Fellowship of the Ring
Act II
Gilraen's Memorial (added scene)-
A little more of Aragorn's backstory, though I'm not sure what purpose it really served.
1)As the scene opens we see a blond elf with a bow and full quiver on his back hurrying away from the camera. That was Legolas, and if you look past him, you see he is joining Boromir, the younger Hobbits, and Bill the Pony.
2)Gilraen is Aragorn's mum, for those of you who have not read the books, or at least skipped over the appendices.
3)Aragorn says, "I do not want that power; I have never wanted it." Liar! Why is PJ twisting the character around so badly? Isn’t he angsty enough?
Bilbo's Gifts-
1)This is really obsessive I know, but when we get that closeup of the Ring as Frodo unbuttons his shirt there is a little freckle on his chest right next to the Ring.
2)The scary Bilbo image was done by combining the shot with that of a rubber puppet made esp for the scene. Weird.
3)The puppet clearly has psycho-blue eyes, though Ian Holm's eyes are brown or hazel.
The Departure of the Fellowship (added scene)-
Nice little "off we go" scene.
1)Sean Bean (Boromir) maintains that he was not around for the filming of this scene, so the Boromir we see is a CGI, or possibly a standin.
2)Arwen up till now has been the very picture of fortitude, so why's she suddenly falling apart? I guess the writers wanted to show us her vulnerable side.
3)I could not believe it when Frodo actually said, "Mordor, Gandalf! Is it right or left?" In fact I was just about to say it myself as a MST, and was utterly flabbergasted when he beat me to it!
The Ring Goes South-
1)During one of the lovely helicopter shots we see the Fellowship on a hill with some ruins, an obvious insertion.
2)The Gap of Rohan was out right from the start because it was too close to Saruman.
3)Gimli suggests going through Moria and accepting the hospitality of his kin, and Gandalf says, "I will not go through the mines unless we have no other choice." Does anyone else think this sounds like a serious insult?
4)And in the book, it was Gandalf who suggested going through Moria, and Aragorn who wanted to avoid it at all costs.
5)This is a good look for Gandalf, and more practical than the way he usually does his hair. I wonder why he didn't keep it.
6)After Merry and Pippin bring down Boromir there is an added bit where Aragorn tries to come to his rescue and gets knocked flat on his back by the Hobbits.
7)When the Crebain appeared in the book, everyone but Frodo and Aragorn were asleep and they just kept very still until the danger was past. The reference to a “whisp of cloud” that was “moving fast and not with the wind” came later when they were traveling at night, and I think it was supposed to be a fell beast.
8)Surely by the time Legolas says, "Crebain from Dunland!" the birds are close enough to see the Fellowship. So there's not much point in hiding, is there?
9)I must here credit one of my favourite LOTR fan sites, Dom-land Caribou. It came about when the creator of the same heard the line "Crebain from Dunland!" and thought it was "Caribou from Domland!" Then she thought, Wouldn't Dom-land Caribou be a great name for a hockey team? And the rest, as they say, is history.
10)Admit it, whenever you see a large flock of birds flying overhead you always say, "Crebain from Dunland!" or perhaps "Spies of Saruman!" Or even, "Caribou from Domland!"
11)Apparently in an outtake when Gandalf came out of hiding he said, "Spies of Star Wars!" Hee hee!
The Pass of Caradhras-
1)The Caradhras bits were filmed on Mt. Owen in New Zealand.
2)We see a shot of the Fellowship on a snow-covered mountain and it looks as if they were just dropped there by helicopter because the snow is totally smooth an undisturbed. Whoops!
3)Think how cold the Hobbits' feet must have been in that snow. Brrrr! Tolkien seems to have overlooked this point, or at least he never said anything about it. Richard Taylor (head of Weta Workshop) wanted to make them some kind of snow slippers, but PJ thought it wouldn’t be authentic. And wasn’t he one to talk.
4)So, how exactly did the Ring come off in that tumble? The chain seems to have broken, but that was an Elvish chain for heaven's sake. I suspect dark powers at work here.
