I feel like the "Legolas problem" stems from wanting every single character to have development that maybe they don't need. Legolas is almost 3k years old, i'm sure he's had enough character development by the moment it all takes place, and his little change of heart with Gimli is all that we need, so we can focus on other great more important character in the story.
Correct. He and Gimli are side characters despite being in the fellowship. Frodo, Sam and Aragorn have the biggest arcs, next would be Merry and Pippin, then Boromir, then Gandalf, then Gimli and Legolas. At least in my opinion.
Agreed. If focus on giving him more, could risk of doing to much and thus hurting the pacing and quality of film. Him having the simple development of creating a bond with Gimli is adequate.
My wife watched LOTR for the first time during COVID. She absolutely fell in love with it. That a 20+ year old trilogy can do that is testament to Tolkien’s writing and Jackson’s talent in adapting it.
I dislike the fact that the ghost army wiped out Minas Tirith. It underminds the victory of the Rohan army, making it seem like the ghost army saved them. It also didn't happen in the book. Gimli was also made to be a quip machine.
@@TimoFromNorway Okay, so maybe I can accept the ghost army point. But still, small quip about an otherwise phenomenal cinematic series. I enjoyed Gimli's role. He was always perfectly timed comedic relief, which those movies needed with the heavy themes and plot that was always going on.
What Liv Tyler said about Arwen, about how she realized the character doesn’t need a sword to be strong, made me immediately think of how the ROP portrayal of Galadriel as a “warrior princess”.
*Apocryphal Blight* 😂😂😂 2001: Arwen gets a speaking role 2024: Galadriel is Xena Warrior Princess Liv Tyler saying”You don’t have to put a sword in her hand to make her strong”. How far we have tumbled into the nameless horrors of the world 😤
@@alecross5255 Nah the Rings of Power is terrible and completely ruined Galadriel yet alone every other character in the show. That outcry is justified.
@@Annatar_Lord_of_Giftsexactly even if you ignore Galadriel ROP completely doesn't work and falls apart on its own because it's simply not very entertaining. It's boring. The Galadriel stuff was early anti-woke jitters. A show, though not in line with the lore and basically fanfiction, with warrior Galadriel has the potential to be entertaining. ROP was not.
I love how people call The Lord of the Rings the "Star Wars" of our Generation. No, they have it backwards. Star Wars was the "Lord of the Rings" of theirs. There is absolutely no comparison in the depth of the characters, races, legends and lore that Tolkien poured into this story. It seems like actual history not fantasy. It's impossible and fascinating to imagine any actors being anyone else than they came to be, especially LOTR. Vigo actually had never used a sword before this. One of his first scenes happened to be the sword fight on Weathertop. Lows of the Rings? What are those?
LOTR is not the Star Wars of the 2000s, nor was Star Wars the LOTR of the 70s... That's a post-Hobbit interpretation that is supported by literally nothing, neither the context of the movies's pre-production and filming which is different, nor by the movies's themes, tone or structure... Star Wars works as a space opera, a mashup of genres and varied cultural archetypes of heroes and villains, which allows the main thesis of Lucas's worldbuilding, which is derived from Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth, to come through... In short, it's purposefully simple in its execution and themes, but elaborate in its visual worldbuilding which aims for something tonally very complex, a little shakespearian in the way it sometimes juxtaposes the eccentric (R2 and D2 being like secondary comic relief characters in a shakespearian play reacting to the main plot) and the highbrow with the more serious scenes that involve Jedi lore... LOTR is a novelistic work of fiction which is not trying to blend a lot of genres together to conjure up its mythical implications... It's pretty much a classical epic poem in the tone of The Iliad or Beowulf, and its more modern touches lie mainly in the novelistic structure which owes quite a bit to 19th century adventure novels, like Ivanhoe or the Three Musketeers, which are still examples of epic literature, with slightly more emphasis on character development... It's thoroughly highbrow epic fantasy from start to finish... Star Wars is a saga about stories and myths. The Lord of the Rings is a mythological story.
Viggo Mortensen wasn't a trained swordsman nor was he familiar with Tolkien's work. His son Henry knew enough of LOTR and convinced his dad to take the part. Mortensen read LOTR Trilogy while on the plane to New Zealand. In short, he arrived pretty much clueless and his first shoot was the swordfight on Weathertop. His trainer later said that in his career of training sword fighting, Mortensen was the best swordsman he trained and the fastest learner he had ever known. Mortensen stayed in character as much as he could and took his (extremely sharp) sword everywhere with him He was stopped on the street in Wellington while still in Aragorn's more seedy costume because he was carrying his sword and practising his fighting as he walked. The police thought he looked dangerous and arrested him. Indeed, by the end of two years, he considered that sword as his entry into the character of Aragorn. After this piece of narration, I found another video to watch. If one represents oneself as an expert enough to make a video giving information, you have to be an expert or you can simply make yourself look stupid.
I came here to say almost word for word the first part of your post. They even talk about it all in the BTS clips on the DVDs, and it's all well known lore after all these years.
I will also add. What the video talks about is how Viggo was familiar with a lot of Norse Viking sages. Tolkien took heavy inspiration from those. He was also familiar with other source material that Tolkien referenced for Lord of the Rings. Not the books themselves.
i fully agree with you until you talk about him looking stupid, this is a truly excellent video with some minor errors, i would like to see you write and edit a video essay to this standard you twat
Agreed. His simple character development is fine with his relationship with gimli. He does not need something big that could take away the focus. And also I felt his acting was not that bad. I look at ROP series and Arondir never changes his voice and face.
One of the things that bothered me was Gimli’s eventual relegation to a comedy sidekick character. The first movie got Gimli spot on and we learn a lot about the dwarves through his emotional moments in that movie. After Fellowship he’s just there to provide comedy relief.
Well , when you watch LOTR with a young person, they love Gimli's character, it brings some lights moments in otherwise a very dark and desperate story ! As a fan of the books I didn't like it at first, but now I totally defend him, it makes lots of sense for a movie that need to have a wide appeal. Also he's warm and honest and brave as dwarves should be !
Viggo knew nothing about LOTR…his son had to convince him to take it by telling him how good the story was. Wasn’t til after he got the job that he read the books.
