[alatar]

Where there's smoke...

The Ring of Isengard reeks of fire and burning and pits, and is a grey death pox, a far cry from when we first saw the place in FotR when Gandalf sought advice from Saruman. The White Wizard communes with the ‘other tower’ at Barad-dûr. Again we learn that these to maia are in league. The extra bucks that you spent on multiple viewing of FotR in the theater allow us to see the legions of orcs leaving the Dark Tower. The camera takes a spiral flight aorund and to the top of Barad-dûr. The reason I believe for the spin is that the entire ‘bigature’ model is too large to construct in one place, and so is digitally stitched together.

This tower "...wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant..." is immense, and not with 7000 soldiers of Free Folk, the vanguard of Gondor’s might in the days of old, could you successfully lay siege and win.

Saruman entitles Sauron as “Lord,” and so he is working for the Big Eye or is just using that forked tongue to daunt even the Lord of Gifts. Saruman states that he and Sauron will co-rule ME, and that’s a bit delusional, as Sauron doesn’t play well with others. This is clearly a case of the White Hand not knowing what the Black Hand is doing. And did you wonder if orcs were sent to the top of the tower to clean the eye-goo from the lidless One?

We see more tree-chopping orcs, and I assume that these trees are outside the Ring, as the deforestation is pretty complete within. Wherever the trees come from, they feed the fires of Saruman’s forges. The mind of wheels and metal looks on as his minions burn burn burn. The forests will all go into the fire.

Not really a good idea, and I wonder if Saruman and Sauron are truly that stupid, as if everything ‘living’ is poisoned, burned, spoiled, killed, etc, just how does one exist? Do S&S want to rule over a silent graveyard?

The swords of the Uruks, we see, are mass produced. Give them a pointy length of metal and let them hack away – no time for works of art. Armor piles up, and more orcs are being hatched. Quite the assembly line factory of death that Saruman has there. If only such energy could go into something positive…

But even in the anti-Paradise, there’s troubles. Not enough wood? Everything else is plentiful, strawberries and cream, but the orcs just need more fuel to meet the production quota (Sauron owns 51% of the shares in Orthanc, and if Saruman’s group doesn’t meet market expectations, the stock price will drop. Sauron’s portfolio will suffer and heads will surely roll.)

Cut the trees down of Fangorn. That’s a pretty brilliant idea as we will later see. Saruman knows of Balrogs, can modify weather at a distance, has a palantir, can make orcs out of earth (just add water), but somehow misses those big walking sticks just on the other side of the hill. Aren't there other trees you can acquire?

Next, Saruman gets the Dunlendings to start attacking the Rohirrim. You just can’t send orcs to do everything, and it’s smart to be diversified. The leader signs the contract with Saruman in blood. A pen would have done, but the man is a real go-getter and full of enthusiasm. Saruman promises the Wild Men full dental coverage in exchange for going to war on his side. Sure, on the surface it looks like a good deal…

But they're probably still fuming over Helm punching out Freca, so it was an easy sell.

Saurman’s voice incites these men to go off and attack mounted soldiers with mostly wooden tools. Not exactly sure what the war strategy is, and didn’t anyone notice that Saruman is hoping to do away with the world of men? Clue to Dunlendings...you're not good-looking orcs. But anyway, we have these crazies off on a burn and pillage walk in the countryside.

We get to see up close Saruman’s targets, from the ground. People flee as best they can as the enemy approachs. We see a boy, Eothain, placed on a horse along with his sister Freda by their mother, who will foot it and try to meet up with them at Helm's Deep. Or was it Edoras? The children are sent away, and reluctantly they go. The daughter clings to her mama, not understanding that the tide of death is coming.

This was a bit of a hard scene to watch, as, as always, I think of my children in the same situation. And where is dad?

The butchers arrive, and do what they do.

PJ did well here as we’re not watching some heroic fight of men, but we see the burning of a village and the slaughter of noncombatants – innocents, the old, the infirm, the slow. Children aren’t attacked on the screen, but you can extrapolate. We're definitely not on the fence here. Bad guys are bad.

