Fellowship of the Ring
Act I
Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All-
1)Galadriel's opening speech about the changing world was made by Treebeard near the end of Return of the King. As he was about to part ways with Galadriel and Celeborn he said, “It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.”
2)One of the seven Dwarves, at the top of the circle on the left, is Gino Acevedo, the prosthetics supervisor.
3)Of the nine Kings of Men, the second from the right is Alan Lee (concept artist).
4)Seems to me that when Sauron is standing there holding up the One Ring in the flames of Mount Doom, his armor gives him a bit of a pudgy tummy. Hardly a slimming look for the great dark lord.
5)The stunt actor who plays Sauron here is Sala Baker, a New Zealand native.
6)The scene of peasants running from a pillaging horde of Orcs is also a rape and burn scene in Rohan from The Two Towers.
7)It seems strange that everyone in the battle of the Last Alliance wears a helmet, everyone except the Elven leaders. Are their heads somehow impervious to being hacked open or shot through? The movie reason is so we can see who the stars are, but it’s not practical.
8)I think the dark-haired elf we see who does a downward thrust on a felled Orc is supposed to be Gil-Galad. It’s not Elrond, before you ask, because his face is not as angular.
9)It is appropriate for the archers to be positioned behind a row of shield men, but I am pretty sure that they should not be firing between the heads of the shield men. Too much room for error there, even if they are Elves.
10)It could be just an effect, but it seems that Sauron grows more and more gigantic as his scene progresses.
11)Isildur is played by Harry Sinclair, a director friend of Peter Jackson’s. He looks a bit like Boromir around the eyes, which is appropriate.
12)Narsil clatters to the ground and you can already see the break-lines on it. Must be the sword that was broken and re-forged several times.
13)While we're on the subject, Narsil was shattered beneath Elendil’s fallen body, not beneath Sauron’s big foot. Of course, the latter looks better on film.
14)When Isildur grabs his father you can see Elendil's armor bend near the shoulder. That's because the suit was made of rubber so the actor wouldn't get hurt being thrown around like that.
15)Nowhere does it say that Isildur cut off all of Sauron's fingers with a mighty slash, but it is certainly easier for me to get my head around than the idea of him slicing off just one, the One.
16)In the extended DVD there is a little added bit that shows Isildur putting on the Ring and jumping into the river while the Orcs are attacking.
17)When Ian Holm appears as young Bilbo finding the Ring, they achieved his youthful appearance by pulling his face skin back with tape, a temporary face lift!
Concerning Hobbits (added scene)-
Here PJ did some lovely stuff introducing the Hobbits to the viewers in a more leisurely manner than was in the theatre version.
1)Bilbo entitles his book (which he's only now starting?) There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale. But The Hobbit's alternate title was A Hobbit's Holiday.
2)You'll notice that the animals here are huge compared to the Hobbits; I understand the movie makers went to some trouble to find over-sized oxen, cows, pigs, sheep, etc.
3)The guy going by with a goat in the foreground looks a bit like Frodo, but I don’t think it is.
4)The lady Hobbit that bends in for a kiss from the guy who is more interested in food seems remarkably tall for a Hobbit. Or maybe he’s just short, or on his knees.
5)There's a bit with Sam doing some potting in the garden, the only time we see him gardening unless you count the part later on where he claims to be cutting the grass under the window.
6)The Hobbit who is pounding in tent stakes for the party tent misses the stake by about a foot.
7)As an interesting aside, some of the Hobbit extras met, fell in love, and got married during the course of the filming. What a charming thought.
8)When Frodo doesn't respond to Bilbo's call the older Hobbit grumbles, "Sticklebacks! Where is that boy?" What on Middle Earth is a stickleback?
The Shire-
1)As Gandalf appears in his cart, he is singing "The Road Goes Ever, Ever On" from The Hobbit, a song that Bilbo wrote. The tune used here was written by Fran Walsh (co-writer/producer), and I think it sounds a little like the French carol "Il es Ne, le Divin Enfant".
2)The scene with Frodo and Gandalf on the cart together is achieved with a combination of forced perspective and scale doubles. When you can see both of them it's always on a diagonal slant with Gandalf closer to the camera. In fact Frodo is about two feet behind him on a separate bench. (Cool, no?) If you can see only one or neither clearly, then one of them is being played by a double who is the appropriate size relative to the other actor. Good old-fashioned cinema trickery; no bells or whistles involved.
3)It has been mentioned that initially the screenwriters thought they might do away with Gandalf's smoking in order to be a little more politically correct. The idea was that when Gandalf appears in Hobbiton he has just given up smoking and is sucking toffees instead. So if you see his mouth moving in a funny way, that's probably why. (I’m glad they did away with it.)
4)There is an added scene where Frodo talks off-screen about how odd Bilbo has been acting, and the latter is shown in his study searching for the Ring. It is great for us to see how frantic he gets when he thinks it is lost, and how relieved he is when he finds it right where he left it, in his waistcoat pocket. Beautifully shows how strong a hold the Ring has on him.
