[Essex]

Originally Posted by alatar

[i]A shock to everyone is that Aragorn leaps from the ship along with Gimli and Legolas.

One of my wife's favourite bits of the movies that close up shot of Aragorn's face. I hear her sigh under her breath every time she watches LOL

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.

I can't remember your point from before on why you don;t think it's a magical blade? I don't think it's the sword he was 'knighted' with by theoden as Merry holds it like a dagger. I see it as the Numenorean (I think) dagger that Galadriel gave him at Lothlorien. I think that's PJs nod to the Barrow and why I see it as a magical sword.....

“I am no man!” Éowyn says (purportedly to much applause)

One of the best lines in the movie, and as it's (kind of) taken from the book I'll allow the slight change (I had ot just recheck to remember exactly what book Eowyn said and when she said it)

Éowyn hears Gothmog’s approach, and she is terrified

She does look EXTREMLEY terrifed. Great acting.

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?

No and No.

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.

yep, up there with the 'very dangerous at short distances' line from TT

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.

Ok, my take on why we had the Dead at Minas Tirith. We needed a grand, surprise entrance from Aragorn. And we need to show the Dead fighting, otherwise what's the point of having them in the fil? So PJ to follow it to the book would have to either show a big battle at Pellagir, at the same time having a big fight at Minas Tirith which to my mind would not have worked (and perhaps also why it's not shown in the narrative of the book itself)

Or we have no ghosts in the fight of the Pellenor just like the book. But then we would have loads of non book readers moaning and wondering why the Dead were in the movie in the first place.

So he had the green slime 'mop up' the forces of darkness after they had been routed by the Men of the West