Hey guys. Unsurprisingly, part 2 also got a music copyright claim. There is about 1 minute of audio missing starting from 11.40. I was very careful by chopping the footage up and not including more than 7 seconds of continuous music but it made no difference. Sorry guys.
i wondered about that. i have to watch this on my phone, thought there was something wrong with it, checked my volume, went back a ways to where there was sound, started over, etc. decided to watch a bit and see if sound came back on before leaving the channel and was very glad when the sound returned.
If I recall correctly, Peter Jackson stated that his biggest regret when it comes to the trilogy always was that Sean Astin was never even nominated for an Oscar in his role as Sam. His speech at the end of The Two Towers about hope when all seems lost is probably my favorite moment in the trilogy.
Frodo and the Ring. Samwise the Brave. Pippin the Fool. Merry the Ernest. ... Smeagol the Mad. ...Gollum the Lost. Timeless tales need timeless villains just as much as heroes.
It's one of my least favorite moments in TTT, but that mostly has to do with Astin's delivery. I think he struggles to maintain the accent and the effort throws him off. Added to which, I don't think he ever unlearned his child-actor habits. I much prefer the "It's your Sam...don't you know your Sam?" And almost nothing else he says can top the "I can't carry it for you...BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!" Goddamn, that line reading slays.
I still don't believe how Sean Astin would receive nothing for his major role as Samwise Gamgee, his powerful speech and his iconic line "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" That is stuff you barely even see in films these days, almost 18 years later he still hasn't received anything for his role as Sam, some of the other cast members still haven't received anything for their roles either. Well it's about time now,
There's a lot of taking in the world, but not too much giving. There isn't a person on the planet who wouldn't love to have a friend like Sam... but how many are willing to be a Sam for others. We can't control how others treat us... but we have 100% control over how we treat others.
The hobbits and particularly Sam is possibly meant to represent the character of the humble farm lads who fought in WWI and formed strong supportive bonds with the officer class.
I like how when Treebeard said that they have agreed that Merry and Pippin were not Orcs, all the other Ents in the background were nodding happily to each other.
@@simplyskrypt3914 "the Valar are archangels" - that gets repeated often around CZcams comments, but it is not quite accurate. I guess it depends upon what you mean by "archangel", but if you're using the term as in Christian mythology then the Valar are not like that. The Valar are _creator_ gods. They created the plants, animals, and even the sun and moon. The Maia (like Olorin/Gandalf) are lesser beings that serve the Valar, and since the Maia are messengers (the literal meaning of "angel") of the Valar one might use the term "angel" for the Maia, but the Maia are not creator gods. The Valar are more like Norse and Greek gods of old.
@@TheDanEdwards yeah i meant archangel in the more metaphorical sense of "the leaders/generals of the angels", not like literally the 3 christian archangels Also in the sense that, while in the context of lotr/middle earth the valar do have the power of creation, they still obey to the ultimate "god", the force of life itself in a sense, in the same hierarchical way as the christian angels obey the archangels who themselves obey god
I've read stories from the Monkey King from China, to Hercules from Greece, to Beowulf from Denmark, to Arthur from England. In all of Human Literature there is no greater, more heroic hero than Sam Gamgee the Hobbit. But, lest I spoil stuff, more on that later.
One of the most bittersweet parts of the books is that when the hobbits have been back in Hobbiton for months, none of the hobbits celebrate Frodo. All of their praise is reserved for Merry and Pippin, mostly because of their boisterous social nature, and the bright armor and weapons they continue to wear around the Shire, while Frodo and Sam return to their humble ways. But that shortcoming isn't unique to hobbits...we humans have a tendency to overlook humble people too; even the heroes who often sacrifice so much for us, while we shower adulation on flashy entertainers.
Now imagine having to wait a YEAR for the next part! :D Re: the props. The artistry was mind-boggling. There was an insane amount of detail. They had hand-sewn _underwear._ Karl Urban talked about getting his helmet, and looking inside it to find runes carved on the _inside_ of the helm, which named Eomer and his lineage as nephew of the king. PJ talked in the commentary about how there wasn't a single item in the entire trilogy that could be purchased, EVERYTHING had to be made by hand. The trilogy ended up employing over 10,000 people when you take into account all the props that had to be made - the chainmail hand-woven, the swords forged in traditional ways (all the people you see making swords were actual swordsmiths), the costumes, the fireworks, etc. And a lot of them had to be made more than once - anything the hobbits wore or touched had to be made in two different sizes, one for the actors and one for the stand-ins, who were small people employed to make the illusion complete. It's incredible the amount of work that went into these films.
Legolas is bound by his quest. He is the representatives from a northern kingdom of elves. He is the Prince of the Woodland realm, the elves that live in Mirkwood. That's why Gimli keeps in calling him 'princeling' and such.
My understanding is that even though Legolas is biologically more related to the leaving elves, his family is more culturally related to the elves that they rule, which are a separate group of elves that aren’t..... Valinor-oriented I guess? That’s my understanding.
The Mirkwood elves are like the wild cousins that the rest of the family begrudgingly invite to the wedding, and if they do show up it'll be an hour late with discount coffee from the corner store and will proceed to party the hardest just because they can.
@@justakidfrombrooklyn1517 Most of the elves in Mirkwood and Lothlorien are Moriquendi, or dark elves--dark meaning that they never saw the light of the Two Trees. Thranduil was not a Moriquendi.
Between two towers and return of the king was when i first started reading the books because i couldn‘t wait 😅 currently rereading two towers and LOVING it 😁
I'm 52, have read the books multiple times since I was 13...and I was 31 when the Fellowship came out. But I was online, having joined a Tolkien website a couple years before made of fans of the books that were looking forward to the films. I never could have dreamed that Peter Jackson and company would do as outstanding a job as they did.
Well, I for one don't have to imagine. I actually did have to wait, although I had read the books at that point, so I knew more or less what would happen.
"I don't know how well they adapted the books..." They adapted the spirit of the books very well. They made a number of literal changes that weren't really needed, even for adaptation, though many other changes make sense for adaptation. Near the end of the film, when Sam says "by all rights we shouldn't even be here," that's an Easter egg for book fans, because in the book Faramir never takes Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath. Faramir isn't tempted by the Ring, even to improve his relationship with his father. But Tolkien's important themes, concepts, and world-building remain largely intact.
Yeah. This is one of the more important changes. You need to read the book to see just what kind of man Faramir really was. He was wiser and humbler than his brother, and was not for even a moment tempted by the ring. And he was every bit as good a fighter and leader, and well-loved by the people of Gondor. Another change is the reason why Boromir went to Rivendell. You really need to read the books. But you can finish the movies first.
Tolkien wasn't always the best storyteller. His approach to the narrative was medieval, so the characters usually lack the depth that modern storytelling would convey. Aragorn as a selfless do-gooder riddled with doubt about his ability to rule wisely is a hell of a lot more compelling than a self-assured noble moping about his unclaimed throne, but Tolkien might not have understood that when writing from a medieval mindset.
@@Theomite That's kind of like saying The Godfather isn't a great movie because the CGI sucks. Tolkien wasn't writing for your 21st century sensibilities, and he wasn't writing medieval literature.
