O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up -- for you the flag is flung -- for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths -- for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead. - O Captain! My Captain
by Walt Whitman
The riverfront park of Minas Tirith is held by but a few of Sauron’s armies. With the massive numbers of beings on the Pelennor Fields - orcs, humans, mûmakil, Fell Beasties, Nazgûl, Rohirrim, hobbits, trolls - by contrast there’s a lot of elbowroom near the docks. Ships pull up, and we know what awaits inside each, though preferably I would have liked to have seen freed Gondorian slaves manning the ships with the green ghosts along as well - and this would make Aragorn’s decision later to dismiss them more logical, but…anyway, the harbormaster, known by the hat (or head) upon his head, notes that the Black Fleet is not on schedule, as always.
“A pirate is never late…”
A shock to everyone is that Aragorn leaps from the ship along with Gimli and Legolas. The sight of these three - and more likely the realization that there are no pirates aboard, and so something fishy is nigh - change the expressions of the landlubbers from derision to fear. Aragorn gives them the stare, Gimli starts with the usual “let’s keep a count” and off they go to the races. Immediately behind follow the Army of the Dead, who, seemingly are not only great fighters, but sailors as well. And even more interesting is that all of the green ghosties could not fit aboard one ship.
Help has arrived.
Back on the fields, Éowyn remains in the grip of the Witch-King. The Lord of the Nazgûl brags and sets up Eowyn’s one liner. He makes the mistake of all baddies, letting the need to confabulate get the best of him. Why does he take so much time with this no-name warrior? He intends to kill Éowyn and not fly her away to the house of pain and lamentation, so why all of the fuss? No wonder he left the scene when he had Gandalf on the mat. To destroy the White Wizard, he would have needed to expound about something for at least a half hour, and there just was no time - or he actually didn’t have anything prepared for the occasion, and that’s the real reason that he flew off at the sound of the horns.
“Them Rohirrim He-Riders don’t expect poetry, unlike one who has seen Aman. Think that uhh I’ll go after them.”
But before he can finish his speech “Die in vain…” he’s struck from behind by the He-Hobbit Merry. The hobbit’s blade bites deep, and in PJ’s world it’s not because Merry is armed with a dagger specifically designed for killing the Lord of Angmar, but because Merry is a Hobbit - not man. I’ve posted in other threads why I know that Merry’s blade isn’t magical.
Regardless, the Worm that Bit is in too much agony to see his blade disappear like so much smoke on a windy day. Merry falls prey to the Black Breath. Éowyn, seeing her foe know on his knees, becomes, at that moment, a true action figure by making a remark right before (or after, as appropriate) slaying the Witch-King.
“I am no man!” Éowyn says (purportedly to much applause) before she sticks her sword right through were the Witch-King’s head should be. The blade actually goes out the back of the helmet, and so you can see that Mordor armor is just for show. Her sword is forcibly ejected, both out of her hand and his head, and the Witch-King, Lord of Angmar dies as prophesied long ago by imploding in on himself. Every time I see his helm crush itself, I cannot but think about a soda can doing the same.
“How much can I get for this lot?” Éowyn asks, wheeling what looks like crumpled armor into the Minas Tirith Recycling department.
The Three Slayers continue to gain ground. The Army of the Dead are behind, and subsume/absorb all of Sauron’s forces that fall into its green misty hands. Why Aragorn doesn’t just stand off and watch is amazing to me, but I guess that he feels that he has to slay a hundred or two of the hundreds of thousands to be a real king. The Appendices note that one the first orcs that Aragorn cuts down is played by none other than his own son who was the impetus for getting Viggo to sign on in the first place.
Éowyn, last seen standing, is now crawling on the ground looking for Merry. Madam, he is small, but not that small. Her hair is tussled, and it seems that something has happened to her in the few seconds that the camera was elsewhere. Just when you thought is was safe to continue watching, guess who reappears? That’s right, the orc that never dies - Gothmog. He already, by his figure, seems to have had an ill-fated life, then he’s almost pancaked by a big rock, followed by an encounter with the Rohirrim and Éowyn.
And yet he still hangs on to make that silly growling noise another time. Laaaa!
Éowyn hears Gothmog’s approach, and she is terrified - this shieldmaiden that felled not only a Fell Beast but
the biggest baddie of the movie, second to none but Sauron himself - and so flees as best she might. As I cannot see her being afraid, nor even being wounded enough to have to crawl, I can then only assume that Miranda Otto is trying to dodge the cameras in order not to be seen with the Gimpy Gothmog yet again.
Oh please…don’t let people associate me and he for all time! Cut! Cut the scene!”
She looks over her shoulder and he’s still in pursuit. You wonder if he’s some sort of stalker. And note that her insistence on flight is going to create yet another inconsistency, as seen in the next sequence. Éowyn reaches desperately for a sword - maybe one is real - and it’s then I noticed that her shield arm is hurt. Gothmog, regaining his feet, grabs a spiky club and closes in on the shieldmaiden. Unknown to him is that Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas close in as well.
Tension high, Éowyn grabs for but cannot hold a sword and at the same moment Gothmog raises his club to strike. Luckily Aragorn just happens to be there to disarm the gimpy one. Gimli assists Aragorn with the attack, and the two dispatch the orc to wherever they go when dead.
Can anyone tell me why we had to have Aragorn save Éowyn from Gothmog, the same woman who just slew the Witch-King? And, if Gothmog were close enough to strike Éowyn, why don’t the three heroes of the day see her and stop but a moment to see if there’s anything that she might need?
But a fully-loaded oliphaunt approaches, and so Legolas decides to take the mûmakil by the horns. He deftly scales the creature and seems more agile than Spiderman. Reaching the top, he continues the attack and also is sure-footed enough to shoot and keep score at the same time. I watched in the Appendices the green screen shooting of this part of the scene, and it was educational.
The Elf of Endless Arrows swings to the side of the creature and draws his knife. He cuts the belt that holds the carriage atop the oliphaunt, and as it plummets to the ground, he rides back up to the top of the beast. He shoots
three arrows into the head of the oliphaunt, and it dies almost immediately. Even so cool, the elf prince rides the trunk to the ground as if on a skateboard, jumping off right in front of his companion, Gimli - lucky that. Gimli quips that Legolas’s ordeal still only counts as one, and the first time it was actually funny.
As Aragorn mops up a bit, the green ghost wave overtakes the remainder of Sauron’s forces. They pass up through the city, sorting the good from the bad.
The Battle of Minas Tirith is won, but at what price? And is Sauron done? We’ll find out next week.