Movies That Develop Persistence: Lord of the Rings

Continuing The Positive Psychology of Persistence

There was only ever one movie and one story that could top our Persistence list: Lord of the Rings. Why? Because it’s over nine hours long! Seriously, you have to be pretty persistent to watch that! No, but really, every single major character in Lord of the Rings displays a high level of persistence. to prove the point, let’s look at Frodo, Sam, Aragorn and Gandalf.

Frodo: Frodo, of course, is tasked with carrying the powerful, evil, mind-possessing Ring of Power from The Shire to Mount Doom in the sunny old land of Mordor. Every step of the way his powers of persistence are being tested, not only by the ring as it slowly tortures his mind but by Gollum who serves to tempt him to the dark side, as it were, trying to turn him against his best friend Sam. The poor little hobbit is so exhausted at the end that he can’t even stand and is only able to get into the volcano thanks to. . .

Sam: No gardener was ever meant to get their hands quite as dirty as old Samwise “The Brave” Gamgee. He has to fight orcs off Frodo, keep an eye on Gollum for however many hundreds of miles there are between Bag End and Mount Doom, has to find the strength in him to then fight off a giant spider with anger management issues and then, after all that, he has to carry his friend Frodo up the side of a blinking mountain! Give this man a raise!

Aragorn: The tough as nails Strider (who he starts off as) is shown to be a man who is always up, always alert, always on the move, always fighting. The minute we lay eyes on Strider at The Prancing Pony we know that he’s a real man’s man, the kind of guy that could work twelve hours in a coal mine then play two hours of football plus injury time and he’d still be the first with his hand up to take the penalty.

Gandalf: despite clearly belonging in a retirement home, Gandalf travels along with the rest of the fellowship until he falls off a bridge, down a massive pit, into deep water, then fights off a blinking Balrog before climbing back up said pit to somehow meet up with the fellowship again and then go from Rohan to Gondor where he gets his ass kicked by the freaking Witch King of Angmar and then still gets up! Seriously, and my nan says she can’t even climb three flights of stairs. For shame!

Alright, so that’s a fun and impromptu little romp through the show of persistence that is Lord of the Rings. Now for some serious stuff because, of course, the reason we are watching Lord of the Rings here (if you really need an excuse) is to develop persistence. So, referring to our look at the psychology of persistence on the previous page, here are a few things to look out for and to discuss with whomever you watch Lord of the Rings with.

–How Legolas and Gimli are motivated to press on in battle by the little game they create of one-upmanship and the importance of their rivalry (as one is an elf and the other a dwarf)

–The importance of the hobbits belief that they will see the shire again

–How Frodo and Sam are inspired to keep on going by the strength of their relationship (“Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam”—Frodo quote)

–The effect that Aragorn’s self doubt (he doubts the strength of his blood) has on the development of his journey.

Okay, those are just a few pointers. The important thing is to watch the movies with particular interest in the strength of persistence in order to inspire and motivate persistence in yourself.