@@SuStel The entire pre-Council meeting consists primarily of Gandalf and Frodo telling each other what happened to each other when they left The Shire. Modern literary techniques would use cross-cutting to tell both stories in parallel to each other, but Tolkien does exposition through shared storytelling within the narrative. That's a pre-Industrial model, and since Cervantes was toying with perspective as early as the 16th century, the only period anteceding that is the Middle Ages, hence "medieval" literary style.
@@Theomite What wonderful bullshit you spout! It's almost as if you think there's only one way to write a novel, and that if it isn't new, it isn't good. Characters have been speaking aloud in literature since Gilgamesh; does that make speech outdated too?
A big difference with the book is that in the book Faramir did not try to bring the Ring to Gondor because he immediately realized that it had caused the death of his brother and that they could not use it to do good.
Much as I love the movie versions, they are nowhere near as good as the books! Unfortunately so many people on CZcams have only watched those. Maybe incapable of sitting down to delve into true greatness of the written word.
For that matter, the entire Osgiliath sequence that followed never took place in the book. I think Jackson used it to pad out the movie to three roughly-equal-length movies. The print version, although published as three volumes, actually consists of five "books": Two in each of the first two volumes, one in the third followed by a set of appendices. Tolkien himself called it a "publisher's device."
It's not a quick tale, the tale of Helm Hammerhand but you asked about the significance of the horn that Gimli blew so I'll do my best to answer that query as efficiently as possible :D Ok so Helm Hammerhand was the King of Rohan who built Helm's Deep (hence the name) and during an incident in which the Rohirrim had been driven from their kingdom by invaders from the mountains (way more complicated but the specifics are largely irrelevant), Helm commanded the last of his people from Helm's Deep. Unable to face the invaders in open battle, Helm began a one-man guerilla war on the occupying force, journeying out each night after sundown to stalk enemy soldiers. When he would return to the fortress each morning, a blast on the horn would be given for each soul he'd claimed that night. The enemy began to fear the morning & the blast of the horn in the deep. Sadly Helm never lived to see his kingdom restored. He was cut off from the fortress during a night raid in winter & froze to death in the mountains.
Thank you, for saving me the effort. Except that I might add that the men sworn to Saruman's armies are the descendants of those same mountainous invaders, and thus bore a racial hatred of the Rohirrim.
In the books, Faramir wasn't tempted AT ALL by the ring, he didn't want anything to do it personally. Faramir is one of the most selfless, brave and kind characters.
yep. The movie version of Faramir was nothing like the book. He was such a great leader and man in the books. He was the only one that could keep men in an organized retreat.
SPOILERS: There wasn't some elaborate Wizard fight and Theoden wasn't demonically possessed-looking either. Also. the Ents hurled themselves against Orthanc and at least one was killed. And I don't recall Aragorn being swept off a cliff by a warg and revived by the spirit of the elf lady. Or dwarf-tossing jokes or Gimili sitting on an Orc Legolas shoots and saying, 'Still counts as mine
Hey guys. Unsurprisingly, part 2 also got a music copyright claim. There is about 1 minute of audio missing starting from 11.40. I was very careful by chopping the footage up and not including more than 7 seconds of continuous music but it made no difference. Sorry guys.
i wondered about that. i have to watch this on my phone, thought there was something wrong with it, checked my volume, went back a ways to where there was sound, started over, etc. decided to watch a bit and see if sound came back on before leaving the channel and was very glad when the sound returned.
Understandable, although I was sad bc those were the best parts of the movie
Sam is without a doubt the absolute hero of this story. It's cool that you recognized that earlier than lots of people.
You have to do what you can! We totally get it! Still great reaction/review videos!
Ok thanks for the heads up!
If I recall correctly, Peter Jackson stated that his biggest regret when it comes to the trilogy always was that Sean Astin was never even nominated for an Oscar in his role as Sam.
His speech at the end of The Two Towers about hope when all seems lost is probably my favorite moment in the trilogy.
Sean Astin's speech near the end of each movie *chef's kiss*
Frodo and the Ring. Samwise the Brave. Pippin the Fool. Merry the Ernest.
... Smeagol the Mad.
...Gollum the Lost.
Timeless tales need timeless villains just as much as heroes.
@@TheDetailsMatter A composition very necessary no matter how different the parts.
It's one of my least favorite moments in TTT, but that mostly has to do with Astin's delivery. I think he struggles to maintain the accent and the effort throws him off. Added to which, I don't think he ever unlearned his child-actor habits. I much prefer the "It's your Sam...don't you know your Sam?" And almost nothing else he says can top the "I can't carry it for you...BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!" Goddamn, that line reading slays.
I still don't believe how Sean Astin would receive nothing for his major role as Samwise Gamgee, his powerful speech and his iconic line "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" That is stuff you barely even see in films these days, almost 18 years later he still hasn't received anything for his role as Sam, some of the other cast members still haven't received anything for their roles either. Well it's about time now,
"And this is why, Ladies and Gentlemen, why you need a friend like Sam!"
yes, and be a friend like Sam.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
I remember some reactor say this: "I need a Sam in my life...or I want to be a Sam in someone's life"
I honestly don't think I could ever be that brave.
There's a lot of taking in the world, but not too much giving. There isn't a person on the planet who wouldn't love to have a friend like Sam... but how many are willing to be a Sam for others.
We can't control how others treat us... but we have 100% control over how we treat others.
The hobbits and particularly Sam is possibly meant to represent the character of the humble farm lads who fought in WWI and formed strong supportive bonds with the officer class.
I like how when Treebeard said that they have agreed that Merry and Pippin were not Orcs, all the other Ents in the background were nodding happily to each other.
That part is funny in the book too. They talk for like half a day and that's how far they get.
"Who resurrects Gandalf?"
God. Literally. Gandalf is a Maiar, the equivalent of an angel.
And the Valar are archangels
Well, a Maia. Maiar is the plural form.
@@simplyskrypt3914 "the Valar are archangels" - that gets repeated often around CZcams comments, but it is not quite accurate. I guess it depends upon what you mean by "archangel", but if you're using the term as in Christian mythology then the Valar are not like that. The Valar are _creator_ gods. They created the plants, animals, and even the sun and moon. The Maia (like Olorin/Gandalf) are lesser beings that serve the Valar, and since the Maia are messengers (the literal meaning of "angel") of the Valar one might use the term "angel" for the Maia, but the Maia are not creator gods. The Valar are more like Norse and Greek gods of old.
@@TheDanEdwards yeah i meant archangel in the more metaphorical sense of "the leaders/generals of the angels", not like literally the 3 christian archangels
Also in the sense that, while in the context of lotr/middle earth the valar do have the power of creation, they still obey to the ultimate "god", the force of life itself in a sense, in the same hierarchical way as the christian angels obey the archangels who themselves obey god
"I think Sam might be the hero of this entire story".
Indeed!
I've read stories from the Monkey King from China, to Hercules from Greece, to Beowulf from Denmark, to Arthur from England. In all of Human Literature there is no greater, more heroic hero than Sam Gamgee the Hobbit. But, lest I spoil stuff, more on that later.
Tolkien himself said so.
