I thought I saw the boy’s face for a second. Didn’t notice the girl, though.
I also thought I spotted Jackson himself in another cameo, this time as one of the Helm’s Deep defenders throwing rocks from the top of the gate. Wonder how his character got there all the way from Bree? 
Anybody want to start a pool on where his cameo in RotK will be? I’m betting he’ll be (minor RotK spoiler) one of the heads catapulted into Minas Tirith by the orc army.
I spotted the little girl – she’s quite striking, huge-saucer-eyed & chubby-cheeked. Really cute kid. The scene cut while I was trying to spot her brother.
I didn’t think to look for Jackson himself. I’ll have to do this on the next viewing.
I really object to Faramir’s role in the movie (we saw it last night)…
Faramir represents the fact that not all men can be corrupted by the Ring. That the blood of Numenor can still overcome the power of the Dark Lord…even though Boromir fell the fact that Faramir could look the Ring in the face (so to speak) and remember his duty and do what’s best shows the power of men.
Now, of course, men are just grubby little bastards who deserve to lose.
I’m cheering for the Nazgul next time.
OK, not really. I don’t mind changes designed to transit the books to the screen. But changing something so fundamental in the storyline takes a great deal away from the tale.
I didn’t like the whole Faramir sequence much, but after a couple of days thought, I’d like to make the case that movie-Faramir was not corrupted by the bring as his brother was.
Borimir fell under the Ring’s spell, claiming it as his own, having been told beforehand that nobody except Sauron could wield it.
Faramir, on the other hand, did not claim it for himself. He claimed it for Gondor, and was going to send it (with Frodo) to his father, Denethor (“Tell my father I bring him a great prize!”). Someone who has been corrupted by the ring could never let it go to another, therefore Faramir was indeed remembering his duty, his duty to Gondor, and was not tempted by the ring except as a weapon to protect Gondor.
Having said all that, the part where he decides to let Frodo go is poorly explained in the film. It’s not clear if Faramir saw the ring as too dangerous to keep in Minas Tirith, or if he saw a high duty than to his country.
You just betrayed your D&D geekness…
Or do you want (Agent)Elrond to finish each Line with “…Mr. Anderson”?
Agent Smith couldn’t stand humans either…
QUOTE
'Now, of course, men are just grubby little bastards who deserve to lose.
I’m cheering for the Nazgul next time.’
And so Aragons importance is overlooked slightly!
I am no where near a LotR afficionado, but I have read the first 2 books, am halfway through the 3rd, and have read The Hobbit.
In reading, TTT was my favorite–especially because of the Ents. I was a bit disappointed with their Entmoot on screen interp, and my vision of the battle–described in the books as the movement and power of trees to destroy rocks and move boulders sped up–didn’t match what I saw. But it was cool no less.
No one has mentioned in the negative category, BTW, Legolas “skateboarding” down the stairs during the Helms Deep battle. I’d seen behind the scenes footage of the daredevilling-Orlando Bloom, and that just seemed to cater to him, and not his character (not that I’m saying it was his idea). Plus, the ringwreaths on dragons? And not winged horses? seemed a bit disappointing.
But, these are small details to me. I thought it was on the whole a marvelous picture.
The ringwraith’s flying steed in TT (the movie) actually matched pretty well with JRRT’s description of it.
I always pictured the ringwraith’s steeds as pterodactyls–definitely not flying horses. I’m reasonably pleased with the film version.
>>I always pictured the ringwraith’s steeds as pterodactyls
[quote]
oops
>>I always pictured the ringwraith’s steeds as pterodactyls
Hmmm, sounds like a pteradon of some sort to me. Especially the beak; I don’t recall any beaked dragons. In any case, the description is certainly birdlike, and if it were dragonlike the author would have said so. Dragons are prominently mentioned elsewhere in Tolkien’s work.
My personal image was kind of a giant, featherless buzzard. A bird, but a really hideous bird. But on the scale of changes from book to film this one rates as absolutely insignifigant.
And the same for the stair surfing. The films are products of their time and how the choreography of text that might come down to “Legolis fought” (sorry, don’t care to look up any actual text here) is going to be something current. It didn’t thrill me but it didn’t make me go “Geez how stupid!” either…
WOW!
Now, I must make a confession: I’ve never read The Book. I read The Hobbit, and I read about 1/3 of the Fellowship of the Rings before I started drowning in a sea of archaic language and gave up. I’ll try again some time, no doubt, but until then, I have no knowledge of how the story’s supposed to be.