5)Among the Hobbit children who follow the cart are a toe-headed boy and girl pair. Setting aside the fact that neither seems to have the right skin tone for such pale hair, it is well established that there were no blond Hobbits until after Sam came back and started making babies with Rosie Cotton.
6)The old Hobbit who laughs at Gandalf's fireworks we later will discover is Odo Proudfoot.
7)As a bit of curious info, the outdoor Hobbiton set was carefully grown on a farm in Matamata in New Zealand.
Very Old Friends-
1)For the scene at the door of Bag End, scale doubles were again used.
2)In the hall when Bilbo takes Gandalf's hat and staff, something akin to blue screening was used. That is, there were two Bag End sets, one regular size and the other Hobbit sized. Each actor was filmed separately on the appropriate set, then the two filmings were carefully spliced in together. Pretty cool, no?
3)When Gandalf bumped his head on the door frame it was an accident, but Ian McKellan did a nice job of working it in.
4)The map Gandalf picks up and takes a closer look at is Thorin Oakenshield’s map of the Lonely Mountain, a valuable relic from The Hobbit.
5)What Bilbo says with his mouth full is "You don't mind if I eat?" Hurrah for subtitles!
6)There is an added bit indicating that the relatives whom Bilbo is not at home to are his cousins Otho and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. I love the added line, "They've never forgiven me for living this long!"
7)The kitchen scene is done with moving forced perspective, wherein not only is the larger person closer to the camera, but he is also on a platform that moves with the camera as it pans around so as to keep up the illusion. The table is divided and the two pieces are several feet apart. You get evidence of this when Gandalf turns and puts his legs under his half because he jiggles it with his knee.
8)The teapot lid that Gandalf picks up and then replaces is on a peg lined up with the teapot on Bilbo’s part of the table.
A Long Expected Party-
1)The procession that brings in the birthday cake is led by Merry Brandybuck.
2)Pippin Took is playing a guitar-like instrument back on the bandstand.
3)I like Frodo’s little chicken dance. I guess the Hobbits must have invented that.
4)As Bilbo greets his guests he shakes hands with an older looking Hobbit and says "Fatty Bolger, lovely to see you! Welcome!" Fatty Bolger is the name of a cousin of Frodo, Merry, and Pippin who is also a contemporary of theirs. All very well to honour Fatty (nee Fredegar), but they should have picked a younger man.
5)Fatty is played by Fran Walsh's Uncle Tom.
6)The absolutely adorable Hobbit girl and boy at the front of the group listening to Bilbo's story about the trolls are Katie and Billy Jackson, the children of Peter Jackson (writer/director/producer and hereafter referred to as PJ).
7)Katie Jackson is the only Hobbit who didn't need a curly wig; she must get the natural curls from her daddy.
8)When Frodo is trying to encourage Sam to dance with Rosie Cotton we shift to and from shots of her up close and in the background as they talk. These images are not in synch. For her close-ups she is dancing alone in the center of a ring of Hobbits. In her background shots she is either part of the ring, or else just standing around.
9)There is an added bit in which we get a brief close-up of the Sackville-Bagginses as they push their way through the crowd looking for Bilbo. They are a very sour looking pair, Lobelia in particular.
10)Frodo and Bilbo hide from the S-B's and then Bilbo starts dithering about why he took Frodo in after his parents died. At least Frodo seems to think he's dithering; he asks, "Have you been at the Gaffer's home brew?" Which leads one to wonder what exactly is in this home brew.
11)In the illicit firework-launching scene, the yell you hear is from Pippin and it is not faked. He wasn't expecting the rocket to do anything before they cut the camera, but there was a small explosion, and he, very much in character, shrieked like a little girl.
12)The dragon firework (which was in the book, though Gandalf set it off) seems to have caught the party tent on fire. Why is no one concerned about this?
13)Merry and Pippin washing dishes under Gandalf's supervision is another forced perspective shot, and please note the tiny little mug Gandalf is drinking from; it's cute.
14)All during Bilbo's (abbreviated) speech his birthday cake is turning into a raging inferno with all those candles.
15)The angle of the shot of Odo Proudfoot as he interjects with "Proudfeet!" is inspired by the same shot from the Bakshi cartoon version of Lord of the Rings.
16)Just for the record, this party was also for Frodo's 33rd birthday, and he was well aware of the Ring and what Bilbo was going to do, as was Gandalf.
17)Bilbo's disappearance should have been accompanied by a flash and bang, courtesy of Gandalf.
18)When he disappears he sounds as if he's being sucked away.
Farewell, Dear Bilbo-
1)Gandalf and Bilbo are again being filmed on separate Bag End sets. When Bilbo first comes into the room, the eye-line for both of them is off as they search for their spot.
2)The portraits over the fireplace are supposed to be Bungo and Belladonna Baggins, Bilbo's parents. They are said, if examined closely, to bear a strong resemblance to Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
3)Note the creaking of the rafters as Gandalf seems to grow giant before our eyes.