One of the most bittersweet parts of the books is that when the hobbits have been back in Hobbiton for months, none of the hobbits celebrate Frodo. All of their praise is reserved for Merry and Pippin, mostly because of their boisterous social nature, and the bright armor and weapons they continue to wear around the Shire, while Frodo and Sam return to their humble ways.
But that shortcoming isn't unique to hobbits...we humans have a tendency to overlook humble people too; even the heroes who often sacrifice so much for us, while we shower adulation on flashy entertainers.
Viggo Mortensen purchased the horse at the end of the 3 movies filming. And he bought one of the horses from his movie Hidalgo
He also purchased Arwen’s horse for the stunt rider. He’s such a class act.
Hidalgo is a great movie!
@@brianoden1798 it absolutely is!!! And it got totally ripped off in the ratings.
@@opalviking and then gifted it to Arwen stunt double
Lol love that movie
Now imagine having to wait a YEAR for the next part! :D
Re: the props. The artistry was mind-boggling. There was an insane amount of detail. They had hand-sewn _underwear._ Karl Urban talked about getting his helmet, and looking inside it to find runes carved on the _inside_ of the helm, which named Eomer and his lineage as nephew of the king. PJ talked in the commentary about how there wasn't a single item in the entire trilogy that could be purchased, EVERYTHING had to be made by hand. The trilogy ended up employing over 10,000 people when you take into account all the props that had to be made - the chainmail hand-woven, the swords forged in traditional ways (all the people you see making swords were actual swordsmiths), the costumes, the fireworks, etc. And a lot of them had to be made more than once - anything the hobbits wore or touched had to be made in two different sizes, one for the actors and one for the stand-ins, who were small people employed to make the illusion complete. It's incredible the amount of work that went into these films.
Legolas is bound by his quest. He is the representatives from a northern kingdom of elves. He is the Prince of the Woodland realm, the elves that live in Mirkwood. That's why Gimli keeps in calling him 'princeling' and such.
My understanding is that even though Legolas is biologically more related to the leaving elves, his family is more culturally related to the elves that they rule, which are a separate group of elves that aren’t..... Valinor-oriented I guess? That’s my understanding.
The Mirkwood elves are like the wild cousins that the rest of the family begrudgingly invite to the wedding, and if they do show up it'll be an hour late with discount coffee from the corner store and will proceed to party the hardest just because they can.
@@damonhage7451 you are absolutely right mate
@@justakidfrombrooklyn1517 Most of the elves in Mirkwood and Lothlorien are Moriquendi, or dark elves--dark meaning that they never saw the light of the Two Trees. Thranduil was not a Moriquendi.
And Gimi had a huge grudge against him because Gimli's father Gloin was imprisoned without cause by Legolas' father Thranduil. (in the Hobbit)
"And it ends right here! Guys! No!"
Imagine what it felt like seeing it in the cinema and knowing you'd have to wait a year for the next part...
I was about to say the same thing. Having to wait 1 year to see "Return of the King"
Between two towers and return of the king was when i first started reading the books because i couldn‘t wait 😅 currently rereading two towers and LOVING it 😁
I'm 52, have read the books multiple times since I was 13...and I was 31 when the Fellowship came out. But I was online, having joined a Tolkien website a couple years before made of fans of the books that were looking forward to the films. I never could have dreamed that Peter Jackson and company would do as outstanding a job as they did.
Think about this...I didn’t know it was a trilogy when I saw the first one in theaters. 😅
Well, I for one don't have to imagine. I actually did have to wait, although I had read the books at that point, so I knew more or less what would happen.
"I don't know how well they adapted the books..."
They adapted the spirit of the books very well. They made a number of literal changes that weren't really needed, even for adaptation, though many other changes make sense for adaptation. Near the end of the film, when Sam says "by all rights we shouldn't even be here," that's an Easter egg for book fans, because in the book Faramir never takes Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath. Faramir isn't tempted by the Ring, even to improve his relationship with his father.
But Tolkien's important themes, concepts, and world-building remain largely intact.
Yeah. This is one of the more important changes. You need to read the book to see just what kind of man Faramir really was. He was wiser and humbler than his brother, and was not for even a moment tempted by the ring. And he was every bit as good a fighter and leader, and well-loved by the people of Gondor.
Another change is the reason why Boromir went to Rivendell. You really need to read the books. But you can finish the movies first.
Tolkien wasn't always the best storyteller. His approach to the narrative was medieval, so the characters usually lack the depth that modern storytelling would convey. Aragorn as a selfless do-gooder riddled with doubt about his ability to rule wisely is a hell of a lot more compelling than a self-assured noble moping about his unclaimed throne, but Tolkien might not have understood that when writing from a medieval mindset.
@@Theomite That's kind of like saying The Godfather isn't a great movie because the CGI sucks. Tolkien wasn't writing for your 21st century sensibilities, and he wasn't writing medieval literature.
@@SuStel The entire pre-Council meeting consists primarily of Gandalf and Frodo telling each other what happened to each other when they left The Shire. Modern literary techniques would use cross-cutting to tell both stories in parallel to each other, but Tolkien does exposition through shared storytelling within the narrative. That's a pre-Industrial model, and since Cervantes was toying with perspective as early as the 16th century, the only period anteceding that is the Middle Ages, hence "medieval" literary style.
@@Theomite What wonderful bullshit you spout! It's almost as if you think there's only one way to write a novel, and that if it isn't new, it isn't good. Characters have been speaking aloud in literature since Gilgamesh; does that make speech outdated too?
A big difference with the book is that in the book Faramir did not try to bring the Ring to Gondor because he immediately realized that it had caused the death of his brother and that they could not use it to do good.
Movie Faramir's character is almost the opposite of the Faramir in the book.
Much as I love the movie versions, they are nowhere near as good as the books! Unfortunately so many people on CZcams have only watched those. Maybe incapable of sitting down to delve into true greatness of the written word.
For that matter, the entire Osgiliath sequence that followed never took place in the book. I think Jackson used it to pad out the movie to three roughly-equal-length movies. The print version, although published as three volumes, actually consists of five "books": Two in each of the first two volumes, one in the third followed by a set of appendices. Tolkien himself called it a "publisher's device."
It's not a quick tale, the tale of Helm Hammerhand but you asked about the significance of the horn that Gimli blew so I'll do my best to answer that query as efficiently as possible :D
Ok so Helm Hammerhand was the King of Rohan who built Helm's Deep (hence the name) and during an incident in which the Rohirrim had been driven from their kingdom by invaders from the mountains (way more complicated but the specifics are largely irrelevant), Helm commanded the last of his people from Helm's Deep. Unable to face the invaders in open battle, Helm began a one-man guerilla war on the occupying force, journeying out each night after sundown to stalk enemy soldiers. When he would return to the fortress each morning, a blast on the horn would be given for each soul he'd claimed that night. The enemy began to fear the morning & the blast of the horn in the deep. Sadly Helm never lived to see his kingdom restored. He was cut off from the fortress during a night raid in winter & froze to death in the mountains.
Thank you, for saving me the effort. Except that I might add that the men sworn to Saruman's armies are the descendants of those same mountainous invaders, and thus bore a racial hatred of the Rohirrim.
In the books, Faramir wasn't tempted AT ALL by the ring, he didn't want anything to do it personally. Faramir is one of the most selfless, brave and kind characters.
yep. The movie version of Faramir was nothing like the book. He was such a great leader and man in the books. He was the only one that could keep men in an organized retreat.