5)Boromir's little moment here comes later in the book, when he is confronting Frodo at the end. It goes like this, "Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing! [he asks to see the Ring, Frodo says it should remain hidden] As you wish, I care not."
6)Interesting factoid here, The cast and crew were brought up to Mt. Owen by helicopter, which Sean Bean really didn't like. So for this whole scene he hardly knew what he was doing because he was too busy worrying about the ride back down. It would explain his preoccupied look.
7)Please note that Legolas is walking on the surface of the snow. I admit that I didn't notice this the first time I saw the movie, but after I went back and read the book again, and knew he was supposed to do that, I was looking for it.
8)In the book Boromir said, “There are fell voices on the air.” The voices were supposedly those of the restless mountain spirits, not Saruman.
9)At the end of filming for this scene (most of which was done in the studio) everyone involved had the fake snow everywhere, including their underwear.
10)Fran Walsh states that as Saruman is invoking Caradhras from the top of Orthanc, you can see a bandage on his left hand. She must have good eyes because it is very hard to see without doing a frame by frame slo-mo. (Which just goes to show what a devoted nitpicker I am.) It is a flesh-coloured bandaid on the tip of his middle finger.
11)When Boromir and Aragorn are shown carrying a Hobbit under each arm, they were carrying Hobbit-sized dolls.
12)With all that yelling everyone was doing, I'm not surprised they had an avalanche.
13)I think the bolt of lightning was just a little over the top.
14)For the studio avalanche, everyone was buried to the neck in polystyrene snow, and then covered over with real snow. Except for Legolas, that is; they filmed him busting his way out of the snow on Mt. Owen.
15)The wig people really loved the fake snow getting into everyone's hair and beards. ;~)
16)That's Aragorn's hand that emerges first.
17)I don’t think Gandalf knew he was going to find a Balrog in Moria.
Moria-
1)There is an added bit where Gandalf tries to warn Frodo in a roundabout way of what is to come.
2)Gandalf and Frodo stop in the path and Boromir goes past them. Why would he do that if Gandalf was leading? Obviously so Gandalf could give him a meaningful look.
3)When told that sometimes even the Dwarf masters forget how to get into their own underground halls Legolas comments, "Why doesn't that surprise me?" While it's a cute dig to further the antagonism between him and Gimli, I think that's a rather modern expression. The exchange that was in the book is better anyway:
Gandalf: Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.
Gimli: It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned.
Legolas: I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves.
Gandalf: I have heard both, and I will not give judgment now.
4)The Ithildin at the gate of Moria was reproduced here with the reflective material used on highway signs.
5)The gate here looks exactly as Tolkien drew it for the book.
6)In the book Merry kind of gave the clue for the meaning of the riddle, and Gandalf eventually figured it out. Here they've passed it all off to Frodo. The idea was to make the cinema version very Frodo-centric, but I don’t think this is such a good idea as it could cause an underdog lover like myself to passionately dislike the main character.
7)There is a little extra footage of Gandalf trying to open the doors, along with one of my favourite quotes (in response to Pippin's query what was he going to do): "Knock your head against the doors, Peregrin Took! And if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words."
8)As in the book, Bill the Pony is relieved of his burdens and released before they enter the mines. Unlike in the book, there are no howling wolves to make the audience think he might not make it home no matter what Aragorn says. This is the PETA-friendly version.
9)Poor Merry and Pippin get a bad rap in this movie. In the book, Boromir threw a stone into the water and Frodo urged him to stop.
10)Just for the record, in the book Gimli was fully aware that something bad had probably happened in Moria because no one had heard from Balin for a long time.
11)This scene in the vestibule of Moria as it were was done with a standin for Gimli. John Rhys Davies (who delivered his lines from off camera) was taking the day off from his horrible makeup, more on that later.
12)The Watcher started to grab Pippin first. Think he was trying to grab Pippin’s bum?
13)When Frodo gets grabbed by the Watcher in the water and dangled upside-down by one leg, that was Elijah, not a stunt double.
