LOTR: Théoden’s sword-swinging moments

Cinematography is a special branch of filmmaking I hold very dear. The ability to convey a story visually, through the movement of a camera, the setting of a scene and the action of a character, is one of the most powerful tools of making a good film.

Army numbers in Middle-earth

(C) New Line Cinema

 

When reading accounts of battles and warfare, numbers are important. They help provide context and scale to the conflict, allowing readers to assess the situation in terms of balance in favour or against an ally or enemy. Which is why I have often found it somewhat baffling that Tolkien gives us so little information on army numbers in his Middle-earth stories.

Ioreth of Gondor

Making a brief appearance almost halfway into The Return of the King is the character of Ioreth; a woman from Lossarnach and one of the healers in the city of Minas Tirith. No matter the limited number of pages she is present in, she nevertheless maintains a memorable presence in the book.

The Problematic Climax of ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’

How Peter Jackson went places he proved he would never go

I have been a Peter Jackson apologist for a number of years: attempting to understand and explain to others certain decisions done by the filmmaker when adapting the Middle-earth stories tothe silver screen.

Never being a narrow-minded “Jacksonphile”, I tried – as much as possible – to understand his reasonings; but not always found myself in full agreement with the outcome of specific choices. However, I always accepted Jackson’s own thoughts behind the alterations he employed.

However, after viewing The Battle of the Five Armies, I have come to the conclusion that Peter Jackson has probably done some shocking errors of judgement in its third act; something I will undoubtedly find extremely difficult to accept why he made the choices that eventually ended up on the screen.

I can most certainly understand why, but I don’t think I’ll be able to agree or sympathise with those decisions.

Remembering Middle-earth Video Games

I confess that I am somewhat of a keen gamer. Not that I’m your typical expert, but I do my best to keep up with the latest releases (just reading about them rather than playing them, unfortunately).

However, I wanted to dedicate a quick post to two games based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy that have remained a personal classic.

No LOTRO here or the brand new Shadow of Mordor … I’m talking about The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (video game) and The Battle for Middle-earth II.

The Gaffer’s Elite! Battles

Ranking All Things Middle-earth

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the story is everything. But what adds to the beauty of experiencing it, is witnessing the breathtaking conflict that takes place throughout the narratives. In this second installment of “The Gaffer’s Elite” series, I’ll be attempting the daunting task of classifying my most favourite confrontations from the Middle-earth films.

For last week’s post, see ‘Soundtracks’.  

The Greatest or Most Decisive?: The Battle of Five Armies vs The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

Following in the trails of my recent article on The Battle of Five Armies (here) and the ongoing online discussion on whether ‘There And Back Again’ should portray the battle as either greater or smaller than the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, I have decided to give my two cents on the matter …