Let me say that I really liked the movie. I think I liked it more than the first one, actually. Maybe this is because Frodo is starting to get on my nerves, and he wasn’t on screen the whoooole time, with Jackson lingering on his whinging face all the while.
I’m surprised so many people commented on the lil’ Legolas/horse shot. I really liked it too.
I also liked the Gimli-as-comic-relief, and the friendship between the three.
So it wasn’t in the book, but one of my favorite bits was when the elves came to help defend the fortress. The whole snotty elves ditching the grubby humans, etc. is one of the bits that annoyed me most about the books. Unrelenting sadness. I’m glad for that gleam of loyalty and kindness.
The only thing that bugs me is the death scenes, inevitably stretched out for hours. Just die, already! Why must the heroes always die in some sort of slow-mo thing? Grr. I was bummed when the Elf Leader Guy (Haldir?) died as well. (I’m terrible with names.)
In the eye candy department, us gals did even better than in FOTR with the addition of Faramir and what’s-his-name. Um. The banished nephew of the king who came to save the day at the end. Can’t recall his name. Yum.
And Aragorn. Oh my lord. How can anyone obsess over Legolas when Aragorn is around? If I ever got bored of the fighting, I could just stare at Aragorn and be content that my $8.50 was money well spent. I guess it just goes to show that women really do go for the feminine types, sometimes.
Incidentally, can anyone explain how Legolas fits in the elf hierchy? Is he related to Aruwan or someone else important? What about Gimli, is he a big man (snort) in the dwarf kingdom? I don’t think the movies really ever go into that.
Also, is the little conversation about dwarfish women in the book? I was strongly reminded of Pratchett. (Though I’m guessing he stole that from Tolkien rather than the other way around!)
Just back from my second viewing, and I have to say that this post by squeegee is actually quite perceptive:
Movie Faramir is not as dark as so many people have been saying. It’s been a few years since I last read the books, but I believe that up until the pointless diversion to Osgiliath, he behaves almost exactly as Book Faramir did. Basically, what Jackson did was draw out the scene in the book by adding the Osgiliath stuff. Plot-wise, the change serves no purpose (except, perhaps, to draw Sauron’s eye toward Gondor), but Movie Faramir’s basic character is actually not all that different, IMO. Don’t worry, he’ll get his chance to shine in the next one.
No relation to Arwen. He’s from a group of wood elves who live in Mirkwood Forest, which Bilbo passes through in The Hobbit. He’s not an important elf, “hierarchy”-wise. Except, of course, that he kicks major ass.
Somewhat. He’s the son of Gloin (briefly seen in the FOTR movie as the grey-haired dwarf at the council in Rivendell), one of the 13 dwarves who, with the crucial help of Bilbo Baggins and a certain magic ring, reclaimed the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasures from the dragon Smaug. So he’s the son of a badass, though not exactly dwarf royalty.
You may recall from the first movie that Gimli spoke of “my cousin Balin” as the king of Moria. Balin was another of the band of dwarves from The Hobbit. Apparently not satisfied with the wealth of the Lonely Mountain, he led another expedition of dwarves to reclaim Moria, from which the dwarves had been ejected a long, long time ago. As you saw, that didn’t work out so well, but it is one more impressive relative he has.
Legolas isn’t closely related to Arwen, Galadriel, Celeborn, or Elrond. In fact, Legolas comes from the distinctly unfashionable and rustic northern wood elves. Which is no doubt one of the reasons he feels compelled to show off so much. Inferiority complex, you know. 
Thanks, wumpus and minty green! I was just sort of confused as to why these guys would be at a council with all these important people in order to be able to volunteer to join the fellowship… I’d think they’d have to be important in some way.
I’m trying to remember why I spelled it Aruwan. :smack: Think it’s because I knew someone who had a SN spelled like that so I got all confused.
Actually, Legolas is the son of Thranduil, head honcho of the Woodland Realm in the East of Mirkwood. Which is kinda like being son of a governor or something, and probably carries at least as much pull as being a cousin of Balin.
>>I was just sort of confused as to why these guys would be at a council with all these important people
Well, it made somewhat more sense in the book. Nobody at the council was “summoned”, they all just happened to be there seemingly by happenstance (e.g. Legolas to send word that Gollum had escaped, Boromir went to Rivendell because of a dream, etc.).
<tips hat, bows> Thank you, kind sir.
To be fair, Faramir comes across as quite deliberative and perceptive in the book, much less so in the movie. But it was, what?, 10 whole minutes of screen time, 15 sentences from Faramir during the movie? There wasn’t time for a good character to be drawn, but at least some of the essentials were there, IMHO.