[Beanamir of Gondor]

Originally Posted by Kath

I have to agree with Lalwendë in that I didn't find any of the scenes "disturbing" as such. Some people were treated in a way I didn't think appropriate and some things were a little bizarre, but nothing worth petitioning PJ over. He made the films in a way that was pleasing to him, and that he thought would get a good reaction from audiences, something he certainly achieved.

Probably the only thing I would classify as truly disturbing is Denethor's table manners.

I completely agree. There are a lot of movies out there that contain material much more horrifying, which abuse their characters a lot more than PJ's films do, and which treat their animals/sub-humans a lot worse. Probably more horrifying to me than the death of many CG horses, oliphaunts, orcs, Uruks, and wargs was the shameful waste of time spent on meaningless battles (involving all of those CG characters), falling staircases, romantic scenes, and overly dramatic Frodo-embarassing-himself sort of moments. That time could have been spent on Tolkien's visions of the BD and perhaps even Tom Bombadil.

We (and I freely include myself) are obsessed with things like the Mouth of Sauron, or the Gimli-sitting-on-the-orc scene, because we are (for the most part) fans of Tolkien's original storyline, and don't like to be unpleasantly surprised when things go differently, or when a character deviates from his/her former patterns. In the case of movie fans who have yet to read the books, we have our own seperate opinions about how the characters should behave, simply because we are drawn into the plot... and occasionally are disappointed by the characters' actions.

Honestly, the scenes I found most disturbing in the movies were the Ride of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor, and Faramir's asssault on Osigiliath (a.k.a. Faramir's Last Stand). Both moved me emotionally because of my attachment to the characters, and since many changes had already been made to the plot (Haldir's death, for one), I wasn't entirely sure if Eowyn, Merry, and Faramir would live to see the end of the movie. I could actually feel Merry's fear that he might not live to greet his friends again, Eowyn's fear that she may never see her brother or uncle, and Faramir's sorrow at perhaps never finding his father's love; PJ's ability to put the audience in the character's shoes makes those scenes unsettlingly full of thought.