4)They took the lamest lines for Gandalf's threatening speech. I would like to have heard "It will be my turn to get angry soon. If you say that [my precious] again I shall. Then you will see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked!" Hmmmm…Actually, maybe we'd be better off without that. ;~)
5)Bilbo drops the Ring at the door and it doesn't bounce or roll away. This is because someone put a magnet in the floor to make it stick; obviously the Ring was not pure gold.
6)As Bilbo leaves he sings "The Road Goes Ever, Ever On".
7)Another curious tidbit, Peter Jackson kept the full-size Bag End set and plans to make a summer home out of it one day.
Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe-
1)Be honest now, is there anyone at all who didn't jump the first time you saw the flaming eye?
2)That was a stupid place to leave the Ring; Frodo is so obviously trying not to trip over it as he comes in. If he had truly not known it was there he probably would have kicked it down the hall.
3)As Gandalf is about to go out the door he and Frodo are both in the regular sized Bag End, but Gandalf is standing on a box.
The Account of Isildur-
1)Gandalf goes to Minas Tirith to do his research.
2)The Black Rider here is voiced by Andy Serkis (Gollum).
3)The Hobbit who confronts the Black Rider here should probably be Farmer Maggot.
4)It has been noted that this Hobbit looks like he might be a Took, i.e. related to Pippin.
At the Green Dragon (added scene)-
A great scene that shows a little more of the Hobbits and their attitude toward the world outside.
1)As the scene opens, the patrons of the Green Dragon, led by Merry and Pippin standing on a table, and Frodo dancing around it, are singing a song written by Fran Walsh, based on a couple songs sung by Pippin in the book. Here are the lyrics for those whose are interested:
Hey! Ho! To the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
But there still be many miles to go.
Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain,
And the stream that falls from hill to plain.
Better that rain or rippling brook
(Pippin) Is a mug of beer inside this Took!
And here (for the truly nitpicky) are the original verses from Tolkien:
Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go,
But under a tall tree I will lie
And let the clouds go sailing by.
(sung on the road between Hobbiton and Buckland)
O! Sweet is the sound of pouring rain,
And the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
But better than rain or rippling streams
Is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
(sung in the bath at Crickhollow)
2)Seated at the table, the older Hobbit across from Sam is probably his father, Hamfast Gamgee, also known as the Gaffer.
3)The Hobbit next to Sam is obviously Ted Sandyman, the miller’s son.
4)Does anyone else think it slightly inappropriate in the old English-type setting for a servant (Sam) and his master (Frodo) to go out to the pub together?
5)The Hobbit who sweet-talks Rosie at the door and raises Sam's hackles sounds like Ted, but doesn't look much like him from what little I can see.
6)Frodo says "Rosie knows an idiot when she sees one," and Sam evidently thinks she may see one in him.
The Shadow of the Past-
1)As Sam and Frodo part at the gate to Bag End, watch Sam; he’s got a cute tipsy walk. (It's actually the scale double at that point.)
2)I realize that this was done to raise dramatic tension, but I find it highly improbable that Gandalf would have to break into Bag End, and then lie in wait like a thief. It seems much more likely that he'd be sitting out on the front porch blowing smoke rings.
3)Pity they couldn't have worked in the scene where Frodo leaves Gandalf knocking at the door thinking it's Lobelia, then Gandalf comes to the window and threatens to blow the door out through the other side of the hill.
4)Gandalf must have been riding hard; he's quite travel-stained.
5)Since we see his hands so much, it’s hard not to notice that Frodo seems to have a problem with biting his nails right down to the quick.
6)We are led to believe that Frodo shoved the Ring away in a box somewhere and forgot about it till now, but in the book I think he carried it in his pocket just as Bilbo did.
7)When Gandalf throws the envelope with the Ring into the fire, the paper has only just burned through and the flames barely have a chance to lick the metal before he pulls it out again. Surely it needs to get a little hotter than that before the letters appear. Remember where it was made!
8)In the kitchen scene they once again use moving forced perspective.
9)Alan Howard is the voice of both the Ring and Sauron.
10)Frodo is standing pouring water in the teapot, then Gandalf is shown, then the camera goes back to Frodo. In the space of a couple seconds he has sat down and poured himself a cup of tea, which he is now holding. Quick for a Hobbit, isn't he?
11)When Frodo leaves the kitchen with the Ring it is a noticeable blue screen scene.
12)It has been noted that Frodo's innocent little line, "Do they, Gandalf?" is in every trailer for the movie, usually just at the end.
13)When they show what I assume is Frodo's imagination providing a glimpse of what will happen when Sauron is looking for the Ring, do you think the Hobbit that the Rider takes a swing at is supposed to be the Gaffer?
14)If that image was supposed to be out of Frodo’s head I don’t know how he conjured up such an accurate one. Remember, he didn’t know anything about the Black Riders yet.
15)Gandalf is so nice helping Frodo to pack. He even folds a shirt very neatly...which Frodo then grabs and stuffs in a crumpled wad into his pack.
16)What is that thing Frodo just wrapped in a cloth? It looks like a fruitcake.
17)If you look over Gandalf’s shoulder at this point you see what looks like an enormous pine cone sitting on a shelf. I guess Bilbo or Frodo collected them.