I watched the original trilogy for the first time 2 years ago. I’ve never been the same since. The Jackson trilogy is incredible and will likely stand the test of time for hundreds of years
As time passed, I have grown to appreciate Orlando's Legolas (in the original trilogy at least). Since he didn't have a lot of dialogue, I think it shows that he did put a lot of thought and effort in his physical performance. He nailed being a Tolkien elf, approachable and present but there's a certain aloofness to him. It makes me think a lot of Finrod in The Silmarillion. In fact, his is my favorite elven performance now, with Cate Blanchett and Marton Csokas as Galadriel and Celeborn coming in second. Also, Frodo IS the chief hero. That should have been clear as early as when he decided to set out from Bag End to bring the Ring to Rivendell. Tolkien talks about this, and while I don't agree with a lot of the decisions PJ and co. made with Frodo's character, I still think they did good in conveying just how incredible Frodo's heroism is. Letter 246 tells us Tolkien thought quite the opposite. Sam might be the most heroic character, but the main hero has always been Frodo. You need to take into account Frodo's arc and its importance to the overall story compared to Sam's arc. It's a bit of a revisionist idea to say Sam is the real hero, and I blame the movies for that. Lastly, "the chief hero" Tolkien is referring to is Aragorn, not Sam. You need to consider what comes before that sentence to understand the actual context. That quote is comparing Sam's rustic, simple love to Aragorn's grand and noble romance. That's not to say Sam wasn't one of the chief heroes, because he is, it's just that that quote was used incorrectly and does not actually support the argument.
I think Legolas adds much more than given credit for. He was Aragorn’s most trusted member of the fellowship. The Gimli relationship was much more developed in the books for sure , but it was also important in the movie. Galadriel helped build that friendship. Gimli and Legolas in the movies is key to a lot of interactions with others.
Definitely not a low, it’s a good watch… It’s a different trilogy and wasn’t even PJ’s fault in the first place, who was roped in at the last minute and had to go ahead with Del Toro’s additions and vision, due to the lack of time for pre-production work…The studio insisted on making a trilogy out of a single book for profits, against PJ’s wishes…
I always feel heartbroken when those credits roll for Return of The King. Even though I’ve watched through the trilogy well over 2 dozen times, it always feels like I just completed a lifelong journey with my best friends that I’ll never see again. No other movies have come close to evoking such emotion from me.
For me the big low point was when the Hobbits arrived home to a Shire just how they left it. I was so disappointed with the omission of the scouring of the Shire.
@@jenniedarling3710 I'm okay with this though because we'd just journeyed through so many hardships and emotions. Nothing will top the calming, peaceful presence in my heart when they return to the Shire in the end. It helped create the beautiful ending that we got. If they'd returned home to a scoured Shire, it would've been brutal and wouldn't have fit the ending Peter was going for.
I feel like Legolas was NOT confirming his kills. He just shoots an arrow & assumes its a kill & moves on. Gimli was making sure the bodies stopped moving before he counted.
I didn't have time to watch the whole thing and came across it by accident, but I enjoyed what I did see of this docu and learnt a lot of things I am glad I now know. Thank you.
No, Virgo didn’t know almost anything about LOTR before he accepted the part, on the insistence of his son, who told him to do it. Viggo started reading the books on the plane flight down to NZ.
to touch on the "Aragorn was 87 years old" thing, Aragorn was also a Dunedain. they were blessed with long life to live 3 times that of a normal man. Aragorn at 87 is basically only half way there
The weird thing about cutting Christopher Lee from the Isengard scene is that this is the only time his character was Meant to appear. (Outside of the 'Scouring' storyline which everyone accepts is too much for films). There were two films of Jackson-invented dialogue and scenes for Saruman and Christopher Lee was a life-long fan off the novels, - to cut his only scene where he actually acted a scene from Tolkien's novel may have cut harder into him than people realise.
Another comment for you about Iarwain ben-Adar, in common speech, Tom Bombadil, it is said in the appendices of The Fall of Gondolin that Iarwain was the eldest and fatherless, that he was older than the Ents (Treebeard states this in the book version of Two Towers). Even they didn't know where he came from. My personal take on Ol' Tom is that he's meant to be an enigma as with so many of Tolkien's characters. Many of Prof. Tolkien's works were scribbled on bits of paper or are contained in letters to his editor. Christopher Tolkien later went through hs father's enormous volume of writings of Middle-earth and states in the prologue to The Fall of Gondolin that many of his father's character's names and stories changed through the years starting in the trenches of The Somme in WW1 and extending into the 1950's until his death. Organizing JRR's work was his son's life's work and it was might indeed. He lived well past his 90th birthday, respectable even for a hobbit. Those works are now considered canon though some of the books compiled by Christopher were edited by using the scraps and names plus stories that changed with time. Ol' Tom was one such character and therefore there is no set role or place for him other than in The Old Forest on the borders of Buckland. Read the Fellowship of the Ring and you'll get as good a description of who and what he is simply from his conversations with the four hobbits and Tolkien's descriptions of him and his behaviour. We know he could speak with animals and only the very wise can do so. His Lady Golberry is his only care, and for her, he cares very well. The feared and terrible Barrow-wights fled at Tom's approach, so we know he represented "good" vs. "evil". He can speak with trees and with water lilies and every living creature of Middle-earth. My guess is that he was created by Eru as a template for his further creations, at least I'd like to think so. He is perhaps the forebearer to the Beornings who share many skills and talents with Tom, but who knows? Who is he to you? That's what's truly important in a work of fiction such as this. It is the cord strung within that matters in legendary fiction and has no other or greater, which is considerable IMHO, purpose. How does Arwen's tragic story make you feel? Do you identify with her choices? And what about her grandmother Galadriel? I for one would never have been able to make the choices with which she is confronted, but then, to paraphrase Mithrandir in Fellowship, "That's not for us to decide. All we have decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." And isn't that the real lesson?
@ 4:05 in the behind the scenes making of, Peter Jackson said Viggo didn't have sword training experience before actually, that's one of the reasons Viggo took his sword with him everywhere and practiced tons. His first main scene to shoot was the big fight against the nazgul at Weathertop, so big fight scene. Viggo also wasn't super familiar with the books, having not read them prior to taking the role (obviously all the cast read a studied after getting the part, copies of the books were always around set). He knew of them, but it was his son, a big fan, who convinced him to take the role. Townsend was removed for a number of reasons, one his passion wasn't there as you mentioned nor his work ethic AND they wanted a more mature look for Aragorn, Peter Jackson only realised the later after the first day of shooting and seeing it I believe. I highly recommend the Making Of The Lord of the Rings!! It's on TH-cam somewhere too I believe. Only slight inaccuracy that I noticed.
