Directors TTT: "The battle for Helm's Deep is over..." (1 Viewer)

The battle my be over, but how do YOU feel about? It may surprise many of you (or at least those unfamiliar with the original book) that the Battle for Helm's Deep was not originally won by Gandalf turning up with the Rohirrim - no sir! The tide was turned when a great big forest turned up behind the orcs and proceeded to kick their ugly hides!

Yep, you read right! A bunch of Ents turned up in the middle of the night and slowly devoured the orcs (much to the shock of everyone at Helm's Deep!) and then disappeared again. Sounds cool, huh? Well maybe, maybe no. Peter Jackson didn't seem to think so when he changed one of the most memorable moments from the book for his film.

Question is: How does the cinema going public (ie YOU) feel about it?

1] "Are you kidding me?? Seeing those cool trees kick some orc butt would have been cool!"

2] "Nah, I didn't like those trees so much, a bit too fantasy for my tastes, glad they changed it."

3] "That's interesting and all, but I really don't care one way or another."

Tolkien got the idea from MacBeth (when the witches foresaw that MacBeth would only be destroyed when "the Great Birnam Wood marched upon him"). Obviously MacBeth thought he was pretty safe (whoever saw a marching wood?!?), but one day he looks out and to his dread sees the forest coming towards him! ... Of course in MacBeth it turns out that he was seeing a HUMAN army carrying branches from the forest (as camouflage), but Tolkien always felt cheated that it wasn't really a forest coming for him, so he added that moment to The Two Towers instead... (I think he probably would have liked to have seen it realized in film! )

Thanks for your time!

~ John

1, 3 (because we'll always have the books), and

4. I won't be able to judge his decisions fairly until I see the added footage on the DVD, and Return of the King. Peter did what he did for a reason. I trust him completely.

3, I didnt mind at all really only thing is I wish we could have seen Gandalf charging in with his sword Glamdring instead of his staff but no biggie.

2

When I saw the movie, it had been a long time since I had read the books, and I really didn't recall the significance of the Ents in the story. My reaction to their presence in the film was pretty neutral, but overall I felt like their "storyline" was the weakest of the three major arcs of the film, and could have easily been condensed to a couple of scenes. Cutting back and forth to them really disrupted the flow for me.

You didn't ask, but Aragorn's disappearing act in the film was kinda interesting to me, as it opened up the flashback/dream sequence in an elegant way. The Faramir thing was completely non-sensical to me: I didn't remember him from the books, and I didn't really follow his actions in the film--seemed like a sub-par clone of Boromir.

Stepping behind flame-retardant screen...

I was annoyed by the changes PJ made in TTT, and the Ents arriving at Helm's Deep was a big one. But it doesn't keep me up at night or anything. Still a great movie.

#1 Ents rule and he better not #$%$%$ with the Woses and Ghan-Buri-Ghan.

Your description of MacBeth reminds me of Kurosawa's masterful realization of same in Throne of Blood coming next month from Criterion.

So that's:

1] |||| 40% (2)

2] | 10% (1)

3] |||| 40% (2)

I'm really interested to hear what people think about this, especially those who haven't read the books!

~ John