[Essex]

Two quotes from Tolkien in his letters book that seem to sum up this entire argument

On the Witch King:

They have no great physical power against the fearless; but what they have, and the fear that they inspire, is enormously increased in darkness. The Witch-king, their leader, is more powerful in all ways than the others; but he must not yet be raised to the stature of Vol. III. There, put in command by Sauron, he is given an added demonic force.

On Gandalf's elevated powers:

The 'wizards', as such, had failed; or if you like: the crisis had become too grave and needed an enhancement of power. So Gandalf sacrificed himself, was accepted, and enhanced, and returned. 'Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.' Of course he remains similar in personality and idiosyncrasy, but both his wisdom and power are much greater. When he speaks he commands attention; the old Gandalf could not have dealt so with Théoden, nor with Saruman. He is still under the obligation of concealing his power and of teaching rather than forcing or dominating wills, but where the physical powers of the Enemy are too great for the good will of the opposers to be effective he can act in emergency as an 'angel' – no more violently than the release of St Peter from prison. He seldom does so, operating rather through others, but in one or two cases in the War (in Vol. III) he does reveal a sudden power: he twice rescues Faramir. He alone is left to forbid the entrance of the Lord of Nazgûl to Minas Tirith, when the City has been overthrown and its Gates destroyed — and yet so powerful is the whole train of human resistance, that he himself has kindled and organized, that in fact no battle between the two occurs: it passes to other mortal hands.

So on one hand we have elveated, Demonic, powers for the Witch King, and on the other we have an elevated power for Gandalf, who can use his powers as an 'Angel' - but not in a violent way.

So in reading this, I think Mansun has hit the best answer (and the Middle Ground), by stating it could well be a stand off. Gandalf could not use his powers (usually witheld by order) to kill the Witch King, but could use these to protect the people of Minas Tirith. Therefore we would have a stalemate.

But as Tolkien himself points out, by Gandalf's organisation of the forces of Mankind, they have come to settle the score with Sauron's forces. Gandalf does not need to use his 'Angelic' powers to withstand the Demonic might of the Witch King. Mankind, in this case the Ride of the Rohirrim, saves the day. As Tolkien states at the begining of the Battle of Pellenor fields, once the Rohirrim turned up, Victory was slipping from the Witch King's grasp. Gandalf the General has won instead of Gandalf the Warrior. We have the same result in the Film as we have in the Book. Mankind, through the workings of Gandalf, has saved its own skin.

Anyway, for the last few pages this book has gone from a Movie thread to a book thread.

To take it back to a movie thread, listen to PJ's commentary on why the film makers, in their minds, 'upped ' the WK's power. they needed a real bad arsed baddie for the move goers to get their teeth into. A flaming eye wasn't good enough for them.