[Lord of Angmar]

I have started this thread, inspired by Esty's <A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=002617" TARGET=_blank>The Significance of the Pumpkin</A> thread, as a medium for Downers to expound upon the additions and subtle cinematic-adaptation changes that they liked in the <I>Lord of the Rings</I> movie trilogy. <P>The one thing that struck me in the <I>Return of the King</I> movie was the growth of Aragorn's character and its being physically paralleled in him by the length of his beard. In the <I>Fellowship</I> movie, when the hobbits first met him in Bree, he was Strider, the uncouth, mysterious wanderer with long greasy hair and a bit of stubble on his chin and nothing more. He is gradually introduced to us as the Heir of Isildur, a Dunadan of the North and the hopeful future King of Gondor. By the end of the movie, as he is being introduced to the crowd on the Citadel of Minas Tirith, his beard is full grown, and I got the feeling from watching it that his character had come to the zenith of his maturity and the pique of his personal growth. I found the length of his beard to be a good way to aesthetically convey this growth.<P>A small tidbit that I also found particularly well done was the use of the moth as Gwaihir's messenger. It was a very poignant scene when the moth flew over the pits of Isengard and into the hands of Gandalf atop the pinnacle of Orthanc. Then, the moth's shadow was seen by Gandalf flying across the moon before Gwaihir rescued him. In the third film, the moth flutters across Gandalf's sight, and we see Gandalf smile ever so slightly before the shouts of "The Eagles are coming!" commence. I think this little addition, simple and obscure though it may seem, added a lot to the movie, and to the <I>deus ex machina</I> Eagle ending.<P>Does anyone else have any small things like this that they wish to share?