18)Initially the Powers That Be (PTB) were going to have Merry and Pippin eavesdropping right along with Sam, and continue from there. I wish they had kept that because it would have been closer to the book than the way they eventually introduced M&P into the Fellowship.
19)That is a gorgeous sunset on the horizon as Gandalf leads Frodo and Sam away from Bag End.
20)In the cornfield scene, some fans even more nitpicky than I am have claimed to see a car going by in the background. Not to sound skeptical, but all I see is a plume of smoke, which they seem to think is from the car exhaust, but I suspect is from the chimney on that little cottage in the background.
21)An addendum to the above, according to John Gilbert (editor), there was a car in the background in the cinema version (though I never saw it, even when I was looking for it), that they didn’t notice till it was too late. It was deleted from the DVD.
22)I can't help but notice that the scarecrow in the cornfield is not doing a very good job. There are three crows sitting on him.
The Passing of the Elves (added scene)-
Nicely illustrates that the time of the Elves on Middle Earth is coming to an end.
1)Of course, in the book Frodo and Sam actually met and talked with the Elves, but I guess they didn't have time for that in the movie.
2)There's a role reversal here. In the book Sam was the Hobbit who could sleep just about anywhere, and Frodo was the one to complain of a root digging into his back.
3)So, was Frodo's little attempt to distract Sam from his discomfort a form of Middle Earth guided imagery?
4)When Frodo says "Me, neither," he pronounces it ny-ther. This sounds strange; I think Elijah Wood was overdoing his accent a bit there.
Saruman the White-
1)It is in this scene where you can see that Gandalf keeps his pipe wedged in the top of his staff.
2)Saruman’s cluttered study with the wine glasses and all gives him a slightly more human touch than we get anywhere else.
3)Gandalf did not know that Saruman had the Palantir until Wormtongue lobbed it at him in a scene near the end of Two Towers. (A scene which has inexplicably been deleted.)
4)The Palantir is a heavily lacquered wooden ball with CG effects added in later. Sometimes simple things work best.
5)Please note that we never see Saruman mount the stairs to his throne; he's at the foot, then we look at Gandalf, then we see Saruman sitting on the throne. This was done, I think, because Christopher Lee had trouble getting up the steps without tripping over his robes.
6)The Wizards' fight (which was one of the most gratuitous and corny scenes in the movie) won MTV's best movie fight of the year award. I suppose two old guys beating the crap out of each other with magic is a bit of a novelty.
7)And with all that whacking and swinging, somehow Gandalf's pipe manages to stay in the staff.
8)So tell me, how did Gandalf get his staff back when he escaped if Saruman took it from him? This question does not come up in the book because Saruman does not take his staff; it is simply not the done thing among wizards.
A Shortcut to Mushrooms-
1)Poor Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had hay fever in the cornfield, which probably explains his expression of apprehension better than the fact he was running away from Farmer Maggot.
2)And while we're on the subject, Merry and Pippin were actually on good terms with Farmer Maggot, and it was Frodo who used to steal mushrooms from him in his youth.
3)Sam is awfully rough when he pulls Pippin off of Frodo, no doubt giving rise to lots of slashy thoughts from the slashbunnies (you know who you are). Sean Astin would have done well to remember (as would PJ et al) that Sam is a servant to Frodo, Merry, and Pippin.
4)Farmer Maggot is voiced by Mike Hopkins, the supervising sound editor.
5)As poor old Pippin lands on the bottom of the pile-up, he notes optimistically that he narrowly missed landing face first in a small pile of dung.
6)Pippin is really taking a beating. In his rush to get to the mushrooms, Sam pushes past him and shoves his face into the dirt. Merry does the same, but is not quite as rough.
7)In a video about Tolkien I saw shots of the English countryside where he grew up, and there was one of a wooded path in Mosely Bog in Sarehole, Birmingham that by a remarkable coincidence looks exactly like the path that the Hobbits are on now (which is in New Zealand).
8)Watch very closely as the black horse appears and you will notice that it seems to come out of the tree, it is not visible passing on the other side.
9)It's a good thing the Nazgul can't see, y'know, because the Hobbits are not exactly well hidden there, esp when it leans over.
10)Frodo’s nails, which normally have a severely bitten appearance, are a little nicer looking here, albeit dirty.
11)I had wondered about this and have finally learned that the bugs that appear in sudden abundance are fleeing from the Nazgul. He does not exude them, as I had previously thought.
12)Merry must have been pretty scared because that was the bag with the precious mushrooms he threw away to distract the Black Rider.
Bucklebury Ferry-
1)Merry and Pippin did not have cloaks or packs on when they were fleeing Farmer Maggot, so why do they have them now?
2)Believe it or not, Frodo's leap from the shore to the ferry was not enhanced by computer, nor was it a stunt double. In fact, the first time he tried it he overshot and landed in the Brandywine.
3)We cut from the ferry straight to Bree, skipping a heck of a lot of time and geography. We can only assume that somewhere in there they stopped for clothes and provisions for Merry and Pippin, since they joined kinda on the fly.
