Comments | bunn: Random thoughts on re-rewatching Return of the King

bunn

Random thoughts on re-rewatching Return of the King

Oct 18, 2011 20:00

1) My goodness the Rohirrim are hard. I mean, they are quite tough in the book, but here 6,000 Rohirrim go through the Armies of Sauron, including Oliphaunts, like a knife through butter. I think Rohirric horses may be closely related to rhinos. I don't care though. I love the charge of the Rohirrim at the battle of the Pelennor Fields in ( Read more... )

tolkien, films

Comments 44

huinare October 19 2011, 07:32:38 UTC

Point #3 amused me.

Sadly, I find it difficult to watch the films these days due to drastic character butchery cinematic license taken with many of my favorite characters. Fellowship is the only one I can sit through without swearing colorfully at it. A bit of a shame, since the music and aesthetics of the films still make me happy.

bunn October 19 2011, 08:04:26 UTC

Oh, I'm not too fussed. There were bound to be other sources with different views on the characters & alternative tellings to the Red Book of Westmarch, I'm just assuming they are working with some of those. :-)

The setting is very beautifully done, I can watch the films just for that. I've even got over the annoying maize field in Fellowship of the Ring and the fact that Rohan's soil looks thin and stony rather than rich and loamy, and the bad artificial leaves you can see occasionally around the Ents. I'm glad they replaced the petunias though. (Films seen through a gardener's eye are odd things :-D )

andrewducker October 19 2011, 08:38:37 UTC

Ooh - annoying maize field?

bunn October 19 2011, 10:14:49 UTC

Right at the start of their journey, Frodo and Sam are walking through a field of maize when Sam loses sight of Frodo - then Merry and Pippin appear through the maize running from Farmer Maggot ( ... )

Thread 15

ideserveyou October 20 2011, 21:42:53 UTC

Thank you for this - so funny, and I am sure you are right about the nightie!
I am a botanist in one of my other lives and hence also over-analyse plants in films. That maize field annoys the heck out of me as well.
Is there some horticultural explanation for what Bilbo is brewing in his teapot, then, too? I guess 'tea' can be made out of all sorts of things...

bunn October 20 2011, 23:09:10 UTC

Yay, *finally* someone else who noticed the maize!!!

I honestly cannot remember about the tea, but as you say, it could easily be brewed from some other herb rather than a camellia. ISTR that the pipe-weed is explicitly explained as well (not sure if that's appendices or Tolkien's 'letters' off the top of my head).

I don't really mind Tolkien messing about with European botany, but the maize in the films was so blatant! :-D