Would Minas Tirith have survived without the actions of Merry? The Witch King was bad news, and without Merry, Eowyn couldn’t have found the prophetic loop hole. Would Sauron have emptied the lands of Mordor without the threat of Minas Tirith?
Merry’s actions were pretty darned important in the grand scheme of things. Pippin, not so much. Yeah, Faramir is toast without him, but Aragorn was back anyway, so that really didn’t matter all that much.
Pippin started the massive chain-mail-by-fire communication that led everyone to help defend Minas Tirith. I’d say Merry’s actions wouldn’t have happened without Pippin.
Plus, didn’t Pippin – inadvertently, admittedly – help deflect Sauron’s attention away from Frodo and over to him? Also, he, along with Merry, managed to survive abduction by the Uruk-hai, and IIRC it was his brainstorm that helped get the Ents involved by convincing them to view their fallen brethren.
His actions aren’t the equivalent of Frodo/Sam’s by any means; neither are Merry’s. But I think (and I can definitely be wrong) that the wee size and sheer vulnerability of the Hobbits makes their acts of bravery even more impressive.
Besides, what was Aragorn gonna say? “You bow to no one. Wait, Merry and Pippin, you guys totally do. On your knees, now!”
All awesome.
My favorite is Fellowship. This is coming from a person who has only read the first book.
But, uh, I know I can’t be the only one who thinks so: Aragorn’s voice sounds really weird in the first movie.
This might be deliberate at the beginning; He’s supposed to have a “Bree Land” accent when he first shows up in the Prancing Pony, and he might’ve maintained that facade as far as Rivendell (stretching) but after that there would’ve been no reason for it. This is actually really well done in the BBC Radio Drama.
As an aside, some of my relative dislike for RotK comes from the following:
Fundamentally unsteady pacing in the Battle of Pelennor fields. INTERRUPTING Eowyn’s big scene with the Witch King to show Aragorn and company arriving with the Glowing Green Host was a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE decision. I get nothing out of what should be one of the most potent moments in the films, and it makes me really sad.
Denethor’s two mile long flaming dash. I mean for the love of god, they show you how far away from the rest of the city the tombs are, and we’re supposed to believe he runs ALL the way to the tip of the battlement to hurl himself off while still on fire? -_-; It’s a small thing, but boy, it’s jarring for me.
The whole “Arwen is dying!” subplot. I mean what the heck? What is this even HERE for? Is it not enough for Aragorn that if he doesn’t pull things together then Arwen will be forced to flee to the undying West - if she can even make it to the boat with Sauron running the show? Apparently not, because we need some baffling supernatural choke hold from the invisible big bad that will kill her if the Ring isn’t destroyed? Where does this even come from and how does it make sense?
The skull-o-palooza in the Paths of the Dead (Extended cut again. I swear, this and the next scene are the only time in any of the movies where something added for the extended actually makes the film worse.). Indeed, the whole “Undead must glow green!” garbage. What is this? Disney’s Haunted House? Make them grey and harder to see and already every seen involving them looks less cartoony and absurd. It’s also pretty hard for me to accept them going to Minas Tirith at all.
Wussy Gandalf. Okay, fine, there’s a big confrontation with the Witch King. They lift some dialogue from the book, and then…kerpowie! His staff explodes and he spends the rest of the scene flopping around like a fish out of water, only to be saved when the Witch King inexplicably leaves instead of spending another 3 seconds to have his fell beast take a chomp out of the wizard. At least in the book there was some ambiguity here and Gandalf wasn’t completely at his mercy. I’m glad this scene got axed from the theatrical.
On the plus side:
John Noble freakin’ NAILED Denethor. NAILED him. RotK is worth watching just on his merits.
Faramir starts actually acting like Faramir, and his actions make sense.
The Beacons, ah, the beacons. An example of how film can improve on a book.
Frodo and Sam. Really, really worked.
Shelob still gives me the shivers.
But yeah. I agree with 100% with the idea that RotK and TTT needed more TIME.
Oh, definitely the whole thing. That sequence is so powerful, I usually forget that there’s an Aragorn fight scene in the middle of it. 
Yes, yes, quite horrible ----- ahem ----- excuse me [wipes away a tear]. Okay, so I’m a sucker for cheese. Y’all are jaded.
OH, I AGREE! I saw that little clip on some TV program way before the movie came out and…OMG, I thought, I am glad to have lived long enough that they made a movie - and here, here was proof, and it was just a crumb…but OMG I could not wait! Talk about goosebumps, YEAH!
The Departure of Boromir is one of the few times I haven’t minded people talking to the screen during a movie. When the Uruk leader walks up to Boromir and, clearly for no reason other than malice, decides to take his own damn time in shooting him in the face, someone always says, “Will somebody please kill that bastard!”
And no one ever complains, because everyone is thinking it.
And if you don’t weep a little when Boromir dies, there is probably something wrong with you and you should see a doctor.
[quote=“AClockworkMelon, post:44, topic:548055”]
But, uh, I know I can’t be the only one who thinks so: Aragorn’s voice sounds really weird in the first movie.[/QUOTENot the movie as a whole, but there’s a moment in the Council of Rivendell scene in which it sounds like he’s on helium. I actually thought there was a flaw on the soundtrack when I saw it in the theater, but no, it sounds the same on my DVD.
Viggo Mortensen, for all his considerable gifts, does not have the strongest voice anyway. When he raises the volume, the tone gets a bit reedy. In ROTK I couldn’t help thinking that his pep talk to the troops would have sounded better if Gandalf or Theoden would have delivered it. He’s much more effective in quiet moments, like he was born to whisper.
The Two Towers and The Return of the King had some outstanding moments, but The Fellowship of the Ring is the one that worked best for me as a movie. It was the only one that had a well defined beginning, middle, and end (yes, it did) and a protagonist with a clear character arc. I also like grandfather Gandalf better than warrior Gandalf.
I also had no problems with most of the changes in the Fellowship. Drastically shortening the time between Bilbo’s party and Frodo’s departure makes sense if your goal is to create a feeling of urgency. Filming the Bombadil chapters as written would have been disastrous. I do think it’s a shame Frodo couldn’t stand up to the Witch King, but his crowning moment was always his interrupting the debate at the Council of Elrond to volunteer to carry the Ring, and that at least was intact.
Things went astray in The Two Towers. Aragorn going over the cliff was ridiculous. Frodo brandishing the ring at the Nazgul (or offering it to him; I’m still not sure what was supposed to be going on) made no sense. And yet, it looked really cool, so I’m conflicted.
But my least favorite change of all was the following exchange in The Return of the King:
Aragorn I don’t know, maybe this whole saving-the-world-from-unspeakable evil thing isn’t for me.
Elrond Your bit of crumpet is dying.
Aragorn All right, Sauron, this time it’s personal!
I may have paraphrased somewhat, but it completely undermined Aragorn’s character and one (or more!) of the major themes of the book.
I chose the first movie, although all 3 movies are absolutely amazing. Another great scene is Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli running into Rohan trying to find Merry and Pippin was just so beautiful.
In the movie trilogy of this story “The Lord of the Rings” “The Fellowship of the Ring” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King” and at the end as Frodo Baggins sits writing in the book that Bilbo Baggins began, Frodo writes and we hear: “How do you pick up the threads of an old life?”… “How do you go on when in your heart, you begin to understand… there is no going back?”… “There are some things that time can not mend… some hurts that go to deep that have taken hold.”
Then the audio silence begins and I see he is still writing?
Well as I am a poor reader .
I have never read the books. Sadly for me, 
it is a reading problem I have had all my life that has affected me so much, :eek: as I know there is so much more in the reading of the manuscript the reading of the book. It would make me very happy to know if someone who has actually read the books, and reads well, can explain to me if there was more or if this was scripting done for the film?
I also enjoyed the music in the film, and the artists, However the score itself left a liitle bad taste for me.
I would love to see the same film rescored by Trevor Rabin’ using the same artists but with his expertise in film scoring…
I hope someday I will be able to find the way to have an entire book read aloud to me as teachers use to do in school. So that I too may enjoy the writing and story as the writer had intended it.
This is my first reply to a thread here as a newcomer,:smack: I hope it meets everyones approval.
Another vote for FOTR and I’ll throw another for Boromir and his blaze of glory (actually, pretty much that whole running battle through the forest).
Story liberties aside, I though the Battle of Helms Deep was fu*king awesome. I remember I watched the trailer about a hundred times on my old PC.
Tear jerk moment for me was the ending of ROTH where Frodo and Bilbo are leaving Middle Earth. Yeah, melodramatic cheeze…
Yeah, like there was this tree in Return of the King that wasn’t described in the book. Total bullshit.
Fellowship, btw.
Welcome to the SDMB, SomeGuySteve.
Just as a matter of general “way we do things around here:” Generally speaking, we don’t resurrect six month old threads; we start new threads when there is more than a couple months since the last reply. (I can certainly understand that, as a first time poster, you might be hesitant to start a new thread.) We definitely don’t color our text except within very specific confines (certain games in The Game Room call for colored text). And we typically don’t make as heavy use of the smilies as you seem to have here. This are fairly minor points, but making note of them may enhance your experience here.
In response to your point, Frodo’s expression “there is no going back” is meant in a psychological sense, not a physical sense. Frodo was able to physically go back to his home, but he was not the hobbit he had been when he left, and was beginning to realize that, unlike his friends, he was never going to fully heal. They say time heals all wounds, but the truth is, sometimes time isn’t enough. Just as there are injuries that can leave someone permanently disabled, there can be emotional wounds too great to heal. Frodo had both, and had come to realize this. When the Elves offered him the unprecented honor of travelling with them to the Undying Lands, he accepted. Some view this as a metaphor for death and heaven, but for the Elves, there was no metaphor; they were truly travelling to another physical place in which they would continue to live. However, it was a true departure from Middle-earth, one that normally mortals could not take.
I am seriously surprised that you find the score to leave a bad taste. I’m not familiar with Trevor Rabin, but I think Howard Shore’s music is one of the greatest things about this wonderful trilogy.
You can readily purchase audio-book versions of the Lord of the Rings, either as downloads or CDs. Try Amazon.com.