Is there any way they could have had Imrahil and Beregond in the movie?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

They could, without too much restructuring, have made the Swan-knights a visual presence in Minas Tirith, distinctive in their armor (something like, maybe, Gothic plate), with a recognizable leader who was present in the high councils, and left it at that.

But, no, Gondor's cavalry were to be mere redshirts for Filmamir's idiotic suicide charge.

[Zigûr]

Imrahil's presence would also have contradicted the film's presentation that the whole of Gondor was one city in the middle of nowhere and a second city in ruins.

Putting Jackson himself aside, the more I think about the films, the more it occurs to me that things are the way they are in them not just because it would be more "cinematic", or what have you, but because, meaning no offense to them, supposed "Tolkien experts" Boyens and Walsh literally didn't understand what was written in the book.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

Putting Jackson himself aside, the more I think about the films, the more it occurs to me that things are the way they are in them not just because it would be more "cinematic", or what have you, but because, meaning no offense to them, supposed "Tolkien experts" Boyens and Walsh literally didn't understand what was written in the book.

From the very intro to the first movie: "And nine rings were gifted to Men, who above all else desire power."

BZZZZZT!!!!! Wrong!

Have they read nothing of what Tolkien himself said? Over and over again he said that the book was about Death; Death and the Machine; Death and the desire for Deathlessness. What Men desire above all else is immortality- hence the tragedy of Numenor, hence the lure of the rings that tempted the Nine to their dooms: a cheat, a false 'immortality.'

Of course, had they read JRRT's letters, they might also have noted "the failure of poor films is often precisely in... the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies."