LOTR: The Peter Jackson Movie

[BarbaraN]

I've only watched the Making of the Movie extras for LotR, But one of the reasons the scenes might make you feel you are there is because they really filmed them there rather than computerizing people into scenery footage (though in some cases they had to do that as well). They would fly the actors, crew and equipment to the tops of snow capped mountains in helicopters. The flights were apparently very scary. The actor playing Boromir (and I'm going to have to get a cast list) refused to go up in a helicopter after the first time. So he took the ski lift as far as he could and spent three hours every morning of shooting actually climbing up the mountain on foot to get to the location shoot. It was there (all sweaty and exhausted) that he did his most significant scene in the movie (but it was not in the book) of picking up the dropped Ring and holding it up and looking at it saying it was such a small thing before returning it to Frodo.

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oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:

TiggerBear ---

I'm glad I didn't come right out and flatly state that Sean Bean played Sam!

I am quite curious to see this extended version ( and to see what was added ) but that might be a bit tricky for us - ( you see, we get all our DVDs at the Public Library here, and never from the rental places - and I haven't seen anything but the old "Theatrical Version" available at the library )...

I'd like to mention to xgeoff, also, that scene with the lighting of the Beacons was one of my favorites in the movie, as well - just about all of those "sweeping, panoramic" scenes ( especially around about Rohan and

in the vicinity of the White Mountains ) were parts of the movie that I really enjoyed - and ones that gave me that feeling of "being there" ... And, for some reason, in spite of the all the flashy ( almost "Kung-fu like" ) swordplay and "Super-Heroic" hand-to-hand combat in the vicinty of Parth Galen ( like, with Aragorn and the Uruk-Hai ) I really felt like I was "there" in that instance as well -

I'm not sure why - the setting just had the right "feel" to me, I guess...

( or perhaps because it reminded me of someplace I had been at before, in real life... )

Ardo

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[oldBPLstackden…]

Actually, I wasn't thinking so much of the scenes that the actors were actually acting in ( like the mountainside location you described ) as much as the "flying overhead and taking in all the horizons" scenes.

 ( which I assume must have been accomplished in actuality by means of helicopters )...

I can very much empathize with the actor who played Boromir ( TiggerBear informs us that was

 Sean Bean ) - I have a solid fear of flying myself - I have never even been in a helicopter, let alone an airplane. Although, in his case, I assume it was ( specifically ) flying up into the mountainsides in the helicopter  that spooked him. If I had been in his place, I would have done exactly waht he wound up doing - going up in the ski lift, and climbing for three hours - rather than go up in that helicopter!

It's a little bit ironic, since the character of Boromir is supposed to be that of a brave, fearless man.

( on the other hand, Boromir always does his brave deeds while his feet are planted firmly on the ground. )---

One of the panaromic, sweeping scenes that got left out of the movie, and that I missed seeing, ( perhaps this was added to the extended version? ) was the one where Frodo, wearing the Ring, ascends to the summit of Amon Hen, and in almost a kind of "vision" ( or at least, "aided" by the Ring - where it gives him a kind of "Super-Sight" ) he sees all around the neighborhood - The Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, Rohan, Isengard, Minas Tirith, even the great delta, Far Harad, and finally, his eyes are drawn to Mordor.

At first, he just sees all the places  themselves - but then he becomes aware that everywhere there are signs of war - all the armies on the move ( at least, all the armies of the forces of Darkness ) and that there are signs of destuction and turmoil all around...

It would have made one fantastic scene, if it could have been put together in the right way.

Ardo 

[lorien]

For those of you without the extended edition, I think these video clips fill in some of the missing pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=LOTR+Extended+Edition&search_type=

There are several pages of clips.

[oldBPLstackden…]

And Now, Good Evening, lorien ( and Everybody, of course ) ---

**** SPOILERS INVOLVED ( I THINK )****

Thanks for the link. I didn't try to actually view the clips, but I read the "blurbs" that came with each one.

 A few things sounded a bit odd - ( having to do partly with translations from whatever that language was

(  Finnish? Slavic? ) - but one particularly odd note was that: "Gandalf bewitching boromir at the rivendell" ---Anyway, I was gratified to see there are more scenes involving Merry and Pippin and the Ents, especially the hobbits partaking of the "Ent Water" - which I think is referred to in LOTR as "Ent  Draughts" ( maybe - don't quote me on that! ) --- and more scenes around about Isengard.---

I see there is also the scene where Sauron appears in the Palantir. I have often wondered ( when considering if a movie version was ever to be made ) how  ( or even IF ) that particular scene should be accomplished. It seems to me that, no matter how evil, hideous or foul or menacing you could make an

"embodiment" of Sauron, it might not quite match people's imaginations of the way they pictured him being.

The opening scenes, where there is that flashback to the Alliance of Men and Elves, and the overthrow of Sauron, where Sauron is all clad in his dark armor, is OK - because you can't see

 what he might actually look like under all that stuff. It would seem, too, that as time went on, he had lost more and more of his physical body, and probably become more just an evil "spirit" or "conciousness" - at any rate, that was my assumption ... when I was first reading the stories, I always had an extremely vague and amorphous idea of what Sauron might actually "look like" - and the scene where Pippin looks into the Palantir - well - it seemed like in order to represent that scene, you would either have to show Sauron approaching, coming closer into view, and coming across with the aura of sheer hypnotic terror - the ability to mentally torture who was ever on the recieving end of that "phone-a-vision" --- Or, you could just show Pippin's face, lit up by the light from the Palantir, and his accelerating horrified reaction. ---

I'm also glad to see there is a scene where Aragorn looks into the Palantir, in order to "reveal himself" to Sauron - that was an important part of the story that got left out in the "Theatrical Version" ... 

I'm also glad to see an inclusion of a "Houses of Healing" scene. ( more stuff that felt like it was "missing" from the standard version ) ---   Ardo 

[oldBPLstackden…]

A Very Early Good Morning To All ---

This is a posting of no great weightiness.

 It just concerns Dominic Monaghan, the actor who portrayed Merry in the LOTR films.

When My wife and I together were watching the films on DVDs - I kept thinking that I recognized "that actor" who was playing Merry. For some reason. I kept thinking that I'd seen him before in some silly "Teen" comedies ( and only then in passing ) ---

But, that wasn't the case at all.

It finally dawned on me ( only eventually ) that he had been "Jeremy" from

"Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" - the lighthearted, yet also sometimes somewhat serious "Mystery!" show from Britain -

 which starred Patricia Routledge ( of "Keeping Up Appearances" fame ) and which ran for a few seasons several years back. ( and which I had often watched afterwards in "repeats" on a local PBS station ) ---

My wife and I were quite fond of that show, and we already "knew and loved"

Mr. Monaghan as "Jeremy". ---

I'm happy for his success in the Peter Jackson films and wish him luck in his future career.

Ardo Whortleberry

[TiggerBear]

Ardo
he's done a bit of british TV too