@@lathspell87 Tolkien was asked once which character in Lord of the Rings he thought was most like himself. He said Faramir. I can believe it.
That's all cool, but representing him like that in the film would have undercut the power of the ring and reduced Denethors mistreatment of Faramir.
SPOILERS: There wasn't some elaborate Wizard fight and Theoden wasn't demonically possessed-looking either. Also. the Ents hurled themselves against Orthanc and at least one was killed. And I don't recall Aragorn being swept off a cliff by a warg and revived by the spirit of the elf lady. Or dwarf-tossing jokes or Gimili sitting on an Orc Legolas shoots and saying, 'Still counts as mine![
And that's just off the top of me head
Faramir is the 🐐
That always makes me tear up when the kids are being given an axe and fitted with the helmet over Theoden’s monologue about how there’s no honor in the current time. It’s so fricken sad.
That scene represent well these Peter Jackson's movies. He took one randon sentence from the book and twisted it into that "sad" scene.
Yes, it's a very powerful scene ... I tear up as well
That monologue is actually based on a real-life, old English poem, I think, called “The Wanderer.” Tolkien adapted it and gave it to Aragorn to speak in the books. I like its use here in the movie better. It fits Theoden’s defeatist, depressed attitude.
@@Jaasau it’s been 21 years since I read the books, so I forgot that.
@@tsogobauggi8721 That whole monologue is actually a poem from the book, and if I'm not mistaken, the poem is itself a translation of an ancient Anglo-Saxon lament for a dead king.
Love the Boromir appreciation. Most people just see him as the guy who tried to take the ring but honestly he’s one of my favorite characters, and definitely the most human, and in a good way. Awe inspiring and all that
I don't think there will ever be a movie with this much dedication and scale again. If you look into the numbers they are staggering. So much was practically that they had 2 people working full time for 2 and a half years just making the chainmail armour, it's actually insane
And they lost their fingerprints in the process
Not sure how many people have already mentioned this, but that flashback scene with Boromir, Faramir, and their father wasn't in the theatrical cut. It really added even more depth and sympathy towards Boromir in my opinion. Boromir's father had unknowingly already given the Ring something to work with towards tempting him to try to take it.
It is nice, but you really get all that in a subtler way in the third film.
Considering that the first two films (at least) came in at a few minutes under three hours, I suspect New Line Cinema demanded they not run more than that for theater revenue reasons.
It also does a lot to humanize Faramir, who comes across as a pretty unreasonable bastard in the theatrical cut. RotK helps, thankfully, but he's one of my favorites in the books so I was always a little miffed how the second movie chose to adapt him.
@@PodreyJenkin138 Yeah, that, and the Saruman scene from the third film (if you've seen it, I'm sure you know which one) make the extended films the *definitive* ones for me. If I'm ever inviting someone to watch LotR, I always put the theatrical version of the first one and the extended versions of the other two... Makes for the best experience imo.
Remember when the Fellowship first meets Galadriel? She warns them about the quest being on the “edge of a knife”. Then she glanced at Sam, “But hope remains while the fellowship is true...”
Legolas was also bound by his loyalty to Aragorn, as he knew him for many years prior and of his destiny.
I always loved the shot of King Théoden watching the enemy approach, the quiet before the storm, and the heavens open up, he looks up to it and then back to the enemy and the rain starts. Such a haunting scene.
"And so it begins."
Does inappropriately make me think of Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein though.
"Could be worse..." 😄
I can never help thinking, "Could be worse - could be raining."
Jackson did a literal interpretation of "the calm before the storm."
When you said David Wenham (Faramir) looked like Sean Bean before it was revealed he's Boromir's brother, I clapped, lol. Such phenomenal casting!
One thing yoy might not know is all 3 were filmed at the same time, which is one of the reasons they all flow so seamlessly together.
Technically. Though after the Fellowship did colossal business they did extensive re-shoots and expansions on the other two movies.
Another outstanding reaction and review! FYI, Gandalf is neither human nor elf... he is one of the Maiar (a sort of spiritual being almost like an "angel") who was sent to Middle Earth to oppose Sauron. Five were sent: Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and two unnamed blue wizards. This is why, when his physical form "Gandalf the Grey" was destroyed in the Balrog fight, he was able to re-manifest his physical form and come back.
And just for the record, Sam is totally the hero of this saga.
Because Saruman the White became corrupt, they promoted Gandalf to "the White". Gandalf was the only one of the five wizards to remain true to their mission. Radagast the Brown was a reasonably good guy, but he focused on protecting animals - which is a fine thing to do, but the deer and antelopes and rabbits and squirrels weren't going to ever form an army to take down Sauron.
The Ithrynluin Alatar Morinehtar and Pallando Romestamo
Just for reference, Sauron is a Maiar as well.
What was not explained in The Fellowship is that Saruman reveals himself to Gandalf as having discarded his white mantle. He became Saruman of Many Colours, thus allowing Gandalf to come back as the White Wizard(his robes reflected like fish scales, never settling on one colour.).
“ I like white better.” Best line Gandalf ever said.
"He that must destoy a thing, to learn about it, has lost the path of wisdom."
Yes, your exactly right about Sam being the real hero of this tale. No less than Tolkien himself admitted to this fact.
False. Grimli is the real hero. Carrying everyone on his little dwarf back
No way. Farmer Maggot is the real hero.
@@manel4361 oh come on! All Gandalf ever did was figure out what the ring was, have Strider meet him, assemble the council aka Fellowship, fight of a Balrog, break Sauraman's influence over Theoden, and come back from the dead. But other then that, what else have the Romans ever done for us?
@@manel4361 I was trying to avoid spoilers dude.
@@cheeseburger12 ups sorry, i have deleted it
One of the things these films do very well is show the burden of the ring. We see it most clearly with Gollum, but Elijah Wood does a tremendous job showing Frodo's descent from a simple, carefree Hobbit to someone who's carrying a heavy, corrupting burden. And we've still got a whole film to go to see how that turns out.
A lot of reactors miss that the horse that found Aragorn and took him back to Helm's Deep is Brego, the horse he tamed earlier in the movie, that Eowyn told him used to be her cousin Theodred's horse and had gone mad with grief after his death. You caught it, as well as the fact that Faramir looked like Boromir. Story goes the actor saw a pic of Sean Bean in full wardrobe during his audition and got confused for a second because he didn't remember doing a costume fitting. He thought Boromir's pic was a pic of himself in costume. And yeah, Tolkien himself said the hero of the Lord of the Rings is actually Sam.
As for where the Elves are going, it's never explained in the movies, but basically since they're immortal and cannot die except by violence, when they feel tired of the world after living in it for thousands of years they sail to the west to the Undying Lands never to return, which are basically where Middle Earth's sort-of gods live and can kind of be considered their equivalent of Heaven. Only Elves and other immortal higher beings can go there. Others attempting to sail there will never reach them. Incidentally, the gods living there are the ones who sent Gandalf back after he died killing the Balrog of Moria. The Elves are leaving en masse to the Undying Lands because they fear the world is about to fall to Sauron and they'll be safe there, and because as Elrond and Galadriel put it, the Age of Elves is over and even if the good guys win, it'll be the dawn of the Age of Man.
