The ROTK Video Game
Hm, that was one odd morning. I still haven't figured out what to do about the car key. (See previous entry, below.)

In the meantime, let's talk about the Return of the King video game from Electronic Arts. Faramir is one of the secret characters that can be unlocked, along with Pippin and...uh...some guy....and some other guy...... *makes mental note to do better research next time* There's an interview with David Wenham that is accessible to players who reach the topmost level. I've seen transcripts around, and am trying to track one down so I can post it here.

I tried this game out on my sister's laptop at Christmas. It quickly became apparent that I had no chance of ever unlocking any secret characters, let alone seeing the interview. I was worse than hopeless at it. The sequence of button pushing needed to operate the swords was beyond me. I couldn't even get past level 1. Frodo kept getting carried off by Nazgul. Sam kept falling down, attacking the masonry, or trying to stab Frodo. The dozens of vaguely Faramir-ish Rangers running around the place were also distracting. After several hundred premature deaths, I finally grasped that staying out in the open, beneath the Nazgul, wasn't a good idea. It made the characters weaker and more susceptible to death blows.

Eventually, with only a few severed arteries, I succeeded in herding the characters into the sewers, only to find a metal grate blocking the way. As I hunted in vain for some kind of switch thingy, the screen went black. It was like one of those nightmares where something's chasing you and you can't open the door to get into your house. Or, you're trying to get out of your car and the key snaps in half.

So instead, I've had to rely on the kindness of others to find out what David says in the interview. The gist of it is that he believes Faramir is a good character to unlock because he has an ideal combination of fighting skills. Evidently David succeeds in killing a bad guy, because he holds the controls and yells "Yesss!" Or it could be good acting.

Having now played the game, and compared it to the movie, I have to give super props to David for 1) not stabbing his own men 2) not falling down and twitching when confronted with Orcs at Osgiliath 3) not leading Sam and Frodo into a dead-end grating. It ain't easy remembering to press shift-control-A-tab-left arrow-left arrow-blue-up-delete-tab-space bar-X when the cameras are rolling and the bad guys are in your face.