LOTR question

myself | Today | me

[Charlie OK]

Just got done watching my extended version DVD of FOTR, and I have a question about an elf. And yes, I have read the books, but only once. I suppose I could look it up myself, but I figured it would be fun for you fans who have nothing better to do til ROTK comes out. Kind of like off-season conditioning.

OK, who is the elf that meets the fellowship when they are heading towards Lorien? He seems to be a prominent character, as he is appears in TTT movie to help the Rohirrim in the Battle of the Hornburg, and acts as though he and Aragorn go way back. I don't remember if this part actually happened in the book, but I definitely remember the part where he led the fellowship to Celeborn and Galadrial. IIRC, he had them blindfolded too. His name is just slipping my mind.

[Charlie OK]

Knowing you all, I will probably have my answer within the first couple of replies, that is if I phrased the question clearly :)

[Mamzelle]

Haldir...?

[Corin Stormhands]

That's Haldir. The elves coming to Helm's Deep were added to the movie. You have to remember that Aragorn is a lot older than he looks. There's a lot of history behind that relationship.

Join us over in The Hobbit Hole!

[Charlie OK]

Haldir! That's the one. Thanks for the link, I may come on by!

[My back yard]

And please, ask away. I love LOTR questions. BTW, I haven't read much on the bloopers of LOTR movies, but this weekend as I was watching the Extended FOTR on our new 53" Hitachi, (and it is a whole new bag!) I noticed in the Prancing Pony scene, after Pippin goes to get a pint, then Mr. Butterburr?? or whomever, comes by and you see Pippin still sitting there. Hmmm. Hadn't noticed that glitch before.

[Charlie OK]

I hadn't caught that one. I am still looking for a car someone said you could see in the background when Sam and Frodo are standing in a field.

[HairOfTheDog]

The car was in the wide shot before the corn field in the theater, but it has been cleansed from the DVD....

I am one of the ones that clearly saw it in the theater, many times... in the DVD Director's commentary, PJ actually says "some people have seen a car here, I just don't know what they are talking about!" HA! - Liar! ;~D

[My back yard]

I have seen what looks like a smoke bomb on the far right of the screen when they are crossing the field, but couldn't tell that it was a car. I did however see Gollum on the eyelid of the Argonath, but only after watching on the new big screen and pressing the 4X zoom on the DVD.

[HairOfTheDog]

see above.... the car is gone... It zoomed from right to left across screen in the road visible in that wide shot.

It is just a bird's nest in the Argonath eye, I think.

[300winmag]

I have seen what looks like a smoke bomb on the far right of the screen when they are crossing the field, but couldn't tell that it was a car.

That was one of the 57 puffing chimneys in the Shire.

The extended edition DVD shows Aragorn using a switchblade to cut the altheas plants he was going to use to help Frodo's injury.

You know, if we don't blab too much about the bloopers, Jackson might not take them out of the DVDs. I don't like knowing there is LESS on the DVD than I saw at the movies.

[My back yard]

I thought too that it was just a bird nest or something. But when i enlarged it on this big screen it did look like gollum's big head and gangly legs and arms, stretched on all fours, head on the left and big feet on the right. But at best it was an obscure image of him. Coulda been a nest.

[My back yard]

I always liked the way he used the knife to cut the plant. It seemed authentic to me. I used to go camping/hunting with someone who used a buck knife in the same way, same gesture. The hinge was set loose so that he could flip it out of pocket and around at the ready for whatever he was cutting. But, I guess even a customized buck knife was not a tool of that age either.

[WFTR]

They send elves to the battle between the Isengard orcs and Rohan? Aarrrrgh! I'm glad I didn't see the towers movie.

WFTR
Bill

[Pippin]

Haldir.

[Gordian Blade]

Hi WFTR,

Like you, I initially blanched at some of the changes between the book and the movie. However, I just finished re-reading all of LoTR including the appendices (first time in about 10 years) and as a result I'm happier with what Jackson did.

For example, I wondered about the wargs in battle with the Rohirrim. Was that in the book? Well, not exactly. The book very clearly states that Saruman kept wargs at Isengard and implies (or I infer) that he would have used them against the Rohirrim in open battles like the Fords of Isen, but not in the battle at Helm's Deep where they wouldn't have been much use.

In another example, in the movie we have the people (civilians) fleeing from Edoras to Helm's Deep. In the book, they go up into the mountains in a totally different place. But then upon re-reading the book, I found that civilians from the western part of Rohan did take refuge in the caves at Helm's Deep. Jackson just compressed things because he couldn't very well split them up and have it make sense.

I carefully read the appendices this time, and there was a lot of material about Aragorn-Arwen-Elrond, including Elrond's being unhappy about Arwen's choice and Arwen following Aragorn in her thoughts, both of which are emphasized more in the movie than the book but at least Jackson didn't invent them from thin air.

I also thought Gollum was done extremely well in the movie. In the book, you often wonder why they didn't just take a sword to the little creep, but in the movie you can see why they would pity him.

So all things considered, I think Jackson's team did a great job. I'm looking forward to the extended DVD of TTT and, of course, RoTK.

[FReepaholic]

>>... Coulda been a nest....<<

Looks like a nest to me. Several birds fly out of it.

[BradyLS]

I have seen what looks like a smoke bomb on the far right of the screen when they are crossing the field, but couldn't tell that it was a car.

I've always thought that that was smoke blowing from the chminey of a hobbit home.

I did however see Gollum on the eyelid of the Argonath, but only after watching on the new big screen and pressing the 4X zoom on the DVD.

I don't doubt you, but you have to wonder how he got so far ahead of the Fellowship to know that they would be coming that way AND have time to climb the statue. In the books, he's known by Sam and Frodo to be paddling behind them behind logs and other debris dring their trip down the Anduin.

[My back yard]

Very well done. The more I re-read the books the more I appreciate the changes made also.

[My back yard]

I know. Some have tried to convince me that they fly out because Gollum is lurking along and scares them.

[My back yard]

Well they did make camp the night before on the - lets call it 'right' side of the river, while Gollum was seen coming to ground on a log on the left side (on the extended version) across the river from them. Could he have traveled all night and gotten ahead? I still would find it more believable if he had been, then, on the eye of the left-side Argonath statue. But the supposed Gollum is on the right one. Probably is just a nest. I'm going to look at it again. When I looked at it the last time, the only convincing thing was a big round bulbous headlike image above where the nest is. Very obscure even in magnification, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the surroundings, so I thought it might be him there. Might not, though.