LotR1-FotR-Seq04

[mormegil]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

In the books we do not actually meet Saruman until the Ents have destroyed Isengard. All we know of him is what others tell us about him. This is one of those instances where we did have to 'see' scenes which we do not personally 'see' in the books. What does everyone else think of this?

This definately works on film, if it were simply dialogue between Frodo and Gandalf or Elrond and Gandalf it would be rather boring and uneventful. In this instance we are able to see and feel Saruman much more on a tangilbe level and it at least shows us where Gandalf went after he abandoned the hobbits.

Lal, I agree that Christopher Lee's voice is exceptional here and always intrigued me. He sounds very clever and cunning. Yet the way he is actually depicted doesn't show the subtilty of his plan. The book version is great where we see Saruman try and convince Gandalf and use the logic that "our goal is to accomplish order and we can do so by claiming the ring". It seems to me that Saruman is a pawn of Sauron with no agenda of his own. I think this detracts from the actual character of Saruman and doesn't show the duplicitious nature of his treachery. One extra minute would have accomplished this. It would have made more sense when Saruman said something like "I gave you a choice but you chose the way of pain" it doesn't really seem like Gandalf was given a choice as much.

Other than that I really like this scene, where it is placed, Christopher Lee, Orthanc is more or less how I imagined it, and the scenery is great.