At the Sign of the Prancing Pony-
1)As Frodo appears in the dark and the rain, his luminous blue eyes almost seem to glow. They could have cast him as Paul Atreides in the Dune mini-series without having to treat his eyes at all; he seems to have a natural Fremen look.
2)Philippa Boyens (co-writer) insists that the Hobbits are coming out of the Old Forest at the beginning of this scene, having just said goodbye to Tom Bombadil. (Mind you this claim is disproved elsewhere in this and the next movie.)
3)At the gate of Bree when Merry turns to look over his shoulder he is on his knees with three scale doubles in front of him.
4)The Bree set was on Ft. Dorcet, an old World War II military base in Chile Bay.
5)Some of the giant figures we see lumbering around are short gymnasts on stilts.
6)The large guy who suddenly looms up eating a carrot and belching is Peter Jackson himself.
7)We see more forced perspective used at the bar in the Prancing Pony.
8)I don't think the patrons were quite that seedy in the book. Not all of them anyway.
9)Why has somebody got a ferret on his shoulder?
10)The enormous pint tankards are ceramic, painted to look like pewter. (Less expensive that way.)
11)As Merry sits down with his pint, the stilt-man walking in the background looks too fake.
12)I like the black kitty they show, who was mentioned in the book. (The ferret wasn’t.)
13)Frodo points out Strider and Butterbur does a cute little reaction.
14)Frodo murmurs "Strider" and the glow we see next is the bowl of Strider's pipe which lights his eyes. My brother had to point that one out to me; I had no idea what it was before.
15)Frodo has been biting his nails again. Must be worried about the Black Riders.
16)Pippin was not as stupid as all that, just a little too talkative. But this version moves faster, which is what PJ was going for I guess.
17)Pippin says, "Sure I know a Baggins." This leads me to wonder who was asking.
18)Our view of Wraith world (could this be the next new theme park?) is cool, but a little premature. We shouldn’t see it till after the Nazgul show up and stab Frodo. But I expect PJ didn't want to confuse the issue.
19)So I guess Aragorn keeps Narsil safe in Rivendell instead of carrying it around. Which actually makes more sense; why carry a sword you can't use?
20)When the Hobbits come charging in to rescue Frodo Sam calls Strider “Longshanks”, which may have been one of his many nicknames.
The Nazgul-
1)Though it doesn't really indicate one way or the other in the movie, we are led to assume in the book that the gatekeeper was in league with the Black Riders.
2)Now here's the problem of skipping stuff to make the movie go faster. They have the Nazgul coming into the Inn and tearing up the pillows, while in the book they hired someone to do it for them. I feel sure that the Nazgul would not have been fooled by blankets over pillows, and even if they were, they certainly would have been able to sense or smell the Ring in the very next room.
3)As the bedlam (pun not intended) is occurring in the next room, the three younger Hobbits awake and sit up, then the camera pans back and there's Frodo, too, who obviously hasn't slept a wink. Watch as he appears; he was leaning forward until the camera got around him before leaning back into the frame. It's one of those things that you probably never notice until someone points it out to you, and then you can't not notice it.
4)There is some additional footage as the Hobbits and Strider set out from Bree showing their initial distrust of him.
5)Frodo’s line, “I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler,” is taken from their first meeting with him at the Prancing Pony. And Merry’s response, “He’s foul enough,” is reminiscent of Strider’s own response from the book, “I see. I look foul and feel fair, is that it?”
6)There have been claims of a sticker being spotted on the apple Strider tosses Pippin for second breakfast. I include the notation for completeness, but having done a frame-by-frame analysis, I have to say that it’s simply not there.
7)Billy Boyd (Pippin) declares that the apple we see in the film was the fifteenth that got lobbed at him, so it was beginning to hurt a little.
The Midgewater Marshes (added scene)-
This was presumably added to show that the journey to Rivendell was not all peaches and cream, apart from the Black Riders. The actors were glad it got put back in because it was absolute misery to shoot.
1)Bill the Pony, though usually a real pony, here and elsewhere is a very realistic pantomime pony, the type with one person in the head and another in the, er, rear. This was done because they wanted to avoid the difficulty of getting a pony in and out of the marshes and up and down a mountain. (Never mind getting the actors in and out.)
2)Sam is the one who gave the line wondering what the midges ate when Hobbits weren’t available.
3)Just at the end of the marsh scene poor old Pippin falls splat! face-first in the mud. Billy Boyd states that this was because Sean Astin (Sam) pushed him, though Sean claims he was trying to "help" him.
4)Strider fells a fair-sized deer for them to eat one night. I have to wonder, did they eat it all, and if not, what did they do with the rest of it? Maybe Sam brought some preservatives in that overstuffed pack of his. In the book he did have a box of salt, which he used sparingly.
5)I’m sorry, but every time I see Strider sitting there singing the Lay of Luthien I want to shout, “Don’t sing! Don’t sing!”
The Spoiling of Isengard-
1)Ooh, don't you love Saruman's nails? I wonder who his manicurist is.
2)When the Orcs come into Orthanc to get orders, Saruman is sitting there hugging himself and looking very old and tired. This was a clever way to hide the fact that one hand was bandaged from having had a door slammed on it.