That's fair. I watched the first two films when they came out, and then read the books to know what happens next. I was so eager to see Denethor's battle strategy unfold, and Imrahil's Swan knights and the sons of Elrond go to war with the grey company, and the relentless march to the black gates, - the last army of men, constantly harassed by enemy skirmishes and Nazgul, going to their doom like marching into hell itself. All cut. If you don't know, you don't know. The films are still good in their own right, but there's so much more than 'Bombadil' that they cut.
I don't know if others have said this yet or not: but Tolkien originally wrote the Lord of the Rings as 6 books, not one. It was always intended to be six smaller books, which is VERY clear when you read the books.
@@Dartagnan88 Have you not read the books? This comment is in reference to the video saying Tolkien meant for it to be published as a single volume, which is not factually accurate. He meant for them to be six smaller novels. In the books they are clearly marked as such.
@@jenniedarling3710that would be absolutely wild! Especially with how half the cast would have full films off. And Aragorn would have no character arc other than “I’m ready to be King of Gondor” and the slow march to that throne. No elves at Helm’s Deep. Fellowship would have been an insane two movies! So good!
One correction: Bolg is actually in the Hobbit. He’s the leader of the Goblin army avenging their king’s death at the Battle of Five Armies. Azog is only a part of the original Goblin Wars from the LoTR appendices
My God I'm so glad I never went to go see this movie with a guy like you cuz the fire agreed with you instead of this being one of the most favorite movies I've ever seen in my life It would have been a total and complete bummer Minute 21 and everything you're saying about Legolas as far as I'm concerned his character was perfect not having to change he was a guy of action who let his skill speak for him not his mouth I'm glad he wasn't some kind of jokester I'm glad he was stoic in his character but mighty in his skill and ability That's what makes him so cool but that goes right over your head doesn't it!
Bolg was actually one of the main antagonists in the book. He’s killed by Beorn in the battle of the five armies. It’s his father, Azog, who was in the movie but not in the book.
"The rustic love between Sam and Rosie (nowhere elaborated)" Um. unless you count the family trees in the appendices, which note they married 1 May, 1420 (Shire-Reckoning). They go on to note Elanor "the Fair" (born 24 March 1421, SR), Frodo (b. 1423), Rose (b. 1425), Merry (b. 1427), Pippin (b. 1429), Goldilocks (b. 1431), Hamfast (b. 1432), Daisy (b. 1433), Primrose (b. 1435), Bilbo (b. 1436), Ruby (b. 1438), Robin (b. 1440), and Tolman (b. 1442). "Rustic" is one way you could put it, I suppose. "Go Sam!" is another, and "Wow, Rosie, congratulations!".
When I first saw the theatrical cut of The Two Towers, I was very disappointed that the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman was not in the movie. I think it's one of the iconic parts of the book. It gives me chills every time I read it. Without the confrontation, that scene feels like it just cuts off before they are done. Omitting that was as bad as Jackson's portrayal of Gandalf meeting the Witch King when he rides into Minas Tirith. Jackson's Gandalf is a wimp who had his staff broken, and that's not what happened in the book, which is covered in another iconic passage. Gandalf was considerably more powerful than the Witch King. Aragorn fought him off, along with four other Nazgul, with a sword and a torch. The idea that he could just have his way with Gandalf is absurd. "In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face. All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen. "You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!" The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. "Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade. Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”
I love the movies more than anything largely because eod the performances, and no criticism I have for them will change that. But it’s super weird that they took Legolas and Gimli and pretty much swapped their personalities.
11:25 as a kid seeing this in the theater I thought the reason why there was a gap was because Lego uses his bow to shoot an orc, and I thought that was odd even then
It BLOWS my mind that Townsend didnt want to learn to ride horses! Unless you're an actor, the amount of money it costs to learn how to straight haul ass on a horse prevents a lot of people from being able to do it! Its something I've ALWAYS wanted to do and hearing about someone completely dismissing it, is unthinkable to me
I'm back again. What is it about this film, and book of course. I read the book a long time ago, in fact I can say the book was responsible for honing my bad reading ability at the time. But this tale just seems to be full of everything we need in the days that are coming, I sense that we will cling to the things that lift our spirit in the times to come;. I bet Tolkien never foresaw how important his work would be in the future, possibly playing an important role in keeping hope alive and keeping the belief that there are things worth fighting for.
Sam is absolutely the best character! I say that every time I watch the movies! Sean Astin does an amazing job with the role but he truly is the hero in the story!
I'd agree that Sam is the main character at the end of the story, but when it comes to the books, not from the start. It's obvious that the main character in Fellowship and even a good portion of The Two Towers is Frodo. Not only is the story told mainly from his point of view, but he also has most of the agency in the story. Ithilian could be split between them. Frodo still has the most agency there, but from Shelob on, Sam has taken over the main character slot. But no, Sam is not the main character (hero) for the entire story. I don't disagree that cutting Tom Bombadil from the story was inevitable, I disagree with your conclusions as to why. I think the cut had to be there because of time and time alone. (Same for the Scouring of the Shire). I also think that Sam's "third point of view" and Tom's "third point of view" are very different. That said, the thing I think should NOT have been cut is the Barrow Downs events. PJ could have made it the Hobbits themselves getting out of the Barrow Downs, but they really should have been able to get their knives from former Arnor. That's the whole reason why Merry was able to stab the Witch King. His dagger was specifically made by craftsmen of Arnor to break the Witch King's spell. I think that part should have been included.
It's not that people from middle earth age slower, Aragorn is a descendant of the Numenorians. They were tall af and lived longer lives than normal humans. They were favored people by Aluvitar until they betrayed him
Actually they could have given Legolas and Gimli more time together...bc the friending of a dwarf, to the point of Gimli being allowed to go into the West. That really is the core of his relationship process. It really is the issue of Bloom's performance. And I wonder if that caused Jackson to do less with him.
we all now know, veggo is forever the perfect casting as aragorn. but imagine russell crow as aragorn. first as maximus and the aragorn, he would've had the most legendary career.
Y'all Legolas is good in the movie. Stop nit-picking. You can obviously see the emotions in him at the right times, you can see the respect he has for Aragorn, you can see the friendship between him and Gimli grow. Sure Orlando Bloom isn't the best actor. But don't be a d*ck. Even a child can see Legolas' emotions and relationship changes. Being able to see this on screen with the little dialogue and scenes he has, is very skillful on the whole team's part.
I love hearing stories about a terrible casting decision by the studio, the actor being a diva, the rest of the cast blowing up, then the studio basically saying... "fine, here's your perfect actor... Well pay big money for them"
While I respect that they kept Arwen out of the Fellowship to honour Tolkien's work as it was written, I wish Tolkien himself had written that Arwen had gone with them, or reunited at some later point. I know the elves didn't fight at Helms Deep in the books, but something like that would have been an ideal time to bring Arwen back in. Perhaps if Tolkien had had her reunite with Gandalf on the road to find Eomer and the Rohirrim.
