Return of Return of the King

Mary and I (Margie is stricken with an absessed tooth, alas) went for another showing Sunday afternoon (quoth she, “If nothing else, it sure completely kills your day”). After dinner, I started diving into the original book again. A few added thoughts:

• There are any number of errant tidbits of info that got left out of the movie, if only because Tolkien can’t have two lines of dialog without having a character dive deep into history, lore, myth, or song. One bit I was sorry got lost was that Osgiliath is, in fact, the historic capital of Gondor, long devastated by incursions from the enemy since Denethor’s youth. Minas Tirith is, actually, simply a fortress city nearby. That makes the power of the Bad Guys, and the long twilight struggle, that much clearer.
  (For that matter, the fact that pretty much all of the buildings one sees around the edges of Mordor, including the Black Gate, the tower at Cirith Ungol, and Minas Morgul itself, were all built by Men to keep guard on Mordor, but were over time taken by the Enemy — i.e., that Minas Morgul (nee Minas Ithil) is a sister city to Minas Tirith (nee Minas Anor) — is never really mentioned, though I think it adds considerably to the “texture.” It’s understood by the moviemakers, of course, hence the architectural accents, but it may be lost on various “first-time viewers.”)

• I understand why the palantiri aren’t gone into too much — but that’s a shame, since a lot of the non-Frodo action in RotK centers around them, from Pippin’s unfortunate curiosity (actually in TTT in the books), to Aragorn wresting that same palantir from Sauron’s control, to the madness of Denethor. It isn’t essential to the story, but it provides enough basis for further action, that losing it weakens the overall epic, I think.

• If I have any critique of Jackson’s creation of Middle Earth out of New Zealand, it is that the individual sites visited seem to exist in a vacuum. Minas Tirith is a massive fortress city — but nothing exists in the fields outside its gates — barely a pair of roads, let alone outbuildings, villages, huts, whatever. The same is true for Edoras. Even Osgiliath, a huge unwalled city, consists merely of stone, which then abruptly stops. Heck, there doesn’t even seem to be a road that goes from Osgiliath to Minas Tirith, just untrammeled fields.
  In some ways, perhaps, that extra data might have been more difficult to pull off than the massive, wonderful set pieces that were put in, but it still feels slightly off.

• Part and parcel of the above, perhaps, is the rest of the isolation of Minas Tirith. In the books, long passages take place of the calling in of troops from the hinterlands of Gondor — troops which are smaller in number than sought, because of fears of the corsairs to the south and along the river. It is these extra troops that Aragorn’s army of the dead, defeating the corsairs, frees up to finally turn the tide at the Pellanor — leading not just an army of the dead, but the troops of Gondor, finally acting in truth as the king.

  Instead, we have a farmless, tradeless Minas Tirith with no armies, her defenses neglected by the Steward. It makes Gondor seem little more than one shining city, and the kingship little more than big fish in a little (if very pretty) pond.

• Another plot thread that is lost, certainly in the theatrical release, but pretty much from the previous two films as well, is the whole “Who are the Rangers?” thing. The Dunedain, the landless remnants of the Northern Kingdom of Arnor, they hang out and fight off various bad’uns in the northern forests — including keeping the Shire safe. But there’s more than just Aragorn to them, though you wouldn’t know by the movies. It would have taken very little — thirty seconds of footage, a sentence or two of dialog — to have established them at the beginning, and while I would understand not having them catch up with Aragorn in Rohan as in the book, having them show up for the coronation would be fitting.

• Okay, the bottom line is, I want it all. I want a six, an eight hour movie, even with an intermission. I don’t know if my coccyx could stand it, but I’d love to find out.

• I loved the eagles. They were beautiful.

• I loved that the screams of the Nazgul finally seemed to be fear- and panic-inducing. And I’m sure that players and GMs the world over are going through their books for the soon-to-be-extremely-popular “fly-by grapple” rules.

• While I remembered there was indeed some of that father-son bad stuff going on in the book, I’d not realized (until I reread it last night) that so much of the Denethor dialog in the movie is straight out of the book. There’s a lot that’s, unfortunately, left out, but what’s there — down to every bitter word between him and Faramir — is quoted nearly precisely. Neat.

• For those keeping track of differences, it is Merry who has the final bits of dialog with the dying Denethor Theoden [thanks, Brian], or the majority of them, Eowyn having swooned upon striking down the Witch-King. Indeed, Denethor is still unaware that she’s there. And his death scene goes on long enough for him to pass on the kingship to Eomer. I’ll confess I like the Jackson restaging of this better.

• Though the Fell Beasts here — and in most pictures — are shown is vaguely reptillian or draconic, Tolkien describes them vaguely. If anything, they sound more like ghastly featherless birds with webbed wings (insert lengthy description of horrific creatures fleeing the fall of Numenor, hatching final awful broods, nurtured and grown by Sauron, etc. etc. etc.). I’m not sure how well that image would work in the movies these days.

• I think the word “ringwraith” is used only once or so in the movies, vs. Nazgul. In some ways, that sort of geeky goodness (cool word in a fantasy language, after all), but it weakens the ties of the Nazgul to the One Ring through their Nine. That’s touched on more in the first movie, but it’s worth keeping in the viewer’s mind, I think.

• It may be that some of this will be resolved by the Extended Edition, but the battle of the Pellanor, though gorgeous, is a terrible muddle. A massive, unstoppable army camps out on the front doorstep of Minas Tirith — but, after easily breaking into the city, is put to near rout by the Rohirrim — who, it’s mentioned many times before that, are far too few in number to rout the Mordor forces. Then the mumakil come, and after some quick Hoth-like action, things seem at a stand-still — until the Armies of the Dead come along and make quick work of all remaining bad guys (never in enough detail to be seen). It feels rushed, it feels a bit like a cheat, and while it’s lovely to see, it doesn’t bear close examination.

• Another continuity bit that may be cleared up by the EE: When last we see Merry on the battlefield after he stabs the Witch-King (notice his blade evaporates — very nice), he’s staggered, stunned, and lying on the ground watching Eowyn have her moment in the sun. But when Pippin finds him, he’s underneath a body …

• Is it just me, or does Legolas look slightly irked to be called on as the party’s Dex Monkey to take out the oliphaunt? “Legolas!” “Hey, you’re the King — you stop the frelling giant elephant, or have some of your Dead Guys do it.”

The nits don’t matter. It’s a fabulous movie. And I am glad beyond words to have had the trilogy lighting up my holiday seasons these three years past.