[discostu]

And I like the fact that it's done without dialog. Real people would be in too much shock at each stage of that to speak. Too many movies are over reliant on dialog when simply letting your actors ACT will get the job done. There's a number of points throughout the series where you can almost hear PJ saying "wait I hired some of the best actors in the world for a reason, I think I'll let them act". Sam's reaction to being banished by Frodo is another of those points, there's plenty. All throughout ROTK Ian does something great, every time Gandalf doesn't have anything pressing he gets the same look on his face he had when first discussing Frodo's survival with Aragorn, you can really see that it's weighing heavily on Gandalf it shows that whenever Gandalf doesn't have something else to think he's thinking "I killed Frodo", and again that's supported with almost no dialog.

[HairOfTheDog]

where you can almost hear PJ saying "wait I hired some of the best actors in the world for a reason, I think I'll let them act".

PJ said in the commentaries for FoTR something like "Elijah Wood can tell any story with just his eyes."

Ian McKellan too.... you are right. And I am glad they gave us the credit of being able to tell what they are thinking without them telling us.