Had they added Arwen into Helms Deep they would have lost the importance of the trio's adventure and bonding that happens in the second film. In the way the JJ Abram's Star Trek films tacked Uhura into the Kirk/Spock/Bones trio. It is a failure to understand what those trios represent and importance of friendship and male camaderie. I'd also add, you can deepen your love from distance. Tolkien went 2 years without seeing his wife during the Great War. While I hated Liv Tyler's portrayal of Arwen, showing the dreams and her struggle praying for him in Rivendell actually worked. Thankfully Jackson made the change.
I wouldn’t say Haldirs death is useless. They establish he and Aragorn as friends in the fellowship of the ring and it makes a little sense that if lady Galadriel was going to send anyone to the aid of Aragorn haldir would volunteer. Arwen being there would’ve been way to on the nose and while I think the movies improve on her character her and Aragorn being separated for most of the movies only shows the strength of their love as he denies Eowyns advances despite at the time thinking Arwen would be leaving middle earth anyway. It’s a difficult puzzle I know but Tolkien wasn’t sexist he came from a time where it was VERY taboo to send a woman to war and rightly so not because of their inability but because of men’s desire to protect them. It makes eowyn stand out all the more where it would’ve overshadowed her if Arwen was there.
Legolas was there to make the 14 year olds in the audience think it was hype when he did "cool stuff". There's nothing really wrong with this in a big cinema release. It is what it is.
You lost me the moment you said Sam is THE hero. I'm sorry, what? Frodo WILLINGLY sacrificed mentally emotionally and physically to carry that ring. Nobody asked him to. he volunteered. He was being drug through the mud the entire time, never giving up and always determined. And we know that no one else would have been capable. He only didn't drop the ring at the end because the power of the ring in its birth place is so strong that NO ONE would be able to willingly drop it. Not even Sam. Did he need help and support along the way? Absolutely. Is Sam A hero? Definitely. But shoving Frodo aside like so many people do these days shows a great lack of understanding of his sacrifice.
Is it bad that I don't have any lows for LOTR, it's legit one of the most perfect trilogy of films ever made and I never get tired of revisiting them, The Hobbit however is a different story entirely 😂
What I learned is that Stuart Townsend, despite failing miserably to star in one of the greatest trilogies ever, is still winning bigtime in life by marrying Charlize Theron. You bow to no one, sir.
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I feel like the "Legolas problem" stems from wanting every single character to have development that maybe they don't need. Legolas is almost 3k years old, i'm sure he's had enough character development by the moment it all takes place, and his little change of heart with Gimli is all that we need, so we can focus on other great more important character in the story.
Perfectly said. I’m thrilled with how Legolas is handled. Great character and he was done justice.
Correct. He and Gimli are side characters despite being in the fellowship. Frodo, Sam and Aragorn have the biggest arcs, next would be Merry and Pippin, then Boromir, then Gandalf, then Gimli and Legolas. At least in my opinion.
good point!
Agreed. If focus on giving him more, could risk of doing to much and thus hurting the pacing and quality of film. Him having the simple development of creating a bond with Gimli is adequate.
Agree. Legolas was already fully developed & very important to Aragorn. He was Aragorn's Sam in a way.
The fact that people are still nit-picking LOTR twenty plus years after its release just goes to show how much lasting quality it has.
My wife watched LOTR for the first time during COVID. She absolutely fell in love with it. That a 20+ year old trilogy can do that is testament to Tolkien’s writing and Jackson’s talent in adapting it.
"Theyre taking the hobbits to isengard!" Will never not trigger music in my head
I fully expected a freeze frame with sunglasses and a blunt dropping in.
... To Isengard... to Isengard!
The only "low" was that the films had to end
Absolutely. There’s zero lows of these movies and I refuse to hear anything otherwise. Lol
I dislike the fact that the ghost army wiped out Minas Tirith. It underminds the victory of the Rohan army, making it seem like the ghost army saved them. It also didn't happen in the book.
Gimli was also made to be a quip machine.
@@TimoFromNorway Okay, so maybe I can accept the ghost army point. But still, small quip about an otherwise phenomenal cinematic series.
I enjoyed Gimli's role. He was always perfectly timed comedic relief, which those movies needed with the heavy themes and plot that was always going on.
The "low" was how many times the films ended.
@@funkydiscogod It's all in how you watch them. There's only one ending to the whole trilogy.
Remember we need to thank Viggo's son for being a massive LOTR fan and that persuaded him to take the role.
Will I watch every dang analysis video of the LOTR despite knowing a lot about them? Definitely!
Nothing absolutely NOTHING will top the Lord of the Rings, the three movies are perfect and will always be the greatest movies of all time.
What Liv Tyler said about Arwen, about how she realized the character doesn’t need a sword to be strong, made me immediately think of how the ROP portrayal of Galadriel as a “warrior princess”.
*Apocryphal Blight* 😂😂😂
2001: Arwen gets a speaking role
2024: Galadriel is Xena Warrior Princess
Liv Tyler saying”You don’t have to put a sword in her hand to make her strong”.
How far we have tumbled into the nameless horrors of the world 😤
Also interesting how the outcry was their in 20 years ago for Arwen's inclusion, and continues into the Ring of Power. People need to chill
True
@@alecross5255 Nah the Rings of Power is terrible and completely ruined Galadriel yet alone every other character in the show. That outcry is justified.
@@Annatar_Lord_of_Giftsexactly even if you ignore Galadriel ROP completely doesn't work and falls apart on its own because it's simply not very entertaining. It's boring. The Galadriel stuff was early anti-woke jitters. A show, though not in line with the lore and basically fanfiction, with warrior Galadriel has the potential to be entertaining. ROP was not.
To be fair, Galadrrrrrriel isn't the "low" in the Amazon's series. The character and actress are awesome.
I love how people call The Lord of the Rings the "Star Wars" of our Generation. No, they have it backwards. Star Wars was the "Lord of the Rings" of theirs. There is absolutely no comparison in the depth of the characters, races, legends and lore that Tolkien poured into this story. It seems like actual history not fantasy. It's impossible and fascinating to imagine any actors being anyone else than they came to be, especially LOTR. Vigo actually had never used a sword before this. One of his first scenes happened to be the sword fight on Weathertop. Lows of the Rings? What are those?
