Smell this, I think it's expired...

[davem]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, davem. I think that it's a wonderful moment in the film and it brought (and still brings) tears to my eyes. Enchanting, even. But if you want to bring your book-reading, tactically aware "baggage" to the film, then so be it.

Maybe I am bringing 'baggage' to my viewing of the movies but I think the problem with this scene (among many) is that the internal logic of the story breaks down. The characters must obey certain rules. For instance, Gandalf may be a wizard but he 'cannot burn snow'. What the Rohirrim do at this point is suicidal & 'breaks the spell' for me. As soon as you start thinking 'that is a really dumb thing to do - why would they do that? you're pulled out of the secondary world. I feel Tolkien went to a great deal of time & trouble to create a secondary world that was rational & internally logical.

Just as in the discussion on Gandalf & the WK there is no internal logic to the event. These events are there for cinematic reasons - there is no thought about whether what happens on screen makes sense, only about whether it looks good. I could pick out others - when Frodo falls off the High Seat on Amon Hen he falls, given his size, the equivalent of about 18-20 feet onto his back & just gets up a little winded. He would probably have broken every bone in his body! Or when Boromir is hurled across the Chamber of Mazarbul into a stone pillar only to end up a bit dazed. These scenes may look good on screen but they are plainly silly & shatter the internal logic of the world. It turns the characters into cartoon figures (sorry if either of those examples have been used - haven't had time to read the whole thread yet).