Now, see, for a lot of nerds, critiquing our favorite movies is part of how we enjoy them. The people who nitpick the loudest are, by and large, those who liked the movie most. This often seems to confuse non-nerds.
My 12 year old and 9 year old have been wanting to watch the movies. My deal with them has been that read first, watch second. Interestingly enough, the 9 yo worked his way through The Council of Elrond, so we went ahead and watched the first 1/2 of PJ’s FoTR last night.
Agent Elrond to Gandalf just before the council: “Our list of allies grows thin.”
Okay. The list can grow shorter or the ranks can get thinner, but how do you get a thin list?
And add me to the camp who thinks FoTR is the best film of the three. I really hated what PJ did to the Ents and to Faramir. And, FWIW, to Gandalf in Rath Dinen. FoTR keeps the spirit of the books unlike the other two.
I think that how I feel about it too.
Are you kidding? Picking movies like this apart is half the fun! It doesn’t at all interfere with my enjoyment of the films, rather, it enhances it. The worst kind of movie is the sort that doesn’t leave you anything to talk about after it ends. With the LotR movies, we’re still talking about them three or more years after the fact. That’s what I call entertainment value for your dollar!
I can’t enjoy RotJ the way I did as a kid because I’ve got better taste than I did as a kid, and it’s really not a very good movie. But I can still watch the first two over and over, recognize the cheesy dialogue and lame plot points for what they are, and still have a blast. A good movie can survive being picked apart and analyzed. A great movie will come out even stronger. It’s only a bad movie that gets ruined by the process.
I find I only pick apart movies that mean something to me. Before we get all earnest and worthy, one hot actor can make a movie mean alot to me. 
Seriously, PJ took on a saga and dealt with fantastical creatures. I am fine with his rendering of things (for the most part-still think that the Shire should have been in the end and really didn’t like his interp of Bilbo and I love Bombadil and miss him, anyway I digress). I can’t imagine not poking apart Harry Potter or LOTR or–I’m not much of a Star Wars fan. The first 3 were ok, but I didn’t have enough interest in the last 3 (I’m talking about when they were made, not storyline).
Can’t think of any other sequential movies (I don’t count crap like Jaw3 , Rocky 5 or Halloween 487).
Other bits I liked: Aragon’s telling of Eowyn that she loves but a shadow or a dream (not sure if I remembered that right, sounds Shakespearian).
I loved Faramir in the film–and loathed Denethor, but I never liked him much anyway. And Pippin’s Lament–eerie and sorrowful.
Lots to like, but lots to mock as well–everyone’s happy!
If I remember the DVD commentary correctly, he wrote that himself. I agree, great song.
…I don’t remember that line in the movies. Was it in the books?
The troll says it in The Hobbit.
Correct. In a radio interview I heard last summer, Billy Boyd said Peter Jackson gave him 48 hours to write a short song which he could sing in his scene with the actor playing Denethor. Boyd sat down and wrote three songs, one of which he and Jackson both agreed was best. And that’s the one (“Mist and Shadow,” part of “The Steward of Gondor” track on the ROTK CD) you hear. He sang it last summer when the LOTR Symphony was performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony and Chorus. Very impressive.
Hmm, I thought the words were Tolkien’s. Maybe the tune was BB’s. I’ll have to go back and give another listen.
I thought Fran or Philippa wrote the words (Pippin doesn’t sing for Denethor in the book), and Boyd wrote the tune.
I thought so, too. Or that BB took some of a poem in the trilogy and made some minor changes. Too busy at present to go search thru Tolkien. sorry-
Here are the words that Pippin sings (yes, I pulled out the dvd and turned on the captioning. I am such a geek.)
Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadow to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow, cloud and shade
All shall fade, all shall fade
Here’s the last stanza from the poem “Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red*” (relevant portions bolded):
**
Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight,**
Then world behind and home ahead,
We’ll wander back to home and bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! and then to bed!
So they adapted an existing poem. I’m not sure which book the original poem is in, and I don’t have time to look for it right now, alas.
BTW, I’ve been used to hearing the original poem set to Donald Swann’s music. It’s very cheery and upbeat and lively, so hearing Pippin’s eerie and elegaic version gave me a really odd sense of dislocation re the music!
*I’m pulling this from The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle . Music by Donald Swann, poems by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Quite early on. Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, chapter 3, “Three’s Company”. It is rather cheerful and upbeat, in the original context.