high, purged of the gross: the movies

[mark12_30]

Added parts that failed, for me:

After the tumble out of Farmer Maggot's field and into the road, Pippin's "Ooh, that was close."

Gimli's belch at Rohan.

And I agree with Essex about Denethor's drooling....

Gandalf whacking Pippin as Pippin offered fealty to Denethor. Not honorable.

Gandalf whacking Denethor (although in the movie theater I was relieved to see it, Tolkien would not have approved.)

Gandalf and Shadowfax riding Denethor onto the pyre. Again, not heroic at all.

Some parts that suceeded (hugely):

"I would have followed you: my brother, my captain, my king."

Movie-Theoden's gradual increase in devotion to Aragorn as Aragorn earned his respect. Much as I grieved the whole dparture from the books in TTT, this was superbly done. Very noble, very uplifting. I think (considered as a story separate from his) that Tolkien would have approved the character development of Movie-Theoden.