The Beard of Théoden

[mormegil]

I think Brinniel alludes to the problem I see. I don't particularly like this scene but understand why it was done.

For the reading audience we have many pages, a chapter perhaps, to get an understanding of the true condition, you can be told the emotions of the character in the book but are not visually shown. That is the major problem in translating literature into cinema, there are certain emotions or thoughts that cannot be acted. This scene is a prime example of that point. There is no way for Bernanrd to 'act' possessed or poisoned as we learn in the book so to make up for it PJ must do some special effects to compensate.

While I'm not overly fond of this scene I think that all in all it was a required element and done well given the medium but generally it is this field of emotions that the cinema looses when translating from a book.