LOTR is not the Star Wars of the 2000s, nor was Star Wars the LOTR of the 70s... That's a post-Hobbit interpretation that is supported by literally nothing, neither the context of the movies's pre-production and filming which is different, nor by the movies's themes, tone or structure...
Star Wars works as a space opera, a mashup of genres and varied cultural archetypes of heroes and villains, which allows the main thesis of Lucas's worldbuilding, which is derived from Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth, to come through... In short, it's purposefully simple in its execution and themes, but elaborate in its visual worldbuilding which aims for something tonally very complex, a little shakespearian in the way it sometimes juxtaposes the eccentric (R2 and D2 being like secondary comic relief characters in a shakespearian play reacting to the main plot) and the highbrow with the more serious scenes that involve Jedi lore...
LOTR is a novelistic work of fiction which is not trying to blend a lot of genres together to conjure up its mythical implications... It's pretty much a classical epic poem in the tone of The Iliad or Beowulf, and its more modern touches lie mainly in the novelistic structure which owes quite a bit to 19th century adventure novels, like Ivanhoe or the Three Musketeers, which are still examples of epic literature, with slightly more emphasis on character development... It's thoroughly highbrow epic fantasy from start to finish...
Star Wars is a saga about stories and myths. The Lord of the Rings is a mythological story.
true!
Love this comment.
🎉 just
LOTR + SW the 2 most epic film franchises of cinema
Liv Tyler: you don't have to put a sword in her hand to make her strong. Oh if only modern moviemakers would heed Ms. Tyler's wisdom, here.
Viggo Mortensen wasn't a trained swordsman nor was he familiar with Tolkien's work. His son Henry knew enough of LOTR and convinced his dad to take the part. Mortensen read LOTR Trilogy while on the plane to New Zealand. In short, he arrived pretty much clueless and his first shoot was the swordfight on Weathertop. His trainer later said that in his career of training sword fighting, Mortensen was the best swordsman he trained and the fastest learner he had ever known. Mortensen stayed in character as much as he could and took his (extremely sharp) sword everywhere with him He was stopped on the street in Wellington while still in Aragorn's more seedy costume because he was carrying his sword and practising his fighting as he walked. The police thought he looked dangerous and arrested him. Indeed, by the end of two years, he considered that sword as his entry into the character of Aragorn. After this piece of narration, I found another video to watch. If one represents oneself as an expert enough to make a video giving information, you have to be an expert or you can simply make yourself look stupid.
I came here to say almost word for word the first part of your post. They even talk about it all in the BTS clips on the DVDs, and it's all well known lore after all these years.
I will also add. What the video talks about is how Viggo was familiar with a lot of Norse Viking sages. Tolkien took heavy inspiration from those. He was also familiar with other source material that Tolkien referenced for Lord of the Rings. Not the books themselves.
Yeah this guy got some things wrong . He mentions how aragon is 87 because people of middle earth age slower which is just plain wrong
i fully agree with you until you talk about him looking stupid, this is a truly excellent video with some minor errors, i would like to see you write and edit a video essay to this standard you twat
Aragorn wasn't a regular Middle Earth man, he's part Dunedin, a race of people thats blessed with longevity.
I've been looking for an hour + video essay about Lord of the Rings and finally... it is here.
You can look them up there’s a few
There’s a few. It’s incredible how after over 20yrs, people still have so much to say of these movies. They truly stand in a league of their own!
There are so many!
@@keithbinder1244 pls recommend me some good ones.
The fact that i literally paused this video, rewatched the two towers and return of the king and came back and watched this video 😅
You were overdoing the legolas part..
Agreed. His simple character development is fine with his relationship with gimli. He does not need something big that could take away the focus. And also I felt his acting was not that bad. I look at ROP series and Arondir never changes his voice and face.
1.OBJECTIVELY wrong about Legolas. 2 Orlando played him VERY stoic. 3 If he had a "hollow character " , how is he SO memorable and a fan favorite?
One of the things that bothered me was Gimli’s eventual relegation to a comedy sidekick character. The first movie got Gimli spot on and we learn a lot about the dwarves through his emotional moments in that movie. After Fellowship he’s just there to provide comedy relief.
Even in fellowship of the ring Gimli's character was done dirty.
@@jenniedarling3710next time you read the book, give Gimli his film voice in your head and you'll see how faithfully they did Gimli
Well , when you watch LOTR with a young person, they love Gimli's character, it brings some lights moments in otherwise a very dark and desperate story ! As a fan of the books I didn't like it at first, but now I totally defend him, it makes lots of sense for a movie that need to have a wide appeal. Also he's warm and honest and brave as dwarves should be !
Viggo knew nothing about LOTR…his son had to convince him to take it by telling him how good the story was. Wasn’t til after he got the job that he read the books.
So he didn't know a story his son knew - back in 2000?
@@lordofdumpling yes. That’s straight from his mouth in an interview.
@@ThePaco1038 I guess his mom read it to him then 😂
@@lordofdumpling a 10 yr old can’t read LOTR?? lol
I’m sure he knew of it but hadn’t read them himself.
@@ThePaco1038 3rd grader reading lotr? Never seen it here lol
I watched the original trilogy for the first time 2 years ago. I’ve never been the same since. The Jackson trilogy is incredible and will likely stand the test of time for hundreds of years
If you think that's good, try reading the books!
I did not intend to finish this video in one viewing, but I just couldn't stop watching.
Crazy how I just finished watching the trilogy for the first time and then you drop this. What oddly nice timing.
As time passed, I have grown to appreciate Orlando's Legolas (in the original trilogy at least). Since he didn't have a lot of dialogue, I think it shows that he did put a lot of thought and effort in his physical performance. He nailed being a Tolkien elf, approachable and present but there's a certain aloofness to him. It makes me think a lot of Finrod in The Silmarillion. In fact, his is my favorite elven performance now, with Cate Blanchett and Marton Csokas as Galadriel and Celeborn coming in second.
Also, Frodo IS the chief hero. That should have been clear as early as when he decided to set out from Bag End to bring the Ring to Rivendell. Tolkien talks about this, and while I don't agree with a lot of the decisions PJ and co. made with Frodo's character, I still think they did good in conveying just how incredible Frodo's heroism is. Letter 246 tells us Tolkien thought quite the opposite. Sam might be the most heroic character, but the main hero has always been Frodo. You need to take into account Frodo's arc and its importance to the overall story compared to Sam's arc. It's a bit of a revisionist idea to say Sam is the real hero, and I blame the movies for that.
