[Kalimac]

The windy noise didn't strike me as particularly overdone; it seemed like Frodo was hearing the air all around him and, of course, the voice of Sauron (or whoever it was who could have been saying "I see you.") Just because the Ring sharpens hearing doesn't mean it would sharpen your hearing for everything; it could emphasize all the things that you wouldn't hear outside of the wraith-world (I sort of think of it as being rather like a dog whistle that way, only of course much more powerful ). And the visual effects were certainly disorienting and dim, which is how they're described in the book.<P>I agree wholeheartedly with Maril and Elenya; cutting out the part where Sam is the Ringbearer is about as likely (and workable) as cutting out the death of Boromir or the storming of Isengard. If you leave that out there's very little story left in Frodo and Sam's part of ROTK. But the effect of Sam wearing the Ring should be workable enough; for one thing, the effect of putting on the Ring might change as they get closer to Mordor, rather the way its weight changes; for another thing, even in FOTR Frodo can still see general shapes from the world; he just can't really see details of them. That would work fine for when Sam is chasing the Orc-troop ahead, hearing every word they say but bumping into things and not realizing how far ahead they really are because his sight is so bad.