Margie told me this morning that Katherine is still going on about TTT to her day care person, explaining the movie to someone who had never seen the movies or read the books. Lots of quotes, lots of bouncing all over the story (which story bounces around a lot as it is)
I had to help her during the movie with a map of Middle Earth — she hadn’t quite figured out that the two threads (Frodo/Sam/Gollum vs the rest) were actually headed in different directions. Explaining the whole geography of Minas Ithil/Morgul vs Osgiliath vs. Minas Anor/Tirith was also necessary (okay, teaching the old names for the two Minas castles wasn’t necessary, but it was fun). When I explained (on the map) about the Dead Marshes and all, she was tickled when she understood about the battle plains when we got there.
She also got a bit confused about some of the geopolitics — understanding the relationship between Theoden as King of Rohan vs. Aragorn as heir to the Kingdoms of Men (or at least of Gondor). Well, it is a bit muddled, at least in the movie.
She did pick up that Eowyn was mooning over Aragorn something fierce. She also spotted the similarities (physical) between Faramir and Boromir.
The battle was pretty fierce for her. She was okay with the “fantasy violence” of 10,000 Uruk-hai (or “Super Orcs” as she calls them) vs. 300 men, but as noted, she got very upset when Haldir fell, in part because she thought it was Legolas. She was also talking about how her 9-year-old friends would have been some of the boys recruited to fight.
(Some friends and I had a Battle of Helms Deep wargame when I was in high school; I was reminded of how deeply that ingrained the overall setting of the battle for me.)
Her only other too-spooky moment was when Frodo gets sucked into the Dead Marshes.
Gandalf the White was very popular (she asked me several times before we watched to confirm that Gandalf would be back … but she still got totally faked out by the “White Wizard” bit). Even more popular, not surprisingly, were the Ents (esp. their destruction of Isengard).
She had no problems following along what was going on with Smeagol/Gollum, and seemed very sympathetic to the character, even while having a sort of Samwise practicality about the danger.
Favorite quote from her: “Whoa! That’s a lot of orcs!” Followed by, “Why is the Nazgul on a dragon?!”
We have an appointment next weekend to watch The Return of the King …
I went looking for my old TTT reviews to find a picture of the poster already loaded. Reading my comments, a few things come to mind.
1. I’ve actually grown more fond of Faramir’s actions in the film (at least in the Extended version). I don’t think they are executed as well as I’d like (“You have the war-ending weapon around your neck. But I’m going to leave you unguarded in this corner while I deal with the Orcs and the Nazgul”), but the motivation is clear (Denethor is a jerk), and what gets him to change his mind (seeing the danger of the Ring and its ties to the Dark Side) plays out reasonably well.
2. The confusion over the inclusion of elves at Helms Deep is explained when you discover that earlier scripting and shooting had Arwen along with them. This apparently tested poorly, or someone figured out that it would further complicate things down the road, so the whole “Arwen bugs out to the Uttermost West” bits were substituted. But the elves were already all over the big Helms Deep battle shots, so they had to be repurposed.
3. Gimli as comic relief still bugs the hell out of me. We see a few bits of Gimli as hero to be reckoned with, but they’re all overwhelmed by short jokes. Feh.
Agree 100% about Gimli.
On the other hand I’ve heard some people who liked the movie but had never read the books say they loved that stuff.
They’re wrong … but Jackson knew what he was doing.
Oh, Katherine enjoyed the Gimli bits, and was surprised when I expressed dismay afterward. Guess if you don’t know the original, it plays better. 🙂