In your free time I recommend also watching the behind the scenes where we get to know all the people and the work they put into this. It is superb.
It's like the movies' equivalent of the Appendices. Isn't it like 5-7 hours for all of them? It's ridiculous.
I always got a nature v industry vibe.
Everyone ends up loving Sam.
That vibe is intentional, Tolkien lived through World War 1 and as a result he grew to strongly dislike industry and developed a strong love of nature.
@@wyattcole6580 that's kinda what I figured. I knew there was intentional message in there.
Yes, it also includes craftsmanship vs mass production.
@@chefskiss6179 frankly, I agree with his take on this particular issue.
Yes. Tolkien was a Luddite by nature.
The elves are going to Valinor, which is the continent on the other side of the sea to the west where the gods live. It is a physical place but also the equivalent of heaven, since nothing dies there (hence the "undying lands"). There is a complicated history about the elves and Valinor in The Silmarillion, but basically they used to live there. Once they depart Middle Earth, they cannot come back. This is why Arwen's choice is so difficult. Other races are not permitted to go to Valinor. Tolkien actually writes really beautifully about how elves and other races sort of each miss out - the elves get to live forever, but death leads to its own sort of peace that the elves will never experience.
In the Third Age Valinor wasn't a physical part of the world anymore. It was like a realm in another dimension. :)
@@tsogobauggi8721 fair point. I've seen a lot of reactions where people think that they have to die to get there, so was more concerned about saying it's a place, not a state of being 😊
IIRC the Lore says it's still part of Arda but not physically connected to Middle-Earth. Every drawing I've ever seen has it floating in high orbit above the planet but not out in outer space.
Sam is the literal definition of a "ride or die" friend....we all need a Sam, and we should all try to be a bit more like Sam.
When you walk out of the cinema stunned and speechless and almost angry that the movie ended and you have to wait to re-enter the world again.
Just to say, in case no one else has, the flying creatures that now carry the Nazgul, are not dragons. They are called fell-beasts. Dragons used to exist in that world, but they are insanely powerful.
Yep. Dragons are much bigger and much worse, and they most likely would never have allowed themselves to be used as mounts for the nazgul.
I think the best term for them would be wyverns.
@@Aeroldoth3 No Wyverns are like dragons but dont have the front paws. They are named Fell-Beasts
Good call on the casting for faramir! You caught that so quick. And he looks exactly like him and they have exactly the same laugh! The flashback scene was an extended edition only scene and so important for their character development. All three of them but boromir especially.
Yeah. It turns Boromir from, "That shifty guy at the back of the Fellowship" into an actual human being.
Faramir is my favorite warrior in the book, the most noble and princely in character imo and probably more like the self-abnegating Denethor than he cared to admit.
At least you won’t have to wait a year to watch the 3rd movie, hehe.
Yeah, it was hell waiting that long for each movie to be released back in the early 2000's!
Even though you'd read the book and knew how it ended, it made no difference. The wait was maddening.
But that was the reason, people enjoyed it even more.
The 3rd and final film got 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture - you ain't seen nothin' yet!
RotK would have only won 10 Oscars, if not for a rule change that happened after the release of Two Towers, which originally prevented scores from sequels which re-used themes to be considered.
Unfortunately, this means that Two Towers was the only film of the trilogy to not receive an Oscar for Best Score.
Quite a bit of what you thought was CGI are actually practical effects and models. Sometime watch the appendices on the bonus discs for the extended editions and be amazed at how they handmade everything the actors wore and held and used.
I like the fact that they had two guys doing nothing than making rings for chainmail for 3 years.
The making of features on the bonus discs were amazing. Whenever the next extended edition was released I looked forward to watching those just as much as the actual film. It’s so apparent throughout how much love and care was put into every aspect of these films (even the making of features themselves), and I got genuinely emotional watching the last featurette about the final day of filming.
This. I really liked all of the extra exposition. I figured out that with the extended films, the appendices and then the 5+ times re-watching the films with various people talking over it, there is around 80 hours of film and information. It's like a master class in film with information from the director/writers, artists, actors, costume, sound, music, CGI, etc.
Great reaction. You have some great insights, especially about why Frodo holds hope for Gollum and Sam’s role in the story.
Definitely worth looking at some of the making of docs on this one, especially how they did the battle at Helm's Deep. A lot of it is AI because there's was no way they could animate so many individuals. Amazingly clever and groundbreaking.
Yes. The DVD extras. Seeing how they made this is amazing. Especially the motion capture for Gollum. I would love to watch him react to those.
4:48 Sorry, what you saw was a giant miniature with an actual made background. It's not a green screen.
No, he means that the actors were shot on a greenscreen and then comped in on the footage of the minature in post production, so you're both right.
Yes. As the person above has already said, the set is indeed real, but as it is a miniature, the actors have to be green-screened on to it.
Every day with a Shan upload is a good day. Every day with a Shan LotR is doubly good.
Tolkien himself said Sam is the hero. He's also based on an army buddy from WW1
Tolkien was cavalry. Anyway, he wrote a letter to a friend explaining that Sam was his homage to the British foot soldier’s courage and loyalty.
This movie has the biggest departures from the books. The fakeout of Aragorn's death, Faramir being tempted by the ring, and taking Sam and Frodo to Osgiliath, and elves showing up at Helm's Deep were all changes PJ made to the story.
Film is a different medium than literature. It has to be faster paced, since it has less time to tell a narrative. Character motives and plot has to be adjusted to fit the film narrative. The Lord of the Rings films are about as good a version of a book this long as you'll ever see. About the only movie I've seen that's better than the book version (and the book was very good) is The Princess Bride.
Well except for the first film's sense of urgency when Gandalf tells Frodo to hide the ring after Bibo's birthday party. I believe it took about 17 years for Frodo to leave the Shire with the Ring, putting Frodo into his 50's.
I don’t think there will ever be a high fantasy film or films to match these. They are a literal masterpiece and they deserved every Oscar they won. I watch them every 3 or 4 years and I never feel bored ! I’m glad you are enjoying them 🙂
I watch the whole filmic trilogy over the 12 day Yule Festival every year.
And to think that Gandalf could have been played by Sean Connery, Peter Jackson wanted him SO badly that he was offered 15% of the global box office and he still turned it down as he "Didn't get" the story!!
1) We got a much better film without him
2) I bet he regretted not taking that role. Insane amount of $
Sean Connery was already quitting acting at the time, his experience with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen had been dreadful. Perhaps it's just that the timing wasn't right.
"I am a shervant of the shecret fire!"
Thank God he didn't take the role
Thank God for that!
Sam is the real hero of the story!! (as you stated literally when I was typing this lol.)
True but Frodo was able to keep the temptation of the one ring from overtaking him till almost the end , they needed each other for sure and yes Sam is the best!
If Aragorn hadn’t stopped Wormtongue from being killed a lot more elves wouldn’t have died when the wall blew up , the only big mistake I recall from the future king , also the counting of kills between Gimli and Legolas I believe is taken from the books
I watched this in cinema without break on hard seats and after it was over i could not feel my ass and legs but it was worth it . This movie deserves to be seen on a big screen with surround sound , i wonder if they will release it again in cinemas .