3)For all the Green Peace folks out there, no trees were harmed in the making of this film! The trees being felled are fake ones, one or two being shown from several different angles. Tolkien can rest easy in his grave, on that point at least.
4)The noises you hear as the trees fall down are not just the creaking of the wood. There are groans in there, too, produced by mixing elephant and whale noises.
5)For the musically literate, you will notice that the theme for Isengard is down in 5/4 time, an irregular meter, with lots of percussion and metallic-sounding instruments. This was done to give the scenes a stronger feeling of wrongness.
A Knife in the Dark-
1)The Weathertop site was at Port Waikato in New Zealand.
2)The ruins on top of that little hill are computer generated, but the rest is real.
3)So where does Strider get the four swords that he arms the Hobbits with? Since we skipped Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs they had to get swords from somewhere else, but I don't think that point is satisfactorily explained.
4)Frodo was not such a wimp in the book. He did not just drop his sword and scramble, he took a swipe at the Nazgul at least.
5)When we see the Witch King (head Nazgul) in Wraith world, doesn't he look as if he's been sucking lemons for the last thousand years?
6)Okay, in the book Strider said if they lit a fire the Nazgul would not come near it (nice going, Frodo), but we never see them being set alight. I suppose PJ was looking for a way to get rid of them all quickly.
7)Apparently no one ever taught the Black Riders to stop, drop, and roll. ;~p
8)Ooh, that torch hit the Nazgul right between the eyes!...but why does it stay there? Surely it doesn't have a pointy end; torches generally don't.
9)Strider drops the Morgul hilt as the blade dissolves, and I don’t see him pick it up again. Bad idea, because in the book it was indicated that they would need it to help heal Frodo’s wound.
10)Glorfindel had the line, “This is beyond my skill to heal.”
11)Sam says that they're six days from Rivendell, but I think they were supposed to be a fortnight's journey away. Yep, let's just speed this thing along.
The Caverns of Isengard-
1)The moth that appears is CG while he's flying, but real while in Gandalf's hand.
2)Gandalf on the tower is also a CGI until we draw level with him.
3)The gum emperor moth was specially incubated for this scene.
4)So do you think this is supposed to be Radagast the Brown, since he doesn't even get a mention otherwise?
5)After the moth is gone the camera drops off the edge of Orthanc in a groovy roller coaster shot which I love.
6)The Orcs in this scene are played by the blacksmiths who made all the weapons and armor for the movie. Wow!
7)We see Orcs beating out swords, helmets, pouring molten metal, etc, then one of them suddenly gives an anguished yell. Do you think he smashed his thumb?
8)Here we see the very first genetic engineering on Middle Earth, though I don't think it's quite what Tolkien had in mind.
9)The birthing scene gets my vote as the grossest part of the movie.
10)When Lurtz comes out the first thing he does is strangle the nearest Orc while Saruman prevents the others from stopping him.
11)When Lurtz first came out he looked like he was covered with mud from head to toe, and seems to get muddier as the scene progresses, but after he kills that Orc and stands up he is instead dripping with what looks like birthing fluid.
Flight to the Ford-
1)This scene begins with a little added footage in which Sam points out the stone trolls to Frodo.
2)I'm sorry, I really love Elijah Wood and his acting, but I think he was overdoing it with his wound. Frodo was not that helpless. In fact he had a very British attitude toward it: “It’s just a flesh wound. Sure it’s sucking out my soul by degrees, but I’m all right, don’t worry about me.”
3)As I see Strider and Sam swinging those torches around looking for the King's Foil weed ("I bet it is a weed"), the following rhyme pops into my head (apologies to William Blake):
Strider's torch burning bright
In the forest of the night,
Aren't you afraid you might
Set the bloomin' trees alight?
4)Frodo, in his delirium, sees Arwen approaching and perceives her as a High Elf, which she most certainly was not. Glorfindel was, and it is he that should have been here.
5)Whatever else I may say about Liv Tyler, she did a great job with her voice for Arwen; she pitched it much lower than normal. In real life she sounds like a flaky airhead.
6)I love what they did to Frodo's eyes.
7)Noro lim is apparently Elvish for giddyup. (Actually Mom says it means something like "Go on!" and is not a standard horse command.)
8)Liv Tyler did not do much actual horse riding in the movie, and it is just as well because she was not very comfortable on them. Christian Rivers (Weta visual effects art director) noted that in the dailies of this scene they would always hear her say, “Noro lim, Asfaloth, noro lim,” immediately followed by, “Oh God!” as the horse started to take off.
9)“Those Wraiths are still out there!” Sam declares. And his point would be? The Wraiths were a danger whether they remained hidden or ran for it, so they might as well run for it.
10)The horse chase is soooo gratuitous, and it was supposed to be Frodo by himself, but I can't help it, I still love watching it.
11)The scratch on Arwen’s cheek puzzled me for a while, because I thought it was from one of the Ring Wraiths taking a swipe at her. But at a friend’s suggestion I looked again and realized that it was caused by a tree branch smacking her in the face. With that in mind, why on earth did it only happen once; it was a dense forest she was riding through after all.