14)Look carefully and you will notice that the Watcher is holding Frodo up with one tentacle and feeling him for the Ring with another.
15)Legolas is a pretty good shot with that bow, but he sure didn't miss Boromir and Aragorn by much with that final shot.
16)That moment of total darkness was a nice touch.
A Journey in the Dark-
1)Gandalf's lighted staff was not cordless. ;~)
2)Where did Aragorn get the torch?
3)There is an added bit here talking about mithril, which is what the dwarves were mining in Moria.
4)During Gandalf's little talk with Frodo (another forced perspective scene) they stuck in a couple extra lines about Gollum, revealing his real name as Smeagol.
5)Gandalf's lovely inspirational speech occurred earlier in the book, when they were still safe in Hobbiton, but it fits nicely here.
6)Okay, here is what really happened to Gollum: He was indeed captured by the forces of Sauron. He "escaped" and was eventually tracked down by Aragorn who brought him to Gandalf. After getting all the info out of him that they could Aragorn took him to the Mirkwood Elves for safekeeping. He escaped from them, which is why Legolas was at Elrond's council in the first place. Then presumably he was hanging out in Moria when the Fellowship showed up, and so he started tailing them.
Balin's Tomb-
1)There are Dwarvish Runes all over the tomb walls, and there's a cute story to go with this observation. Apparently a Tolkien language scholar came to have a look at the set and complained to PJ et al that someone had put "Joe was here" (or something like that) in Runes on one wall. Chagrined they started looking for it to take down, but couldn't find it. Finally they called up the scholar and asked him where he had found it. And then they learned that the scholar hadn't actually seen such a thing, but some wiseacre in the crew had told him it was there and he had taken them seriously.
2)Frodo was the one to say, “He is dead then. It is as I feared.”
3)All of Aragorn's shots in the tomb before the battle begins are done in profile. It seems Viggo Mortensen went surfing the day before and accidentally whacked himself in the face with a surfboard, resulting in an impressive black eye...on the right side of his face, which we don't get to see here. Nice profile, though.
4)As the dialogue continues, we can hear Gimli muttering in Dwarvish, presumably some prayer for the dead. Or maybe "I will avenge you," or something along those lines.
5)The bit with the well is considerably more dramatic in the movie, and not exactly Pippin's fault from the look of it. But then again, in the book Pippin just dropped a small stone down a deep well and it was a
day or two later that the Orcs caught up with them. I guess PJ thought a clash-bang would be better suited to wake them up right away.
6)Here is Gandalf’s line in full, worth repeating, “Fool of a Took! This is a serious journey, not a Hobbit walking party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance. Now be quiet!”
7)That is the Book of Mazarbul that Gandalf was reading from, and I would like to know what happened to it. In the book Gandalf gave it to Gimli to keep, but in the movie he seems to just throw it aside.
8)Another thing Gandalf tosses aside at this point is his hat. Apparently he felt it would be a hindrance during his stand-off with the Balrog. (And Ian Mckellan hated that hat.)
8)Legolas declares that Orcs are near, when we were all perfectly well aware that must be the case. It would have been nice if he'd said it in Elvish (Yrch) as he does in the book.
9)Gandalf draws his sword, Glamdring, and it's not glowing blue like Sting, even though they are both Elvish blades of Gondolin. Little oversight there.
10)Speaking of Sting, when Frodo draws it, the blade flickers for a moment and looks insubstantial, kinda like a lightsaber. Sloppy work there.
11)The cave troll is, as I'm sure you have guessed, a CG puppet.
12)The grunting and groaning of the troll was created by combining the sounds of a walrus and a tiger.
13)The Orcs in Moria were generally played by women and girls since they were more stunted than the other Orcs we see.
14)I notice that Legolas fires multiple arrows at times. I wonder if he got the idea from watching Cary Elwes in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
15)When Legolas is standing on the troll's shoulders he is on a wooden scaffolding, and his legs have been inserted by computer along with the troll.
16)So how close is too close to get with a CG double? As close as they got to Legolas when he was jumping off the troll. Even to my untrained eye he looks fake.
17)So who was it that decided a cave troll should have blue eyes?
18)When Frodo is trying to stay hidden from the troll, we all know it's gonna catch up with him eventually. And the moment when he heaves a sigh is likely to be it. But even so I jumped a foot when it happened. Did you?
19)The big ugly thing Frodo gets skewered with is a large trident with the middle barb shorter than the outer two. So the outer barbs go on either side of Frodo's torso while the middle one catches on the mithril, giving the illusion he's been run through.
20)Merry and Pippin riding on the troll's shoulders are CG doubles.
21)The troll lies on the floor dead and we see Gandalf walking past it. Then there is a sudden cut and Gandalf is running to see if Frodo is all right.
22)I would just like to point out that the mithril is only visible in this one scene, even though Frodo's shirt is opened before and later. For instance when he took a tumble down the mountain; we should have been able to see the mithril as he groped around for the missing Ring chain.
23)Speaking of which, where is that now? We can see the chain (and the mithril) when Frodo turns over, but when he opens he shirt we only see the mithril; the chain is gone.
24)Elijah didn't even get to wear the mithril. The effect was achieved by putting on him a tight T-shirt with a mithril-like front.
25)And while we're about it, why would a mail shirt have such a scooping neckline? Any weapon aimed a little higher than the heart would have missed it.
The Bridge of Khazad-dum-
1)Dwarrowdelf is a complete computer creation, and whenever we see the Fellowship from a distance in there, they are CGI as well.
2)Just before the Orcs appear frightened by some horror yet unknown, Gimli gives a fierce snarl, and he seems to think that is what has frightened the Orcs away.
3)Don't the Moria Orcs remind you of cockroaches scurrying around and up the pillars as they do? Ah, if only we could squash 'em with a slipper. A very large slipper. Or perhaps a giant can of Raid.
4)Some of these Orcs look disturbingly like Yoda gone bad.
5)That hole in the stairs was originally Alan Lee's idea, and PJ took it and ran with it.
6)The first arrow Legolas shoots here looks like it must be heat-seeking, unless someone can tell me that arrows normally waver like that while on course to the target.
7)Going back to my complaint about speech that is a bit too modern sounding, Gimli's line "No one tosses a Dwarf!" just barely passes, but I'm afraid I can't excuse "Not the beard!"
8)The blue screening is a bit obvious when the staircase falls forward with Frodo and Aragorn.
9)The figures running across the bridge (and down the stairs, too btw) are CG doubles.
10)The Balrog CGI is pretty cool, no? Please note his skin, made to look like partially hardened lava.
11)As the Fellowship flees from the bridge we see Boromir carrying Frodo. (And kudos to Elijah for really yanking on the old heartstrings.) He is actually carrying Kiran Shah (Elijah's scale double) with Elijah's face pasted on via blue screen. (And let me tell you, the image they showed in the “making of the film” of Elijah's head and chest suspended in a blue field and screaming for Gandalf was pretty eerie.)
12)The broken Fellowship comes out the Eastern entrance into Dimrill Dale, and if I can direct your attention away from their anguish for a moment, you will notice how the mountainside looks like it is beautifully dusted with snow, because it is a mountain of marble. Just because you're grieving doesn't mean you can't appreciate the scenery.
13)In the bit where Aragorn precedes the others down the mountain, he looks out over the land beyond, then we get to see it. There is a pool of water that could be the Mirrormere of Kheled-zaram, mentioned in the book.
Lothlorien-
1)The bits with the Fellowship walking through the forest were filmed in a beech forest in Paradise, Glenorchy. Which come to think of it is rather appropriate, because the wood Elves tended to favour beech trees.
2)That line about breathing loudly, one of my favourites, was applied to Sam in the book.
3)In the book it was Boromir who was wary of entering Lothlorien and spoke of a fabled enchantress.
4)Galadriel’s lines here are taken from the Mirror scene in the book.
5)Haldir was not so insufferably snooty in the book.
