[Sauron the White]

Lalwende.... I am sorry to appear to tar everyone with the same brush when many do not deserve it. Thank you for pointing out the diversity within the Tolkien community. I will certainly keep that in mind when making future observations. I do think my remarks do apply to some - especially those Purists who seem to view any attempt to improve on any aspect of the book as something equal to a serious sin.

Boromir ... sorry to confuse your remarks with someone else. Allow me to discuss your reply.

The Elves in Helms Deep distance problem: It only becomes a problem when you calculate the distance based on the knowledge of the books because the films never make a big issue about it. And even if someone does put it all together based on the distance that others traveled then we have the situation of Elves being able to go without sleep and perhaps would be a great deal faster than mere humans. If people can accept that a short stocky untrained Dwarf can run 140 miles in 3 short days, I would think they would believe almost anything reasonable involving travel from Elves. Both are examples of willing suspension of disbelief. Some are willing to extend it to one area of the medium but deny it to the other.

Neither the book nor the film is perfect. They both contain errors and mistakes and holes.

Lurtz: yes, I know who that character is. Where in the film is he named? As far as I can remember, he never is. What is so wrong about the Uruks having a field commander? How is that some serious violation of the book? So what if Jackson invented an Uruk and gave him more personality, even an off screen name? He knew that the audience would better latch on to one identifiable Uruk than a whole slew of nameless orcs. Lurtz comes to personify the might and brutality of the Uruks both in his slaying of Boromir and in his battle with Aragorn. Having an identifiable character you can hang your hat on means so much more to viewers than waves of unwashed orcs outside of a major battle scene.