Next we see more destruction that Saruman’s hordes have wrought. From the look of the debris, these fallen aren’t villagers but soldiers, killed defending the Ford of Isen.

A troop of riders come looking for the King’s son, Théodred. The guy without the helm we will learn is Éomer (characters requiring face recognition typically scorn safety). The rescuers search the dead, looking for one death in the statistic. The evidence that these are not Sauron’s orcs is noted, for Éomer’s soldiers and for PJ’s audience. The search bears fruit, and they find that for which they sought. It’s the King’s son, and he still lives. He is carried on horseback, held by Éomer, and you can only imagine what all of that bouncing around is doing to his innards.

Morning sun glint off of the spears as the rider approach civilization. We come along with the riders to Edoras, which appears to be a stockade fort with houses within. Primitive and a bit shoddy. Next we see Éomer’s sister, Éowyn, as she enters the Golden Hall of Brego (not too shoddy that, meaning the hall of course).

The column design is "viney," and is ornate I guess, but not sure what PJ was going for there. The appendices show the building of the hall, and I think that we and the actors benefited from a real place. And they transplanted all of the weeds, and then put them back when the hall was deconstructed.

Éowyn enters the room of Théodred, and examines the wound in his chest/abdomen. The look on her face, this shieldmaiden, tells us that Théodred is not long for this world. And think about that. We didn’t have to see gore to get the picture, so to speak. Subtlety?

Éomer and Éowyn exchange knowing glances, and I like Karl Urban here, as you can see the pain and frustration and concern in his face. Next, nursemaid Éowyn and soldier Éomer deliver the bad news to King Théoden. His ashen face shows nothing, not a tick, as he learns of his son lying wounded. No wailing, no running off to be at his son's side, not even a small pyre on which to burn his yet living heir (must be a southern royalty thing). Éomer goes beyond the bad news and speaks of revenge, and obviously not just for Théodred.

But what’s this? Someone speaks on behalf of the king. Grima Wormtongue enters the room from the side. You get one look at this guy and you know that he’s lying and evil (and wasn’t that an observation from a character in the book?). But he dotes upon the king, who mutters his name. Is Théoden agreeing with the Wormtongue, or is he mustering what little strength he has in order to silence this poisoned tongue?

Éomer again states the present threat and indicated by words and proofs the name of the enemy. Éowyn glances from the white-handed helmet cast at Théoden’s feet, then to Grima, as if to say, “explain that, if you can.”

But Grima is an experienced spinner, and ignores the evidence and deflects Éomer’s attack to the king. When in doubt, go with ad hominem. Bad news? Kill the messenger, or at least show him the door (then open it and throw him out). We learn, in Wormtongue’s words, that these two are nephew and niece to the King, though I think that it’s put differently in ME (i.e. sister-son, sister-daughter, etc).

Éomer, vilified as a warmonger, has had enough of Grima twisted words and so grabs him. Grima’s in the pocket of Saruman, and we learn by his subtle glance the payment for his treachery. Is Éowyn the Beauty to Grima’s Beast, but instead of being guided by love, his soul is black and empty?

Geek. Down snake.

As Éomer makes to tighten the gibbet, Grima plays another hand. He may stalk Éowyn and blatantly lie in front of the King about the intentions of the King’s own kin, but there’s more to this little man than just words and stares. Two heavy hands fall on Éomer’s shoulders, and Éomer knows that the hands aren’t friendly, as the little worm smiles.

The bodyguards beat Éomer as he is banished from Rohan. But more hurtful to Éomer than the blows he receives is sight of the signed proclamation. Now, no one thinks or believes that the King really signed it, but as Éomer too knows, at this point, what’s the difference between a real edict and one penned by the Wormtongue? Other are already following his orders, and that says it all.

Game over.

Where did Éowyn go? And Éomer, a likely foe of the dark forces, will be needed, but now he’s banished, and so where, too, will he go?