6)There is an added bit where the Fellowship are up in the flet talking to Haldir and arguing about whether they can go on to the heart of the forest.
7)The additional scene is filmed in a night atmosphere, even though it was day when the Elves first showed up. And when they proceed on, it's daytime again. Tsk tsk.
8)And another thing, in this additional scene Legolas suddenly has a different tunic with a lower collar. This would be because the scene was filmed early on, when they were still trying to work out what they wanted Legolas to look like.
9)Even more noticable is Gimli's slightly different make-up. This was filmed before they switched from latex to gelatin prosthetics.
10)In response to the Elves speaking over his head in Elvish, Gimli says something rude in Dwarvish, or so we gather from the reactions. (No subtitles for that line.) As amusing as that was, it is terribly inappropriate, owing mainly to the fact that Dwarvish was a language spoken and understood only by the Dwarves.
11)As Aragorn and Haldir are arguing about whether they can continue in safety, Frodo looks around at his companions and seems to perceive them placing blame on him for their current situation.
12)Why is Boromir the one to give Frodo a little pep talk? Under the circustances it seems inappropriate.
13)What, no blindfolds? *sigh* I suppose that would have slowed things down further, but it also would have helped with the Dwarf/Elf antagonism.
14)Haldir points out Caras Galadhon to them and the camera angle is terrible; we can see his double chin and his dark five o'clock shadow.
Caras Galadhon-
1)Someone in the design department has referred to the beautiful palace in the trees as art nouveau tree huts.
2)Everyone is CG walking up the stairs.
3)As they approach the throne room it looks like Haldir (or whoever the Elf in front is) peeks around the corner of the doorway before he goes in. Making sure Galadriel and Celeborn weren't engaging in wild and crazy Elf sex maybe?
4)There are Mallorn leaves all over the throne room floor.
5)In these dimly lit scenes, something called an eye-light is used for the actors, which can be seen as a single spot of white light in the center of each eye. In the case of Galadriel, they used a clustered wreath of white fairy lights instead of a single bulb, in an attempt to make her look at least different, and perhaps ethereal.
6)Celeborn was given some of Galdriel’s lines in this scene, including the one about how she couldn’t see Gandalf from afar. Therefore she shouldn’t have known that he had fallen into shadow until someone said so.
7)Legolas really looks good in this scene, and the next, probably because the blue-white light more or less washes out all the colour so the fact that he doesn't have the right complexion for ash blond hair is less obvious. 'Course, those dark eyebrows still stand out...
8)There is some extra stuff here for Galadriel in which she addresses each member of the Fellowship, and it takes away some of the edge; she seems friendlier now.
9)This added stuff also mercifully cuts short the sniveling we heard from Boromir in the cinema version, which I thought went on far longer than it needed to.
10)It's all very well to make Boromir, he of the guilty conscience, the only one to look away from Galadriel, but in the book, only Legolas and Aragorn were able to hold her gaze for more than a few seconds.
11)The bit where Legolas speaks about the Lament to Gandalf is extended somewhat, so that we see who is saying what, and they kindly added Sam's impromptu verse about the fireworks.
12)Philippa Boyen wrote the lyrics for the Lament, apart from Sam's bit anyway. And doesn’t it sound beautiful?
13)As Sam delivers his little addition to the Lament, we hear someone gently snoring in the background. It is Gimli, and Aragorn whacks him to make him stop.
14)Boromir's little speech about Minas Tirith (during his chat with Aragorn) is from Return of the King, which means that he didn't deliver it. It was arranged from a piece of descriptive narrative as Pippin and Gandalf were approaching Minas Tirith on horseback. Here it is in full: "...suddenly the sun climbed over the eastern shadow and sent forth a shaft that smote the face of the city. Then Pippin cried aloud, for the Tower of Ecthelion, standing high within the topmost wall, shone out against the sky, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, tall and fair and shapely, and its pinnacle glittered as if it were wrought of crystals; and white banners broke and fluttered from the battlements in the morning breeze, and high and far he heard a ringing as of silver trumpets."