12)As the Ring Wraith reaches for Frodo you can see some kind of green drainage under his (Frodo's) eyes, and also around his mouth. What the heck is it? Will it be coming out his ears and nose next? Yuck!
13)The Ford of Bruinen is at Skipper's Canyon near Queenstown, which prospectors used as a wagon ford during the gold rush.
14)As Asfaloth trots into the Ford and Arwen brings him around, the Frodo puppet she has in front of her bounces in a most unconvincing manner. Should have used the double instead.
15)Asfaloth is still standing in the Ford as the waters swell and wash the Black Riders away. He should have been well up the bank, and since he isn’t, I find it implausible that he didn’t get washed away as well.
16)Yes, I realize that the little moment with Arwen and Frodo was done for effect, but it's not practical. Were I in Arwen's, er, saddle I'd be hightailing it for home. I wouldn't have stopped to thumb my nose at the Nazgul, and I certainly wouldn't stop to cry over Frodo because I thought he was gone. Mind you this was a pick-up scene (done after the bulk of the filming was over and everyone had gone home), used to replace one they had with Elrond doing a kind of tug-of-war with Sauron over Frodo’s soul.
17)That tear in Arwen's right eye is just sitting there, it is the weirdest thing I've ever seen.
18)Philippa Boyens has indicated that the line "What grace is given me, let it pass to him" is something Arwen said to Frodo at the end of Return of the King when she essentially gave him her "boarding pass" for the Grey Havens. I’m not sure where she got this idea; what Arwen said to Frodo when they parted was, “In my stead you shall go, Ringbearer, when the time comes if you then desire it…When the memory of the fear and darkness troubles you, this [the Evenstar] will bring you aid.”
19)Not to criticize Hugo Weaving, but if I were Frodo and I saw that foggy image of Elrond in a delirious state, I would probably go into hysterics because he looked pretty scary.
Rivendell-
1)The exterior shots of Rivendell were filmed at Kaitoke National Park in Wellington.
2)During Gandalf's flashback Saruman says, "The friendship of Saruman is not lightly cast aside." This was something he said to King Theoden in Two Towers. (In that same scene which I already mentioned was inexplicably deleted.)
3)And again, Saruman says "One ill turn deserves another," which is something he said to the Hobbits near the end of Return of the King.
4)The comment has been made that the Eagles are like the taxicabs of Middle Earth. (You have to read The Hobbit and The Silmarillion as well to fully appreciate that.)
5)The Eagle who rescues Gandalf is Gwaihir, and we haven’t seen the last of him.
Many Meetings-
1)We see a person on a horse approaching Rivendell, but are given no indication of who it might be. It looks like an Elf, so it’s not Boromir, but it doesn’t look like Legolas either. Glorfindel perhaps?
2)Bilbo comments that he meant to go back to the Lonely Mountain and visit his friends there, but he did in fact go back, several times, before he finally settled down in Rivendell. Mind you, nearly twenty years are supposed to have passed since he left the Shire. PJ is fast forwarding.
3)The scene with Sam packing was another pick-up scene. They called Sean and Elijah back to New Zealand for it. Problem is, Sean had been losing weight since he returned home, so it looks like Sam's been on some kind of Elvish diet program.
4)There is something wrong with Frodo's right eyelid in this scene. It looks puffy, something I don't notice elsewhere.
The Fate of the Ring-
1)This was also a pickup scene, done the very month that the film was to open. They had to make sure that all Gandalf’s dialogue at least was clean because, according to PJ, Ian McKellan had to leave that very night for New York to be in a play. This is just a hunch, but I’m guessing that the “play” was actually the Broadway Cares Gypsy of the Year competition, where he came out dressed as a gypsy to give out the awards. *smirk*
2)Elrond's line "Our list of allies grows thin" is a little awkward; it should be "grows short." I think the writers were mixing metaphors or something.
3)Gandalf looks a little bowlegged in this scene.
4)Isildur has one rotten line in the whole movie, but do they let the actor have it? No, Hugo Weaving voiced Isildur, which seems strange given that Isildur was speaking to Elrond at the time.
5)I was wondering if the scene in Mount Doom actually happened, but from reading the appendices in Return of the King, I see that it did. Only one thing missing, Cirdan the Shipwright should have been there, too.
6)In close-up shots of Elrond you can see over his shoulder someone pacing on a balcony across the way. This was a CGI, and I think his movement was a little too like an automaton to be convincing.
7)Boromir appears riding a horse, but in the book he had lost his horse at the River Isen and had to continue on foot.
8)I have to say that I find this premise of Aragorn "reluctantly" pursuing his legacy to be rather galling. It simply did not happen. If he was having any internal struggles of that sort, he was doing a good job hiding it.
The Sword that was Broken-
1)First of all, does anyone else get the idea that Boromir has wandered into the Rivendell museum?