😂 I HATE hard seats. And I agree about watching on a big screen.
Some pain is worth it.
Me too. I had to sit on a hard bench at the very back of the theater all alone with a bunch of strange teenagers, but it was well worth it. I couldn't believe how these movies united fans of all ages.
Props... Just huge props... The way you catch most of the little details, your reaction and your totally euphoric review ist just amazing. By far the best lord of the rings reaction i've ever seen (and trust me, i got deep into this scene due to corona XD)
And yeah, read the books... They are so unbelievable good.
I was in the middle of another video, but this popped up and I'm here for it! I thought we were going to be waiting two or three days for this one. I can hardly wait to see your thoughts at the end. Here we go!
It's a long review my friend!
Lol same here!
@@ShanWatchesMovies I don't mind at all. I learn so much from your videos.
It was worth it. And I really appreciate that you name the crew. Credit where credit is due. Excellent work, and I'm thrilled to watch the last two installments.
Aw, he doesn't credit John Rhys Davies for Fanghorn's voice.
I think the scene when Haldir dies shows something about the elves that are not touched on a lot, the sadness and despair seeing so many elves dead around him as he looks around. Since the elves are basically immortal (they can't die from age or illness) death is something unnatural to them.
"I think Sam might be the hero of the entire story."
Yes.
Sam da real MVP.
(Frodo is much more of a badass in the books though, Jackson decided to play up his frailty to show how powerful the ring is, but he is much more capable and "with it" in the books than how he comes across in these movies. There are even segments in the book where a careful reader can pick up on Frodo starting to use the Ring's ability to dominate others, first unconsciously, and then purposefully... In this film, they just have Smeagol swear on the Precious, which is accurate to the books too, but in the book Frodo is actively binding Smeagol to his word via the Ring's power as Smeagol makes his promise... which works, for awhile, until the Ring finds a suitable situation for Gollum to break his word).
Also, your comment about needing a friend... couldn't be more true. Take Gollum/Smeagol's talk and plan at the end of this film (and earlier "arguments"), and really look at the lyrics of "Gollum's Song" that plays after Gollum's little dual personality monologue at the end of the film. Look at how Gollum looks at Frodo and Sam, when Sam's support for Frodo clearly saves him and pulls him back from succumbing to the evil of the ring. Gollum is a huge foil to Frodo/Sam. Having that friend there to pull you back from the abyss is vital.
Gollum/Smeagol is an example of how wrong and tragically Frodo and Sam's story could have been. Smeagol/Gollum is truly a pitiable character. His story isn't completely clear yet, but you already understand the importance of Sam to Frodo and how the Ring is poisoning their relationship. I think you will find Gollum (and Andy Serkis' performance) to be very special by the end of this series (and Sam is such a boss). The entire cast is amazing in this film, and generally the characters are great (though a few are changed in ways I don't like compared to how they are in the books -- namely, Gimli, Frodo, and Denethor). Sam (Sean Astin) and Gollum (Andy Serkis) are major stand outs, though.
these films really are a epitome of a passion project, from everyone involved. there will never be another quite like this
Legolas is from a different "tribe" of elves than Elrond and Galadriel - it's complicated. His skills are not surprising when one remembers he's had 3,000 years of practice. Part of the reason Faramir is more thoughtful and able to deal more effectively with the Ring than his brother, is that he knew and was under the tutelage of Gandalf briefly in his youth (when Gandalf was doing his research in Gondor as shown in The Fellowship.) In the books the differences between the brothers were more pronounced and Faramir was never really tempted. Here, as in the other films, all of the best and most memorable lines are quoted verbatim from Tolkien. There will be no explanation of Gandalf's death and transfiguration because Gandalf never explained it.
Just a note, that last sentence is a spoiler. I don't know if Shan has already watched RotK, but it does reveal the fate of a major character.
@@Befuddled_Ostrich Thanks. I edited my message accordingly.
I loved it that you called it: Sam is the hero of the story.
Even more so in the book, it's the only small criticism I have of the whole movie trilogy, they should have ended the second movie the way the second book ended, it just made Sam feel like even more of a hero
I have to disagree. Both Sam and Frodo are the hero’s. Frodo lived with the torture of the ring for everyone, and Sam was his strength when he was weak. Carrying the ring was no easy task, everyone else went evil almost instantly just being near the ring. Frodo carried the ring a long time, gradually being worn down by it’s seductive power.
I'm not the best person to describe this, but the elves are travelling to the Undying Lands in the West. As Galadriel says in this movie, the time or age of the elves is over. I won't spoil the third movie for you, so that's all I can say.
Thier lease was up.
@@cheeseburger12 You think they'll get their deposit back?
@@gregall2178 Not a chance. Sure, their roommates made a lot of the mess, but they bailed without even trying to clean it up.
@@epryn yeah, i forgot about all the wear and tear.
It was the trees of fangorn forest that killed the retreating orcs, not the ents
The moving trees are Huorns.
The elves are heading to the Grey Havens which is a port city that leads to Valinor across the Great Sea from Middle Earth. it is basically their version of heaven or nirvana. It is mentioned briefly in Part 1 of “The Fellowship” as Sam and Frodo stumble across a group of elves as they are leaving the Shire. It is at the 13:43 mark of your You Tube review.
Well valinor is not actually like heaven or Nirvana. It is a continent, where the valar (angelic figures created by God) live, together with the elves. Only elves are allowed to go to valinor (with some exceptions...). You don't go to valinor when you die, so it's not like heaven, also one thing to remind is that you don't become immortal when you go to valinor. Elves are immortal both in valinor and in middle earth, and men and dwarves aren't
@@darioarca2883 You are kinda correct in your assessment but elves can be killed so they are not immortal... they would truly be immortal in Valinor which is why they are heading there. Which is to escape the dangers of losing their immortality in Middle Earth.
Also, in Heaven and Nirvana you are not dead. You are existing but just in a different time and space than our current one.
@@RR64434 well you're right about elves. About heaven and nirvana, of course your soul isn't dead, but your body is, and you continue to live without it. On the other hand, valinor is a very concrete place, where your body is alive, the soul is still inside it and you exist on the same place (arda) and time as people in middle earth. I think a more correct comparison would be between heaven or nirvana and the halls of mandos, when the souls of dead elves await to be reincarnated (that's why I would compare it more to the platonic hyperuranium, or any other heaven-like place of a religion that involves reincarnation). Sorry for the bad English, I'm trying my best
This trilogy gets better with each installment, Return of the King is a masterpiece.
Flawless is the right way to describe it. The greatest film trilogy of all time. Kudos to the community for not filling the comments with spoilers.