15)It could just be me, but when Aragorn says, "I have seen the White City, long ago," he sounds like he was not impressed by the sight as Boromir obviously is. Not even a feeling of "one day all this will be mine!"
The Mirror of Galadriel-
1)Just for the record, in the book Sam was in this scene, too.
2)I have to admit, Cate Blanchett makes a darn good Galadriel.
3)Galadriel should have breathed on the water after she poured it.
4)The beginning of the Mirror vision is a repeat of the scene in the flet where Frodo perceives everyone turning away from him.
5)The rest of the Mirror vision combines and condenses what Sam and Frodo each saw in the book.
6)Galadriel doesn't make mention of this in the movie, but in the book she clearly told Frodo not to touch the water. When he found himself being pulled toward the image of the Eye by the Ring, she repeated this with some urgency and he pulled away. I think they should have left that in.
7)I'm sorry, but when Galadriel says, "I know what it is you saw," it sounds like she's just caught Frodo peeking at the Elf maidens bathing or something.
8)Galadriel never even hinted at Boromir’s betrayal in the book. Even the very wise cannot see all ends after all.
9)There is an added bit where Galadriel shows Nenya (her ring of power) to Frodo, but I have noticed that she is not wearing it at all until just before she shows it to him.
The Fighting Uruk Hai-
1)Just so we all know, the very first Orcs were the descendents of Elves who were tortured by Melkor (aka Morgoth), Sauron's predecessor.
2)I can't help but wonder where Saruman was planning to get the man flesh to feed his Uruk Hai with.
3)I love the way Lurtz reacts when Saruman says he wants the halfings "unspoiled". Seems like he's disappointed, don't it?
Farewell to Lorien-
1)Whoo hoo! They put the gift giving scene back in!
2)Mind you, they didn't bother to mention Galadriel's gift to Boromir, which was a gold belt.
3)Boromir had that gorgeous fur-lined cloak that he was wearing till now; I wonder what became of it.
4)And speaking of Boromir, when is he ever going to wash his hair? They must have showers in Lorien because even Aragorn's hair looks less icky.
5)This beautiful little glade was in Fernside, Featherston, New Zealand.
6)Legolas loads the provisions in the boats and takes time out to do a little Lembas commercial.
7)Does anyone else think the Lembas looks like pita bread? I wonder what it tastes like.
8)In the book Celeborn's character was not much developed; in fact he seemed to be a bit of a doofus at times. PJ must have decided to change that and added this dagger-giving scene for that purpose. There is no other reason for it that I can think of.
9)Geez, Celeborn has hairy arms for an Elf.
10)Sam did not get rope as a present from Galadriel for heaven's sake! She gave him some nice Lothlorien dirt, which is gonna come in mighty handy when they get back to the Shire.
11)I was most annoyed with them for cutting Galadriel's response to Gimli's flattery, which they fluffed with something he said to her at their first meeting. She had a good line, "Hear, all ye Elves! Let none say again that Dwarves are grasping and ungracious!" But here they just have her giggling like a schoolgirl. Which is unfortunate because Cate Blanchett has less than perfect teeth.
12)Aragorn did get a gift from Galadriel, two in fact: a sheath for his sword, and a green brooch in the shape of an eagle.
13)And don’t let Viggo fool you, Aragorn was not so unselfish as to wish Arwen to stay with her people. He was in love, but he was willing to wait till he was king.
14)Just for the record, Aragorn and Galadriel did meet again, at his and Arwen's wedding. Galadriel is Arwen's granny after all.
The Great River-
1)There is an added bit as they make camp that shows Gollum is still following them.
2)There is also an added argument between Aragorn and Boromir. I think it's a bit silly, and for some reason it puts me in mind of a lover's tiff, probably because I’ve been talking too much with my slashbunny friends. Aragorn and Boromir did argue, but it was more about going to Minas Tirith and less about Aragorn and his feelings.
3)As we come through the Argonath, we are on the Karawau River in Queenstown.
4)The figures here are supposed to be Isildur and his brother Anarion. I’m not sure which is which, but the one that is holding Narsil is probably Isildur.
