Quote:
Originally Posted by obloquy
Tolkien nowhere states that Sauron gave the Witch-King more power. I know the letter you're referring to, but you misunderstand it.
The film resurrection of Gandalf implies only a resurrection; his return as The White, perhaps, an enhancement. Neither reveals Gandalf's true nature as a primeval demigod of Sauron's peerage, and therefore Gandalf remains only what the filmmakers want him to be. Since they define him for the films, his enhancement is not incongruous with his defeat by the WK. The scene simply implies a new power in the WK that Gandalf was not expecting, and also that Gandalf's enhancement was only to some tier of potency above his incarnation as The Grey and below the new-and-improved WK's.
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Well, at the risk of repeating myself, the fact that PJ takes the resurrection scene virtually verbatim from Tolkien implies that he has adopted Tolkien's view of things. Same for the first appearance of the reborn White Wizard, and the breaking of Saruman's staff. While one might interpret the sort of hallucinatory scenes in which Gandalf is reborn as just the rebirth of this or that being (ignoring for the moment that the scene is taken from Tolkien), it would not make sense then to continue to adopt scenes from Tolkien that imply that Gandalf is not now a returned Maia with a stature greater than Saruman. In fact, the film doesn't really go into the whole Maia business at all, so from your point of view, you could argue of course anything you want. But a consistent approach by PJ would not have him borrowing whole episodes from Tolkien, who for most of the movie is understood to have provided the basis of the story.
As for the investment of power in the WK (real or not), if you have the exact quote and can comment on how you interpret it, that would help. Otherwise, this point was to actually support your point of view (assuming that we needed anything from Tolkien here). Otherwise, you are left with a vague statement in the movies about not having revealed his most deadly servant, which does not really imply clearly an enhancement of power. So one is left with simply the fact that the WK did break Gandalf's staff, so as I said earlier, PJ simply changes the equation with no warning here. If that is consistent film making, give me another director...