The best part of Two Towers for me is the battle for helms deep and how PJ tells a story. It is a master class in story telling and filmmaking. The calm before the storm, the tension, then the massive battle. It looks like the good guys are doing well, but Sauroman is tricksy. The siege progresses naturally and it is easy to follow. Basically, you think they're doing OK, and then "oh shit" another orc advancement in the siege. The defensive walls fall one after another until they are trapped and defeat is inevitable. When all hope is lost the men find their courage and ride out to meet the enemy, not for death and glory (what Theoden was looking for after being enslaved by Sauroman and the death of his only child) but for HOPE and for their people. Then PJ calls back to Gandalf from 40 minutes ago! The siege is so fantastic that we actually forgot about it. Incredible. And as they complete their last charge into overwhelming odds (guaranteed it would be to their death) our heroes are greeted by Gandalf and the Rohirrim on the ridge, who charge the orc army with the absolutely brilliant score for Rohan of innocence, hope, courage, and valor. Like a wave of all those words wrapped up into action washing down the hill, cannot be stopped, cannot be defeated by evil, the light of the sun shines behind them as they crash into the orc army blinding them as the score crescendos. Flawless. And just wait for the next movie not to be outdone.
The repetition of the word "hope" - "there is always hope", for example - is actually a pun. When Aragorn was a boy, his existence had to be hidden, and one of the ways his mother did that was by giving him another name: "Estel", which in Elvish means "hope". He did not know his own real name or his lineage until he was fifteen, when his royal destiny was revealed to him. It was while he was thinking about this, walking in the woods near RIvendell, that he saw Arwen for the first time and fell in love with her when he say her dancing in a glade. (This echoed the meeting of Beren and Luthien, whom Aragorn sang about in the first film.) Elrond objected to the match, saying only the King of Gondor and Arnor (the northern kingdom) could wed her. That challenge was what drove Aragorn throughout his life in the book - to win his love by winning the kingship. In the book, he never wavered from that path at all, and certainly never rejected it or told her it was just a dream. That wrinkle was developed for the film in order to create tension in the narrative, films being different from books.
Wasn’t he 20 or 21 when Elrond told him his lineage?
@@yehudisfriedman8459 Somewhere around there.
@@yehudisfriedman8459 Was he? Okay. It's been a while since I read that part.
Imagine yourself in 2002, knowing that it'll be an entire *year* until you get to watch ROTK.....
I was gonna say something like that, took us 3 years to get through these movies. Well, at least 2 years of waiting anyway.
Oh man you have no idea! It was killing me having to wait. Hadn't read the books yet, so at that point I was super worried about main characters dying.
@@rovhalt6650 For me it was different. I was very devoted to these books growing up and read them about 100 times. So for me, the thrill was seeing everything on the big screen that I'd only seen in my head before. It was an amazing experience.
@@LadyIarConnacht Right there with ya, sister ;-)
I, too, was a yearly reader of the books and really resisted wanting to watch the movies because so few movies lived up to the books. I kept seeing people say they didn't want to watch at first but really loved them, when they did watch. I folded and I love them so that I rarely go back to the books but re-watch the movies and enjoy the reactor CZcams. Shan, your reactions are thorough and you are catching details many others miss.
It wasn't the Ents that the Uruk-hai were being driven to, it was the trees. They were awake now.
Actually some were Ents. They were Huorns, a mixture of old Ents who had become "tree-ish" along with older trees who had grown more aware, or "Ent-ish"
JFC Sam's speech gets me every. damn. time.
Yep. Good clip to play when you’ve had a bad day.
1:27 Fun fact: the hand marking the map of Middle-earth is from Director Peter Jackson
Aw you cut my favorite line. When Sam tells Faromir that he has shown his quality. So good!
Weta Workshop did the effects and props.
For the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, realistic looking PVC chainmail was made, not just for the lead actors, but also for the hundreds of extras that appeared throughout the films. PVC pipe was cut into rings, assembled by hand into a semblance of armor, and then electroplated. A total of 82.9 million links were manufactured from 7 miles of PVC pipe.
Not PVC pipe, but PVC plastic line, instead of metal wire. PVC means polyvinyl chloride, and it's the 3rd most produced kind of plastic in the world, not just for water pipes. Much easier to cut, mold, and wear than steel mail...though I have friends who made their own real chain mail from 14 to 18 gauge steel wire from any home supply store. Be ready to spend a lot of nights making links though--it requires about a half a mile of wire to make a single hauberk of mail.
You should also watch all the Making Of and Extra stuff from the movies. They are amazing and so interesting.
John Noble says his theory about Denethor and Faramir is that the son looks like his mother, and Denethor can't deal with that, with being reminded of his wife when her death was too painful for him. So he punishes his son for his own unresolved feelings, pushing the boy away and always taking the older brother's side. But conversely, that support is always coupled with unreasonable expectations and harshness. So the pain of their mother's death brings the brothers together and strengthens their bond against the rift their father tries to drive between them. It's a brilliant family dynamic very well played by all involved. (I got to meet John Noble at an LOTR convention, and told him how important the relationship between Denethor and Faramir was to me because it reminded me so much of my troubles with my own father. I was a little teary telling him, but he was very kind, placing his hand over mind and saying that he hoped it was good for me to see that.)
You want a little more trivia? Christopher Lee was originally auditioning to play Gandalf. He really, really, REALLY wanted to play Gandalf. But the role was already given to Ian... But... Come on!
It's Dracula!!! It's the man with the golden gun! It's a man who met Tolkien! It's Miguel from Captain America 2 (look it up ^^) ! It's Christopher Lee!
And the rest is history.
I think the role Lee got was absolutely perfect for him. The voice, the stature? perfect.
If you have time to watch the extras on the making of the Lord of the Rings... it's worth your time. Great insights into film making at its finest.
Yeah, the making of LOTR is a movie in and of itself. Very fascinating the level of detail that went into these movies.
There are some clips in the making of extras that tug at the heart strings as much as the actual movies ;-)
I would not mind a separate review for the whole trilogy.
As a geek aside, The Lord of the Rings is responsible for the role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons. It started as a set of medieval wargame rules that included a small section at the the back that contained rules for playing LotR battles. That eventually morphed into D&D which eventually led to role-playing games in a variety of genres. Still, Dungeons and Dragon is the most widely played of those games and still shows the huge influence of the LotR source material.
If you go back and watch the scene where the dam is broken and the Ents brace themselves against the flood you'll notice the one that is on fire dips his head in the water to put it out. It says a lot that they took the time to give every character their own small story/personalities.
Everything has significance in LotR. That horn of Helm Hammerhand that Gimli blew on the charge has an epic story behind it as well. A King whos best weapon was his bare hands. If you heard his horn blowing you knew you were probably going to die. Helm eventually died, but he literally never fell. They found him frozen where he stood while protecting his people.
As you're continuing to praise the CGI, I have to say that the battle scenes weren't animated traditionally, they gave each soldier a basic AI and they sought out and fought with an enemy on their own. They also gave every model a custom head to make them unique.
Monolith took inspiration from that aspect of the AI from the movies and implemented it in the Shadow of Mordor games as the Nemesis System. The procedurally generated Uruk leaders can actively hunt for you in that game. They learn your patterns and techniques every time they defeat you. When you come back to fight them, they will be much stronger, even harder to kill and use the patterns and techniques they've learned about you and use it to their advantage. That game is faithfully adapted from Tolkien's novels. It is such a great experience.
The musical cue when the Ents are going to war is a classic. It has been one of my favorite since I saw this in the theater.