5)Both of the figures should have held axes.
6)Birdies fly out of the eyes of the Isildur statue as the helicopter shot takes us past its head. Seems like a good place for nesting.
7)Why are the statues wearing sandals? It does not seem appropriate footgear.
Parth Galen-
1)They come to shore on the Mavora Lakes in Paradise.
2)Mark Ordesky (executive producer) pointed out that Legolas is always telling Aragorn, "We need to get out of here," and he never listens, and look what happens. Shoulda listened to the Elf.
3)It was Aragorn who told Frodo he woke up because “a shadow and threat has been growing in my sleep.”
4)Ah, the problems of how to get rid of props. Boromir had to have an armload of wood to give him an excuse for being away from camp. (Or so PJ thought.) But then he needed to get rid of it, hence that little tantrum moment.
5)In facing shots Frodo is starting to move away from Boromir (as any right thinking person would), but in shots from behind he is still standing there.
6)As Frodo and Boromir tussle there is no scale doubling being done.
7)They trimmed Boromir’s lines a little here. I wish they had kept this one: “Come, come, my friend! Why not get rid of it? Why not be free of your doubt and fear? You can lay the blame on me, if you will. You can say that I was too strong and took it by force. For I am too strong for you, halfling.” And then he pounced.
8)So did Frodo punch Boromir or just push him? Or perhaps he kicked him.
9)Amon Hen was filmed at Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.
10)For all you confused people who haven't read the book yet (what are you waiting for?) Frodo is on the far-seeing seat of Amon Hen, which explains why he suddenly sees the dark tower of Barad-dur.
11)Every time I see that shot swinging upward on the tower, I think of an elevator going up.
12)This little scene with Aragorn and Frodo is most unnecessary. It annoys the heck out of me and makes my mother, a confirmed Tolkien purist, foam at the mouth. PJ wanted to show someone who could resist the lure of the Ring. All well and good, but Faramir was supposed to be the one to do that. But alas, PJ decided to change that as well. *sigh*
13)To give Aragorn his due, he did have a chance to resist the Ring, but it was in Rivendell at the Council. Upon learning that Aragorn is Isildur’s heir Frodo said, “Then it belongs to you and not to me at all.” To which Aragorn replied, “It does not belong to either of us, but it has been ordained that you should hold it a while.” I guess that wasn’t a tense enough moment to suit the writers.
14)As Frodo scrambles to get away from Aragorn he looks like he's going to fall over any second.
15)It's the disappearing, reappearing chain! Somehow it knows when it's not wanted and just slinks off somewhere so we can concentrate on the Ring. And it apparently breaks and fixes itself all the time.
16)Frodo’s nails look pretty good here, amazingly enough.
17)Aragorn kneels and swings his left hand down as if to cover the Ring, but it's his right hand that ends up doing that.
18)Oh give me a break, you've got hundreds of Orcs charging up the hill and Aragorn and Frodo don't realize it until they see Sting turning blue? Couldn't they hear 'em coming? It's not like they make much effort to move stealthily. Though we don’t hear them until we see them; I guess they must be Orc ninjas. There’s a scary thought.
19)In the book, Aragorn did have Frodo draw his sword to check for Orcs, but it was when they were encamped on shore.
The Breaking of the Fellowship-
1)Aragorn does a neat little salute with his sword just before he starts hacking Orcs with it.
2)According to his co-stars, Viggo Mortensen fights like a maniac. As well as occasionally hurting the Orc actors in his mad fighting frenzy, he also broke his own tooth. But rather than stop filming so he could go get it fixed by a dentist, he wanted to put it back together with superglue! Boy, I bet the set nurse loved him.
3)Those Lothlorien arrows must be pretty sturdy if Legolas can use them as daggers when the situation calls for it.
4)Merry and Pippin cross a bridge, see the Orcs coming at them, one Orc in particular raises its weapon to strike. Look just behind it and the area is fairly clear of trees. As the camera closes in on this one Orc the trees are suddenly more profuse behind him. Maybe some Ents are lost?
