[HCIsland]

Aragorn falling off the cliff never bothered me. The story needs a down turn here. I don't think you can have the Warg attack (which I thought was a good idea) without something bad happening. It just would make the whole sequence pointless. I think we needed someone to see the army approaching and Aragorn would be the best candidate. Plus, as has already been mentioned, it gives us the moment between Aragorn and Legolas overlooked by Eowyn which I like very much and a sequa to the fate of Arwen sequence which I also greatly enjoyed. There's a number of reasons for it to be there, at least as much as, say, Frodo seeming to be dead after being speared in Moria. <P>I also finished watching the director's commentary tonight and found it interesting that the Boromir/Faramir/Denethor scene was a pick-up. I also found it interesting that twice Boyens and Walsh began almost appologizing (again, almost) regarding Faramir. There was much explanation of shooting the material two years previously and then having to work on what you had. I think they are happy with the decision to go to Osgiliath with Frodo and Sam, but I think they weren't 100% pleased with the way Faramir came out.<P>I got the impression (and this could be me reading between the lines incorrectly) that when they looked at the rough cut they realized how shallow Faramir was coming across. I would suspect that was the reason for the Boromir pick-up, to try and give some back story to Faramir. Of course, in the end this was cut as well. They don't talk too much about the reasons why so I can only assume that it was felt that adding yet another character, Denethor, while cutting to another location would only work to confuse many of the audience.<P>I found it funny how they were saying that when they were previewing the film for New Line, they were perpetually getting confused regarding geography so PJ added the map scene late in production. Also, in the shot where Faramir and company are approaching Osgiliath towards the end of the film, you can see Minas Tirith in the background but some of their preview audience thought that was Helm's Deep (again, confused about geography), so they painted it out for the theatrical release. Minas Tirith is back in on the Extended Edition though.<P>H.C.