Lastly, "the chief hero" Tolkien is referring to is Aragorn, not Sam. You need to consider what comes before that sentence to understand the actual context. That quote is comparing Sam's rustic, simple love to Aragorn's grand and noble romance. That's not to say Sam wasn't one of the chief heroes, because he is, it's just that that quote was used incorrectly and does not actually support the argument.
Too long. Get a life
I think Legolas adds much more than given credit for. He was Aragorn’s most trusted member of the fellowship. The Gimli relationship was much more developed in the books for sure , but it was also important in the movie. Galadriel helped build that friendship. Gimli and Legolas in the movies is key to a lot of interactions with others.
All the lotr content is such a blessing. Thank you for the content.
lows = the hobbit trilogy
That's a different trilogy. It doesn't count.
They do suck though lol@@erjino
@@louistown7835The new additions sucked. Not the whole thing. The actual performances were still really great, especially in the accurate scenes.
@tsivils1987 yea i can agree with that, i really like the first film for how well Bag end was handled
Definitely not a low, it’s a good watch… It’s a different trilogy and wasn’t even PJ’s fault in the first place, who was roped in at the last minute and had to go ahead with Del Toro’s additions and vision, due to the lack of time for pre-production work…The studio insisted on making a trilogy out of a single book for profits, against PJ’s wishes…
The only low was when the end credits in the final film ended
I always feel heartbroken when those credits roll for Return of The King. Even though I’ve watched through the trilogy well over 2 dozen times, it always feels like I just completed a lifelong journey with my best friends that I’ll never see again. No other movies have come close to evoking such emotion from me.
@@ComedyBros5 I completely agree
For me the big low point was when the Hobbits arrived home to a Shire just how they left it. I was so disappointed with the omission of the scouring of the Shire.
@@jenniedarling3710 I'm okay with this though because we'd just journeyed through so many hardships and emotions. Nothing will top the calming, peaceful presence in my heart when they return to the Shire in the end. It helped create the beautiful ending that we got. If they'd returned home to a scoured Shire, it would've been brutal and wouldn't have fit the ending Peter was going for.
The highs are the Misty Mountains and the lows are the Mines of Moria
I'll never have another cinematic experience like watching the Ride of the Rohirrim in the theater in 2003.
The perfect youtube video to fall asleep to.
I feel like Legolas was NOT confirming his kills. He just shoots an arrow & assumes its a kill & moves on.
Gimli was making sure the bodies stopped moving before he counted.
How could anyone hate Liv Tyler or her character? We needed an elf woman and she is perfect.
I didn't have time to watch the whole thing and came across it by accident, but I enjoyed what I did see of this docu and learnt a lot of things I am glad I now know. Thank you.
No, Virgo didn’t know almost anything about LOTR before he accepted the part, on the insistence of his son, who told him to do it. Viggo started reading the books on the plane flight down to NZ.
14:54 “You don’t have to put a sword in her hands to make her strong”
Such a powerful quote. I wish film makers today understood this….
to touch on the "Aragorn was 87 years old" thing, Aragorn was also a Dunedain. they were blessed with long life to live 3 times that of a normal man. Aragorn at 87 is basically only half way there
The weird thing about cutting Christopher Lee from the Isengard scene is that this is the only time his character was Meant to appear.
(Outside of the 'Scouring' storyline which everyone accepts is too much for films).
There were two films of Jackson-invented dialogue and scenes for Saruman and Christopher Lee was a life-long fan off the novels, - to cut his only scene where he actually acted a scene from Tolkien's novel may have cut harder into him than people realise.
That scene is not from the books. Saruman does not fall from the tower.
"Shall I describe it to you or would you like me to find you a box?" Like so many Uruk Hai, I died🤣
Another comment for you about Iarwain ben-Adar, in common speech, Tom Bombadil, it is said in the appendices of The Fall of Gondolin that Iarwain was the eldest and fatherless, that he was older than the Ents (Treebeard states this in the book version of Two Towers). Even they didn't know where he came from. My personal take on Ol' Tom is that he's meant to be an enigma as with so many of Tolkien's characters. Many of Prof. Tolkien's works were scribbled on bits of paper or are contained in letters to his editor. Christopher Tolkien later went through hs father's enormous volume of writings of Middle-earth and states in the prologue to The Fall of Gondolin that many of his father's character's names and stories changed through the years starting in the trenches of The Somme in WW1 and extending into the 1950's until his death. Organizing JRR's work was his son's life's work and it was might indeed. He lived well past his 90th birthday, respectable even for a hobbit. Those works are now considered canon though some of the books compiled by Christopher were edited by using the scraps and names plus stories that changed with time. Ol' Tom was one such character and therefore there is no set role or place for him other than in The Old Forest on the borders of Buckland. Read the Fellowship of the Ring and you'll get as good a description of who and what he is simply from his conversations with the four hobbits and Tolkien's descriptions of him and his behaviour. We know he could speak with animals and only the very wise can do so. His Lady Golberry is his only care, and for her, he cares very well. The feared and terrible Barrow-wights fled at Tom's approach, so we know he represented "good" vs. "evil". He can speak with trees and with water lilies and every living creature of Middle-earth. My guess is that he was created by Eru as a template for his further creations, at least I'd like to think so. He is perhaps the forebearer to the Beornings who share many skills and talents with Tom, but who knows? Who is he to you? That's what's truly important in a work of fiction such as this. It is the cord strung within that matters in legendary fiction and has no other or greater, which is considerable IMHO, purpose. How does Arwen's tragic story make you feel? Do you identify with her choices? And what about her grandmother Galadriel? I for one would never have been able to make the choices with which she is confronted, but then, to paraphrase Mithrandir in Fellowship, "That's not for us to decide. All we have decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." And isn't that the real lesson?
@ 4:05 in the behind the scenes making of, Peter Jackson said Viggo didn't have sword training experience before actually, that's one of the reasons Viggo took his sword with him everywhere and practiced tons. His first main scene to shoot was the big fight against the nazgul at Weathertop, so big fight scene.
Viggo also wasn't super familiar with the books, having not read them prior to taking the role (obviously all the cast read a studied after getting the part, copies of the books were always around set). He knew of them, but it was his son, a big fan, who convinced him to take the role.
Townsend was removed for a number of reasons, one his passion wasn't there as you mentioned nor his work ethic AND they wanted a more mature look for Aragorn, Peter Jackson only realised the later after the first day of shooting and seeing it I believe.
I highly recommend the Making Of The Lord of the Rings!! It's on TH-cam somewhere too I believe. Only slight inaccuracy that I noticed.
imagine what we would have if the original del toro Hobbit films had been made. it sounds like it was very promising.
imagine what we would have if the studio and execs hadn't kept butting into Peter Jackson's vision for the Hobbit films too.
