I remember looking forwards to seeing Saruman, and the fact that it would be Christopher Lee playing him made this all the more intriguing, as I'm a bit of a fan. Incidentally I missed meeting him once in London, and I've been narked about it ever since. Garrr.
The depiction of Saruman and Orthanc could have been done in many different ways for me, as he is one character who has never been 'fixed' in my mind, and nor has Orthanc. If I had to choose one image I had of the place, it might have been as it appears in the film, strangely, as I've always liked the Alan Lee illustration, and he is the person responsible for this set. In his painting we can only see a small portion of the tower, yet it hints at something much, much more immense than what we are shown; the design is almost identical. I also like how the chain-link 'fence' has remained, as this is one aspect of Tolkien's description that has always stuck in my mind; it is simply weird to me.
Why does Saruman have a chain link fence? Is it to keep people off the grass? Is he a park keeper?
As for Saruman, he could have been easily portrayed by a young guy for me, as I had no idea of how he might look, the only aspect I ever focussed on was his many-coloured cloak. I
was disappointed not to see this! And yes, he did look a bit grubby. But I can't grumble as Christopher Lee is just fantastic. He has retained that creepy, masterful presence he had when playing Lord Summerisle, and his voice is possibly the best voice they could have chosen for Saruman. He can maintain a long monologue seemingly without drawing breath and it has a hypnotic quality.
One point that did strike me as interesting is how they show Gandalf to have incredible deference towards Saruman here. He begins by looking quite foolish, even sheepish as he listens to the leader of his order, and when Saruman starts to display his real intentions, Gandalf take some time to recover his senses. Here are two real professional actors at work.
In the books we do not actually meet Saruman until the Ents have destroyed Isengard. All we know of him is what others tell us about him. This is one of those instances where we did have to 'see' scenes which we do not personally 'see' in the books. What does everyone else think of this?