo's response to the men trying to grab him can only be described as flirtatious.
• Older Than They Think: The Eye of Sauron appearing as a literal disembodied, fiery eye at the summit of Barad-dur is present in this script, thirty years before the Jackson movies popularized the image.
• Squick: Aragorn and Boromir swear an oath of blood brotherhood to each other in a strange and sexually charged scene that involves them literally kissing Arwen's (or at least her astral projection's) thighs and licking each other's blood off of them. Arwen, the script makes explicit, is thirteen in this version.

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