Not having read any of the LOTR books, much of the outrage over changes is completely lost on me.
That's fair.
I watched the first two films when they came out, and then read the books to know what happens next.
I was so eager to see Denethor's battle strategy unfold, and Imrahil's Swan knights and the sons of Elrond go to war with the grey company, and the relentless march to the black gates, - the last army of men, constantly harassed by enemy skirmishes and Nazgul, going to their doom like marching into hell itself.
All cut.
If you don't know, you don't know. The films are still good in their own right, but there's so much more than 'Bombadil' that they cut.
Please read or listen to the books, it's the only way to get the real depth of characters and plot and fully appropriate this story.
Green Steeet Hooligans is so underrated
honestly, i didn’t know there was any backlash with Arwen back in the day…. if only they knew about the prime series
Which lows?
Too long
Not long enough.
It was too short…😂 I wished the movie kept going on and on…
@@makchot3263*Not long enough, we wish each movies last 8 hours and more
green street is literally his best most real and epic performance ...... its an awesome movie ...... apart from that one great video
Came here to say this!
Legolas was comic relief for the kids (as a foil for Gimli) and eye candy for the teens! I was 18 at the time and lovvvvvved him.
I don't know if others have said this yet or not: but Tolkien originally wrote the Lord of the Rings as 6 books, not one. It was always intended to be six smaller books, which is VERY clear when you read the books.
Can you specify? I clearly see it in the first movie but the other two?
@@Dartagnan88 Have you not read the books? This comment is in reference to the video saying Tolkien meant for it to be published as a single volume, which is not factually accurate. He meant for them to be six smaller novels. In the books they are clearly marked as such.
I would have loved to see six book accurate films.
@@jenniedarling3710that would be absolutely wild! Especially with how half the cast would have full films off. And Aragorn would have no character arc other than “I’m ready to be King of Gondor” and the slow march to that throne. No elves at Helm’s Deep. Fellowship would have been an insane two movies! So good!
"Putting a sword in her hand isn't the only way to make her strong", is a quote the Rings of Power showrunners should have taken to note.
“We don’t have to put a sword in her hands to make her strong”
I wish ROP’s writers had half of the wisdom that Liv Tyler showed
@ 4:18 We have to thank Viggo's son, Henry for convincing him to sign on to the project. Without him, Viggo would never had said yes.
Can you imagine anyone else except Viggo playing Aragorn? Fuck no!
One correction: Bolg is actually in the Hobbit. He’s the leader of the Goblin army avenging their king’s death at the Battle of Five Armies. Azog is only a part of the original Goblin Wars from the LoTR appendices
My God I'm so glad I never went to go see this movie with a guy like you cuz the fire agreed with you instead of this being one of the most favorite movies I've ever seen in my life It would have been a total and complete bummer Minute 21 and everything you're saying about Legolas as far as I'm concerned his character was perfect not having to change he was a guy of action who let his skill speak for him not his mouth I'm glad he wasn't some kind of jokester I'm glad he was stoic in his character but mighty in his skill and ability That's what makes him so cool but that goes right over your head doesn't it!
Bolg was actually one of the main antagonists in the book. He’s killed by Beorn in the battle of the five armies. It’s his father, Azog, who was in the movie but not in the book.
Frodo doesnt even say Legolas' name when they all come in to see him at the end in Rivendale
WRONG! viggo wasnt a trained swordsman, he had never held a sword in his hand before the weathertop scene!
14:50
"No need for a sword to make her strong"
Something modern Hollywood does not understand.
"The rustic love between Sam and Rosie (nowhere elaborated)" Um. unless you count the family trees in the appendices, which note they married 1 May, 1420 (Shire-Reckoning).
They go on to note Elanor "the Fair" (born 24 March 1421, SR), Frodo (b. 1423), Rose (b. 1425), Merry (b. 1427), Pippin (b. 1429), Goldilocks (b. 1431), Hamfast (b. 1432), Daisy (b. 1433), Primrose (b. 1435), Bilbo (b. 1436), Ruby (b. 1438), Robin (b. 1440), and Tolman (b. 1442).
"Rustic" is one way you could put it, I suppose. "Go Sam!" is another, and "Wow, Rosie, congratulations!".
When I first saw the theatrical cut of The Two Towers, I was very disappointed that the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman was not in the movie. I think it's one of the iconic parts of the book. It gives me chills every time I read it. Without the confrontation, that scene feels like it just cuts off before they are done.
Omitting that was as bad as Jackson's portrayal of Gandalf meeting the Witch King when he rides into Minas Tirith. Jackson's Gandalf is a wimp who had his staff broken, and that's not what happened in the book, which is covered in another iconic passage. Gandalf was considerably more powerful than the Witch King. Aragorn fought him off, along with four other Nazgul, with a sword and a torch. The idea that he could just have his way with Gandalf is absurd.
"In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.
All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen.
"You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!"
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.
"Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.
Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”
I love the movies more than anything largely because eod the performances, and no criticism I have for them will change that.
But it’s super weird that they took Legolas and Gimli and pretty much swapped their personalities.
"A little Bombadil" is emphatically not what the Amazon mess needs
Nerdstalgic goes bullshįt again
11:25 as a kid seeing this in the theater I thought the reason why there was a gap was because Lego uses his bow to shoot an orc, and I thought that was odd even then
I am here to hype up Green Street Hooligans. I love that movie!
It BLOWS my mind that Townsend didnt want to learn to ride horses! Unless you're an actor, the amount of money it costs to learn how to straight haul ass on a horse prevents a lot of people from being able to do it!
Its something I've ALWAYS wanted to do and hearing about someone completely dismissing it, is unthinkable to me
You dropped the Tea😅😂
Thank God that Aragorn was cast as Aragorn
I'm back again. What is it about this film, and book of course. I read the book a long time ago, in fact I can say the book was responsible for honing my bad reading ability at the time. But this tale just seems to be full of everything we need in the days that are coming, I sense that we will cling to the things that lift our spirit in the times to come;. I bet Tolkien never foresaw how important his work would be in the future, possibly playing an important role in keeping hope alive and keeping the belief that there are things worth fighting for.
Excuse me... You can't just drop a 100+ minute banger of a video outta knowwhere and act like nothing happened.
That’s what I’m saying. I’m gobsmacked
Yoh… I can hardly breathe! 😅✊🏾
It's 82 minutes tho?
