Gandalf’s best Lord of the Rings line explains the trilogy’s magic

There are countless iconic lines from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but “You shall not pass” sits at the apex of the mountain (of Doom). Ian McKellan’s line reading is oft quoted in doorways, by annoying siblings, or simply when holding a big stick. It’s been parodied innumerable times. It is more than any other. TheGandalf line.

The Lord of the Rings’ 20th Anniversary is 2021. It’s hard to imagine the three-part story that would be enough. We’ll be going back to the movies every Wednesday for the rest of the year. This will allow us to examine how the films remain timeless as classics. This year is Polygon’s Year of the Ring.

Even McKellan has absorbed “You shall not pass” as is his public catchphrase, just as Leonard Nimoy and “Live long and prosper,” and Mark Hamill and “May the force be with you.” Which is Fine It’s fine.

The thing is: There is a better Gandalf line, one that has all the might of “You shall not pass” and more. It’s a display of the Grey Wizard’s uncanny power, it’s a moment for McKellan to flex his skills, and it’s a point of high tension for the audience. It’s Gandalf at his most puissant and most human. The key is deep within the line, where Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens all succeeded in adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

The activities of wizards

It is delivered in the early hours of the morning. The Fellowship of the RingThis is before the adventure really begins. Bilbo is just returning from his surprise party disappearance. Gandalf and Bilbo are now discussing Bilbo’s old ring. Gandalf strongly supports Bilbo leaving the ring behind to make room for his nephew. Bilbo was going to make that decision, but he suddenly changes his mind. Gandalf’s pushing only agitates him until he finally makes a low accusation: Gandalf simply wants the ring for himself.

This produces an immediate change in the kindly old wizard, as he bellows Bilbo’s full name at him. The room darkens, a wind whips up out of nowhere, Gandalf’s voice grows sepulchrally deep as he calls out a warning:

“Do not take me for a conjuror of cheap tricks!”

It is ironic that Gandalf has never been shown to an entirely new audience. IsHe is more than just a magician of cheap tricks. The scene isn’t the first time we see magic in the contemporaneous (i.e., not a flashback) Fellowship setting — Bilbo popped the Ring on only a few minutes earlier — but it is the first time we see magic being Scary. Gandalf becomes a monster before a single Black Rider sets foot in Shire.

Gandalf is at his most human moment, and this makes the back-and forth quite interesting. A line after the “conjuror” bit, the old wizard gives Bilbo a kindly “I’m trying to help you,” and a hug, patting his hair in the manner of a family member or intimate friend. The duality of Gandalf is what you see in this video. It’s a quick 15-second overview that covers all aspects of his character across the three movies.

It’s also one of the most literally translated moments in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. As in the film, Bilbo first provokes Gandalf, implying that the Ring is his desire. “But you won’t get it. I won’t give my precious away, I tell you,” he cries, and Tolkien writes “His hand strayed to the hilt of his small sword.”

Gandalf’s eyes flashed. “It will be my turn to get angry soon,” he said. “If you say that again, I shall. Then you will see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked.” He took a step towards the hobbit, and he seemed to grow tall and menacing; his shadow filled the little room.

Bilbo looked away from the wall, exhaling hard and holding onto his wallet. After a time, they stood in front of each other and the room felt warm. Gandalf’s eyes remained bent on the hobbit. He began to tremble, as his hands became more relaxed.

“I don’t know what has come over you, Gandalf,” he said. “You have never been like this before. Is this really what it is all about? It is mine isn’t it? I found it, and Gollum would have killed me, if I hadn’t kept it. I’m not a thief, whatever he said.”

“I have never called you one,” Gandalf answered. “And I am not one either. You are not being robbed. I wish you would trust me, as you used.” He turned away, and the shadow passed. His appearance seemed to be that of an aged grey man who was troubled and bent again.

But what’s really remarkable about this tiny moment is how brilliantly Jackson brings a rather odd glimpse of Gandalf’s power to life — and how little he decided to push it to do so.

Quick to respond and subtle

Image by New Line Cinema

This effect is quite straightforward. Jackson doesn’t even push-pull on the lens. The lighting dips, the sound of creaking timbers is added the the audio, Howard Shore’s score plays some uneasy strings. A fan flutters the candles and Bilbo’s jacket. Ian McKellan takes care of the rest.

He drops his voice into his chest and doesn’t even really raise his volume, aside from the first surprising bellow of “Bilbo Baggins!” He draws his shoulders back and lets his arms hang, lengthening his silhouette — growing taller-seeming without actually growing taller. His sleeves are rolled over his shoulders, emphasizing the brightness of his beard and face. He opens his mouth at the end, almost as though his body were a puppet or an elderly man having just exerted great effort.

From what I can tell, there’s no green screen effect that enlarges Gandalf against the frame of Bag End. There’s no detectable filter on McKellan’s voice. There’s no flare of wind and polar-reversed color on him as for Galadriel — even though Tolkien describes her turn in remarkably similar language:

The light emanated from her ring and illuminated all around her. Frodo stood taller than her, beautiful beyond measure, beautiful beyond endurance, horrible, and worshipful as she stood there. After letting her hand drop, the light dimmed and she suddenly laughed again. She was shrunken, an elf-woman slender in white and with a soft, sad voice.

The scene does a lot with a little, which was exactly Tolkien’s approach.

Magic and meddling

Like all cinema, our idea of magic evolved from theatre. This is because of the theatrical effects as well as the misdirecting style used by stage magicians. This is how it works. Fellowship introduces Gandalf, with his fireworks that amuse young and old hobbits alike — a conjuror of cheap tricks!

Tolkien tried to achieve something very different. The magic wasn’t the point, in the way it would have been if Frodo had been a student at a wizard boarding school, or a surgeon-turned-superhero, or if he was the creation of a group of friends rolling dice to explore a dungeon.

And so in his stories the flashy stuff — making things go bang and disappear in a puff of smoke, the colorful costumes — that wasn’t real magic. Real magic is rare, subtle and bizarre.

This makes great storytelling sense. Walsh, Jackson and Boyens would jump on the book to use almost verbatim as a movie scene. It’s a transitional point in the script. The dark past of the Dark Age is about to be revealed by our hobbit friends. Fellowship’s opening battle scene, and that transition will only work if the audience can viscerally feel that these small creatures are on the edge of something far more dangerous and strange than they thought.

The screenwriters’ brilliance is creating a moment that You can also see it here does the extremely vital task of establishing what “real magic” looks like in Middle-earth and puts it in direct contrast to flashy “cheap tricks.”

Boyens, Jackson, Walsh would have known that their audience had a learned visual shorthand for cinematic magic, and there’s nothing bad or good about that shorthand. In a film world, what you hear and see is all you have. Tolkien’s medium of prose allowed him to describe magic by how it feels, and that’s exactly what he did. Gandalf “appeared to grow tall and menacing,” Galadriel “stood before Frodo It seems now tall beyond measurement.”

By finding a way to visualize those feelings, and resisting the urge to do any more (perhaps because the production had already survived plenty of pushback), Boyens, Jackson, and Walsh made “Do not take me for a conjuror of cheap tricks” into a statement of purpose. This one served throughout the entire trilogy. It was responsible for everything from small details in costumes to large-scale computer effects.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy believed in the power of Tolkien’s aesthetic to not only communicate his ideas, but to enthrall an audience. It’s a show of confidence, not only in the adaptation itself, but in the material its sourced from.

Boyens and Jackson believed that magic was possible.