5)So, what was the Orc gonna do, seeing as their orders were to bring halflings back alive? It looks like he had murderous intent.
6)Just so you know, all the arrows Legolas shoots are CGed in later; it is not humanly possible to shoot arrows that fast. (Yes, I know Legolas is an Elf, but Orlando Bloom is not.)
7)While Legolas is firing all those arrows, Aragorn is in the background getting strangled by an Orc. It's amusing to watch him hitting ineffectually at it until Legolas deigns to notice him and kill the thing.
8)The horn of Gondor sounds and everyone runs off, heros, Orcs, and all. Watch the Orcs as they go downhill. One in particular looked like he was mincing down, and I always wondered why. According to Richard Taylor (head of Weta Workshop) it was because he didn't want to fall and get bracken in his hair because it was the dickens to get out again.
9)The Hobbits throwing stones at the Orcs may seem a bit silly, but in the books Hobbits were notorious for being deadly accurate with any small missile.
10)And what about that swagger as Lurtz comes down the hill to finish Boromir off? Doesn't he look like he's ready to pose for OQ (Orcs Quarterly) magazine?
11)As Boromir jumps up and keeps fighting again and again, I can't help thinking, Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'.
12)And after Lurtz shoots his second arrow, he looks like he’s thinking, “Die already!”
13)As the third (and final) arrow strikes Boromir, look closely and you will see that the Horn of Gondor has been split cleanly lengthwise. Though it never indicates in the book, I had always pictured it being split across its width. Nor do we see it happen.
14)I don't know much about archery, but Lurtz's stance as he draws the bow looks a little funny. And isn't the arrowhead on the wrong side?
15)That bit with the shield was too much IMO. It should have taken Aragorn's head off.
16)The knife thrown at Aragorn's head was an aluminum blade that was deflected (in one take, nice job!) and then flew on to embed itself in a tree. Don't try this at home, kids.
17)The prosthetic face that Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz) wore cut off his peripheral vision and messed with his depth perception, so some of his strikes hit home, including that head butt.
18)So where the heck are Legolas and Gimli all this time anyway?
The Departure of Boromir-
1)Observe the shots as Boromir speaks his last words. When looking at Boromir his hand is on Aragorn's shoulder. When looking at Aragorn, it is not. Oops.
2)Have you noticed how filthy these guys are? Especially Aragorn, his hands are completely black with dirt.
3)Okay, Boromir is dead and now Legolas and Gimli show up? So what were they doing that made them take longer than Aragorn, hmmmm?
4)Boromir dies and goes pale, a lovely computer effect.
5)I almost thought Aragorn was going to cross himself when he put his hand to his forehead then brought it down to his chin.
The Road Goes Ever On-
1)The shot they have of Gandalf repeating his inspirational line is a different take; the light is different and so is his head angle.
2)Frodo should have the Ring on from the time he comes down to the shore to the time he rescues Sam, but I guess that would have complicated things a bit.
3)"But, Sam, you can't swim!" "Geez, why'd you say that, I was doing fine..." Hee hee, it's amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't know what one can't do.
4)Sam's drowning was done on a soundstage with fans blowing, an effect called "dry for wet".
5)Yet another good line they left out, as Frodo pulled Sam out of the water, “Save me, Mr. Frodo! I’m drownded.”
6)The promise Sam talks of was made, not to Gandalf, but Gildor, one of the Elves they met on the road out of the Shire.
7)Where'd they get the extra paddle? I thought those boats came with one each.
8)That's a Boromir dummy in the boat, made especially for the scene (and at the last minute) because Sean Bean had already gone home.
9)They seem to have glued the horn of Gondor back together.
10)After the boat goes down the falls we see Aragorn cinching on a pair of vambraces. They're Boromir's, and they have the white tree of Gondor on them.
11)The movie takes us one chapter into Two Towers; Fellowship ended with Frodo and Sam going off in the boat with the noise of battle coming from the woods, but we didn't know what it was at that point. This ending gives slightly better closure.