OPEN THE SCHOOLS
we don’t have to put a sword in her hand to make her strong”
Amazon are you listening?
Sam is absolutely the best character! I say that every time I watch the movies! Sean Astin does an amazing job with the role but he truly is the hero in the story!
I can’t believe I watched an all time high video
Saruman, the iconic MAGICIAN lol
Shame they didnt go with Glorfindel ...with the river scene ....but thats a small gripe ...great movies though .
1:00:13 : Bolg isnt a movie only character! He leads the army of orcs from Gundabad to the Battle of Five Armies and is then killed by Beorn.
I can take a lot of the hobbit trilogy, but the elves jumping over the shield wall makes me crazy
"warrior princess wasn't what we wanted to portray" yea you see what happened to Galadriel
Ayyooooo Gimli is on shambles at 21:16 wtf xd
I'd agree that Sam is the main character at the end of the story, but when it comes to the books, not from the start. It's obvious that the main character in Fellowship and even a good portion of The Two Towers is Frodo. Not only is the story told mainly from his point of view, but he also has most of the agency in the story. Ithilian could be split between them. Frodo still has the most agency there, but from Shelob on, Sam has taken over the main character slot.
But no, Sam is not the main character (hero) for the entire story.
I don't disagree that cutting Tom Bombadil from the story was inevitable, I disagree with your conclusions as to why. I think the cut had to be there because of time and time alone. (Same for the Scouring of the Shire). I also think that Sam's "third point of view" and Tom's "third point of view" are very different.
That said, the thing I think should NOT have been cut is the Barrow Downs events. PJ could have made it the Hobbits themselves getting out of the Barrow Downs, but they really should have been able to get their knives from former Arnor. That's the whole reason why Merry was able to stab the Witch King. His dagger was specifically made by craftsmen of Arnor to break the Witch King's spell. I think that part should have been included.
It's not that people from middle earth age slower, Aragorn is a descendant of the Numenorians. They were tall af and lived longer lives than normal humans. They were favored people by Aluvitar until they betrayed him
Actually they could have given Legolas and Gimli more time together...bc the friending of a dwarf, to the point of Gimli being allowed to go into the West. That really is the core of his relationship process. It really is the issue of Bloom's performance. And I wonder if that caused Jackson to do less with him.
we all now know, veggo is forever the perfect casting as aragorn. but imagine russell crow as aragorn. first as maximus and the aragorn, he would've had the most legendary career.
Excuse you, I love Deep Impact.
I think they meant shooting lows. This film has no lows
Y'all Legolas is good in the movie. Stop nit-picking. You can obviously see the emotions in him at the right times, you can see the respect he has for Aragorn, you can see the friendship between him and Gimli grow. Sure Orlando Bloom isn't the best actor. But don't be a d*ck. Even a child can see Legolas' emotions and relationship changes. Being able to see this on screen with the little dialogue and scenes he has, is very skillful on the whole team's part.
Russel Crow would have been amazing , but Vigo was great. His approach, love of the movie and fellow actors is well known.
Townsend marrying Charlize Therone is more than fair compensation.
Imagine having the decision making of Stuart Townsend 😂😂😂
I love hearing stories about a terrible casting decision by the studio, the actor being a diva, the rest of the cast blowing up, then the studio basically saying... "fine, here's your perfect actor... Well pay big money for them"
While I respect that they kept Arwen out of the Fellowship to honour Tolkien's work as it was written, I wish Tolkien himself had written that Arwen had gone with them, or reunited at some later point. I know the elves didn't fight at Helms Deep in the books, but something like that would have been an ideal time to bring Arwen back in. Perhaps if Tolkien had had her reunite with Gandalf on the road to find Eomer and the Rohirrim.
Townsend’s feminine eyebrows and pointy chin were his downfall 😂😂😂😂😂
Had they added Arwen into Helms Deep they would have lost the importance of the trio's adventure and bonding that happens in the second film. In the way the JJ Abram's Star Trek films tacked Uhura into the Kirk/Spock/Bones trio. It is a failure to understand what those trios represent and importance of friendship and male camaderie.
I'd also add, you can deepen your love from distance. Tolkien went 2 years without seeing his wife during the Great War. While I hated Liv Tyler's portrayal of Arwen, showing the dreams and her struggle praying for him in Rivendell actually worked. Thankfully Jackson made the change.
Legolas could have been in the Hobbit. He just wasn’t a major figure in the Hobbit as written by Tolkien because he hadn’t been yet conceived
I wouldn’t say Haldirs death is useless. They establish he and Aragorn as friends in the fellowship of the ring and it makes a little sense that if lady Galadriel was going to send anyone to the aid of Aragorn haldir would volunteer. Arwen being there would’ve been way to on the nose and while I think the movies improve on her character her and Aragorn being separated for most of the movies only shows the strength of their love as he denies Eowyns advances despite at the time thinking Arwen would be leaving middle earth anyway. It’s a difficult puzzle I know but Tolkien wasn’t sexist he came from a time where it was VERY taboo to send a woman to war and rightly so not because of their inability but because of men’s desire to protect them. It makes eowyn stand out all the more where it would’ve overshadowed her if Arwen was there.
Legolas was there to make the 14 year olds in the audience think it was hype when he did "cool stuff".
There's nothing really wrong with this in a big cinema release. It is what it is.
You lost me the moment you said Sam is THE hero. I'm sorry, what? Frodo WILLINGLY sacrificed mentally emotionally and physically to carry that ring. Nobody asked him to. he volunteered. He was being drug through the mud the entire time, never giving up and always determined. And we know that no one else would have been capable. He only didn't drop the ring at the end because the power of the ring in its birth place is so strong that NO ONE would be able to willingly drop it. Not even Sam. Did he need help and support along the way? Absolutely. Is Sam A hero? Definitely. But shoving Frodo aside like so many people do these days shows a great lack of understanding of his sacrifice.
Is it bad that I don't have any lows for LOTR, it's legit one of the most perfect trilogy of films ever made and I never get tired of revisiting them, The Hobbit however is a different story entirely 😂
What I learned is that Stuart Townsend, despite failing miserably to star in one of the greatest trilogies ever, is still winning bigtime in life by marrying Charlize Theron. You bow to no one, sir.
Wait what!?!?
They were never married. They dated for 10 years. He does Hallmark movies now
@@ivana547 yeah. I don’t know the guy so no offence to his character. But I never liked him as an actor.
@@williamhamilton1154 yup, just another pretty boy. Does well in the Hallmark movies set on Ireland 🤣
@@ivana547 discount Gerard Butler.
Another analysis of lotr... yes please