[Elladan and Elrohir]

The worst moment in the film trilogy, followed by one of the best, followed by one that at the very least could have been better.

It seems redundant to give any more criticism to the you-know-what scene. How about reasons for why it's in there, albeit in the EE? I will say that one thing it does is symbolize the utter defeat of Gondor, the lowest point . . . followed by the glorious horns of the Rohirrim at cock-crow.

The charge of the Rohirrim is brilliant, and I think it gets at least nine-tenths of the book's glory. If only Aragorn's appearance could have been anywhere near this good. . . . Bernard Hill has been subtly great throughout, and now he gets center stage and, of course, does awesome. And hey, who's that bearded Rohan guy? Well, I'll be, it's Eomer! Where has he been? In the entire trilogy, he's on screen for about six and a half minutes (no, that's not an actual statistic).

Then, it's time for the Pyre of Denethor. John Noble continues to be a master of dementia. I think I can actually defend Gandalf's actions here. He starts out by knocking Denethor off the pyre, temporarily saving his life; then lets Pippin off to grab Faramir. When he does rear Shadowfax and knock Denny back onto the pyre, I think it's because he realizes that the Steward's going to kill himself regardless and could still harm Pippin or Faramir. I can't say I buy that interpretation 100%, but I think it's somewhat plausible. And of course, as mentioned already, having Denny run all that way and off the edge is pretty ridiculous, though a striking visual. Gandalf's accompanying narration seems flat, because we haven't got a chance to know Denethor at all, much less to like him.