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Have thought about the whole timeline issue in regards to Gandalf's trip to Gondor and back. PJ has to keep up the tension, the pacing of the movie. In the last sequence we see the effect of the Ring on Bilbo, and thereafter Gandalf's hurried dash for more information.

So then we sit around for a few years, like 17? Just doesn't work in this story. Even narration or text stating that 17 years have passed would slow the movie. I've considered that even if PJ were to show the changing of seasons, these extra seconds would detract from the story.

My assumption is that Gandalf leaves and returns in some period of years (1, 2, 3...) so that the season doesn't change. There's no need to know at this point that the journey takes a good bit of time; you might start wondering why he didn't stop off and talk with Saruman along the way, why Frodo didn't start messing with the Ring, etc.

So as I see it, Gandalf leaves and returns a year later - we just don't see it.

Persons sitting in the theater may have not realized the amount of time that Gandalf takes to journey from the Shire to Minas Tirith and back, but might have started catching some clues later when Sam states how far out from Rivendell the half-dead Frodo is, and later when Gandalf says something about the number of days that they walked from Rivendell to Caradhras. By that time the Shire is a distant memory.

And regarding the Nazgul, I agree that less would have been more in that there was no reason to see what they would do to someone standing in the road. The last bit of this sequence where we see the Ringwraith disturbing the quiet night is better than the beheading. It's like the slasher or even the 'Alien' movies where what you don't get to see is more chilling that what is blatantly shown. Just show me some glimpses and I'll make the fear on my own, thank you.