I can safely say two towers is on a very short list of the greatest novels ever written. The film doesn't even end where the book does..as wonderful as the film is, they couldn't cram all of Two Towers into one part, and it spills into 'Return' The book is just that good. The Ent assault on Isengard had me searching for my jaw for a week...When Treebeard says, 'Many of these trees were my friends', he doesn't mean he's a fervent environmentalist, but he IS a tree-hugger. Ents often 'get sleepy' and revert to trees.
For Treebeard and his Ents, they were looking at The Killing Fields or The Final Solution. The full rage of the assault doesn't come across in the film, but its undeniable visual dynamite
This was an exciting climax, but we all know we're really just waiting for you to get to Return of the King.
Just discovered you recently. Your reviews are fantastic and your love and appreciation for filmmaking really shines through. You definitely earned my subscription!
I tear up at Theodin's monologue while getting suited up. "...They are lost, like rain on the mountainside." The kid having the helmet put on him. 😪😭
Since you asked about the horn:
It is very significant to Rohan. The fortress they are in is called Helm's Deep and is named after the great king of Rohan Helm Hammerhand. Called that because he killed his rival with a single slap of his hand. In the war that followed Rohan was on the brink of defeat and they were all trapped in that fortress. Helm became sort of mad because of hopelessnes. So he would go out alone at night and in the snow and sneal into the enemy camp qhere we would murder enemy soldiers with his bare hands. And everytime he did that he blew his mighty horn.
So that horn symbolizes Rohan's strength and their will to fight until death and it sets terror into their enemies' hearts.
Last one, I promise! :D I'm so happy to hear how you appreciate Faramir and his struggle. One of the most-heard bitches about this movie from book fans is how Faramir's arc was changed. In the book, he's an uber-Good Guy who refuses any contact with the Ring. He was really a self-insert on Tolkien's part (what fanfic writers call a Gary Stu), and though he's great on the page, he would not work AT ALL onscreen. PJ recognized that his airy refusal of the temptation would derail all the effort that had been placed on convincing the audience of the Ring's power, and so the character was changed to make him more realistic. I have no problem with what they did, especially since Wenham did such an empathetic job playing him. This is one of the ways I envy you getting to see this fresh.
P.S. About "lightning striking a third time". Remember that these are not sequels - the whole thing was filmed at once, as one story, and just split up into three "chapters". This is also how the book was written, as one volume. It only came out as three books because of post-wartime paper rationing in England, which forced the publishers to split up the story. So there was no split in the quality of the films because as PJ says, it's really just one massive film.
I'm glad you included the scene where Aragorn looks out the window and remembers Gandalf's words to look for his coming because.... that is the one small gripe I have with the film I mentioned yesterday. Putting it there, moments before Gandalf appearing on the ridge with the Rohirrim in tow, has struck me as a mistake because I feel it takes away from the surprise/impact that an engrossed audience would have felt with Gandalf's arrival because with all that had happened in the movie between Gandalf leaving and reappearing with the Rohirrim the audience would have forgotten the promise to arrival at dawn of the 5th day.
I don't know what I find more interesting and beautiful, your reactions or your reviews. Thank you.
Two Towers is my favorite. Apart from not having the grand finale feeling of Return of the King, it also doesn't have the minor flaws of 1 or the long endings(ofc) of 3. Plus I friggin love the march of the Ents... don't mess with nature
The song at the end, "Gollum's Song" is my favorite of all the music in all three movies.
It is fantastic. This movie has two good parts. The beginning with the Gandalf scene, and the end with Gollum scene & that song.
The rendition in the end credits, with vocals, I find very haunting.
It's terrific, but I don't know if it beats Enya and Annie Lennox. They are all three extraordinary. It think Enya's "May It Be" is my fave. I love hearing the Elvish lyrics. But to each his/her own.
@@dragon-ed1hz well...I am partial to the villains...so their is a bias to their songs. I own all three soundtracks and listened to them completely many times.
"Is it me or does this actor look like Sean Bean?" made me smile.
You have gotten to gotten to the heart of the tale when you said, "I think Sam might be the hero of the entire story."
Of course, Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf are the big three, but no one was more expected to be the hero of the age than Boromir. He was the eldest son of the Steward of Gondor. He received the best education possible. He was taught to lead.... and then did lead Gondor's forces to victory. He was fierce. He was in the public eye... even the men of Rohan praised Boromir for his martial qualities. He would lead this generation in battle and then command the next generation as commander in chief. But Boromir's success was derailed by his temptation to use the One Ring. On the other hand and against all odds, Sam got the job done. Sam was under educated, even for a Hobbit. He was a gardener. He was shy around girls. He fights with a frying pan. But his plain, stubborn, working class Hobbit sense allowed him to keep putting one step in front of the other (carrying Frodo and the Ring) all the way to Mount Doom without ever claiming the Ring for himself. Sam's desperate fight with Shelob defines the message of the story... fight the fight even if no one is watching to have total self respect and that will be preparation for everything else in life. Just as Sam literally pulled weeds and watered flowers every day, he metaphorically tore up his fears and nourished his courage every single day. I don't disparage Boromir, I pity him. I've failed before and I'll do so again. Boromir went down swinging. He did his utmost to make amends... giving up his life in the process. I'm just saying that Boromir knew about big fights... physical battle. It was the small psychological skirmishes that combined to tip him over the edge. Sam understood the daily drudgery of weeding... and Tolkien thinks that all of us can too... and that is what will make us successful. We don't need education, wealth, breeding, nor physical stature to choose to help out.
Great review Shan. To truly appreciate the films and the amount of work, planning and design that went into them, I would recommend watching the Appendices.
I can't express how much I anticipated this video! Oh man I love watching your adventure going through the Trilogy :)
Shan, thank you again for giving an actual review with new insight into the film. Most reviewers just repeat the same things over and over again. I can see your channel growing!! :)
Treebeards shout and the Ents March never fails to give me goosebumps!
Love your channel bro. :) Love introspective people in every field, including movie critiques.
@Shan : You'll have a blast watching the "making of" documentaries on the extra discs after you finished the Return of the King (... We'd love reaction viseos to those if you feel like it!)
Absolutely great reaction! Enjoyed it very much. Very astute observations!
Funny Aragorn gave order to hold fire in elvish assuming only an elf could have killed the orc
Or he was worried they might follow suit and fire without permission
So glad this is up so quick!
The Ents vs Isengard is my favorite confrontation of the movie. There is something in that so mesmerizing, and wholesome. They fight not for good vs evil, but for life itself and that's a beautiful message about ecology. Nature vs. Industry.
The "WEST" = Valinor "Undying Lands" are part of the world where Valar "mighty beings" who help to create the entire world live. It is the explanation for a long long time tho :) .It is perfectly all explained in the Silmarilion book - all about history. The Valar are angelic beings as Maiar. The Maiar have just lesser power and helping the Valar to create and maintain the world. There are many Maiar but you know some of them - Balrog, Saruman, Sauron, Gandalf... + one of the Aragorn´s ancestor ... That is why Gandalf is wandering about his name - it is not his name :) . His name is Olorin. Gandalf - "elf with a staff" is a name given to him by people of Middle Earth. Elfs are calling him Mithrandir :) . Tolkien created many more stories and information, but it is really better to read it :).
Return of the King has a lot of action and dark comedy!!! Personally The third installment is the best!! You wont be dissapointed! I have all three movies in the extended and it is worth watching them!! Stay safe!