[Bêthberry]

So is the problem the conception or the application?

With the Rohan scenes PJ is doing something Tolkien never, ever gives us: a view of how war affects civilians, decimates populations, destroys social organisation, is no respector of age or gender. Of course, this modern perspective on the terrible consequences of war was not a main aspect (if it featured at all) in the traditional epics so beloved of Tolkien. Is this part of PJ's efforts to "modernise" Middle-earth for a new age, much as he attempted to give us warrior Arwen and funny sidekick Gimli?

Or is the problem simply bad staging, bad acting, bad hair day, a miserable attempt at a sociological depiction of a culture different from the Shire's culture?