2)And incidentally, why is Boromir still wearing his chain mail? He doesn’t take it off the whole time he’s in Rivendell. Doesn't he trust the elves not to shoot him in the back? And for those of you who might be about to argue that he never had a chance (which in itself is laughable), I’d like to point out that a chain mail shirt generally weighs about 20 or 30 pounds. It would be worse than wearing a bullet proof vest all day, which I have from a reliable source is highly uncomfortable.
3)And while we’re on the subject, doesn’t Boromir ever wash his hair? It always looks kinda greasy and stringy. People talk about how grungy Aragorn is, but at least he seems to have taken a shower in Rivendell.
4)An interesting aside, the chain mail worn in this film was made out of a kind of foam rubber. Much easier to wear than the real stuff.
5)The mural that Boromir looks at of Isildur and Sauron is an original by Alan Lee.
6)There is some extra dialogue here between Boromir and Aragorn where they acknowledge each other and sort of introduce themselves.
7)Boromir cuts his left finger with the broken end of Narsil, but as he walks away he appears to be nursing his right hand.
8)I just wish I knew where the writers got this “lineage guilt” idea that they’ve saddled Aragorn with.
9)The line about Isildur’s heir was given by Aragorn during the Council to Boromir: “For my part I forgive your doubt. Little do I resemble the figures of Elendil and Isildur as they stand carven in their majesty in the halls of Denethor. I am but the heir of Isildur, not Isildur himself.”
The Evenstar-
1)Arwen mentions with some fondness the time she and Aragorn first met, but as I recall he was a mere lad of 20 then and she was not much impressed with him, though he had a crush on her. It was not until much later that she fell for him.
2)Aragorn is about eighty years old now.
3)Arwen has given the Evenstar to Aragorn, but she is supposed to give it to Frodo at the end of the trilogy. Is she going to take it back from Aragorn then? PJ keeps writing himself into corners.
4)Doncha love Enya’s solo here?
The Council of Elrond-
1)The setting for this scene is beautifully autumnal, but you should know that all those falling leaves were being thrown down in handfuls by people up in the rafters.
2)I see Boromir is still in full chain mail.
3)Knowing that Alan Lee got a cameo spot at the beginning of the movie, I looked at the guy on the right of Boromir and thought he might be John Howe, the other concept artist. The profile and colouring seemed right anyway, but I think Howe's eyes may be more deep set than that; hard to tell with the thick glasses he wears.
4)The guy on Boromir’s other side looks like the same guy who played Elendil in the Prologue.
5)So who are these guys, anyway? Boromir was supposed to have come to the Council alone, and there were no other Men apart from Aragorn.
6)Frodo’s nails are looking a little better here; I guessed he’s more relaxed in Rivendell. His eyelid still looks a little puffy, though.
7)There is an added bit where Boromir tells of his prophetic dream and Gandalf speaks the Black Speech that is on the Ring. We see some lovely reaction shots from the principals during the latter.
8)So how is it that Legolas and Aragorn are on such familiar terms? In the book, the only time they might have met was when Aragorn took Gollum to Mirkwood for safekeeping. And they appear to have left that out, so presumably these two have never met before.
9)Obviously it's convenient for the movie if Boromir is familiar with Aragorn's name, but such was not the case. He wouldn't know Aragorn son of Arathorn from Beren son of Barahir.
10)The bit with Gimli trying to destroy the Ring with his axe was a more dramatic way of demonstrating the Ring’s imperviousness, and was not in the book.
11)Gimli had an empty axe handle, with a CG blade inserted later.
12)Frodo's reaction to the axe striking the Ring was very moving, but it leads me to wonder, what's gonna happen to him when the Ring is cast into the flames of Mount Doom?
13)I love the silence that follows Elrond’s line, “One of you must do this.” Don’t all volunteer at once.
14)In the wide shot before Boromir speaks he is slouching in his chair, but in his close up he is sitting up and leaning his head in one hand.
15)Boromir's speech that begins, "One does not simply walk into Mordor..." was a last minute addition. So last minute, in fact, that Sean Bean had it in his lap to refer to, which is why he is looking down at the beginning of that shot.
16)Since I praised Liv Tyler, I ought to also mention Orlando Bloom (Legolas), who did a great job disguising his modern accent for the role.
17)Gimli spits as he says “hands of an Elf.” Look out, folks, he’s foaming at the mouth!
18)The argument that ensues is gratuitous and very silly.
19)Please note Legolas trying to hold back his comrades from joining in the fight.
20)The Ring used to reflect the argument was much larger, about eight inches in diameter.
21)Frodo is obviously inserted in the scene as Gandalf comes to join him.
22)I love the way the costume people have subtly "distressed" the clothes to make them look "lived in". Take Aragorn's velvet tunic for instance. When he stands up you can see the place over his backside has crushed pile, exactly where you would expect to find it.
23)Aragorn’s line, “and if by life or death I can save you, I will,” was his pledge to Frodo when he first joined up with the Hobbits in Bree.
24)I love Legolas’ look of resignation as Gimli volunteers to go along.
25)Elrond looks really put out when the younger Hobbits barge in on his “secret” council meeting.
26)So here we are, halfway through the story, and only now do we hear the title.