On the subject of this scene, I'll add that my brother, as big a
Tolkien devotee as I am, always considered the encounter with the Riders one of sequences crying out for a thrilling film realization, and was waiting for it with great anticipation:
Aragorn rising "as if out of the ground", and calling "What news from the North, Riders of
Rohan?"; the line of Riders suddenly "with astonishing speed and skill" circling around the Three Hunters, and "drawing ever inwards"; Aragorn "standing silent", unmoving, like one of the great Chiefs of the American Indians. Needless to say, he was deeply dissapointed with the way the sequence was compressed and flattened.
I was similarly looking forward to seeing one of
my favorite "cinematic" scenes get the epic film treatment: the final assault on the gates of
Minas Tirith, and the confrontation between the
Witch-King and
Gandalf:
In rode the Lord of the Nazgul. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgul, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled from 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 Dinen.
That sequence has given me chills every time I've read it over the years. Not even the most butter-fingered director could manage to flub such a cinematic scene.
Or so I thought.
Note to the writers and directors of the year 2035, who are searching through old TTF threads looking for good ideas (
of course you are!): since
the wise and generous people at HBO/Netflix/Amazon/Wherever have given you unlimited time and budget to make a miniseries faithfully and tastefully filming every chapter of LOTR (
well, I can dream, can't I?), please be sure to show the parallels in the imagery between this scene and the assault on the house at Crickhollow. This is just one of the parallels in the book, of course, and I'm sure you, as gifted creators, will not have missed the many others, but it is an important one, which will resonate with your fortunate viewers, among whom, alas, I will probably no longer number.
Your referencing the passages as Tolkien wrote them gives me goosebumps. I want to go back and re-read the
books to re-live those perfect words again, totally immersed in his world.
I agree and guess one of my biggest complaints (there are others) about the movie vs the book is the total disregard of the
hobbits going to Crickhollow,
the Old Forest. One of my favorite passages is their meeting with
Tom Bombadil and
Goldberry. By excluding this we lose the chapters, "The House of Tom Bombadil," "The Old Forest" and "Fog on the Barrow Downs" so the audience is left clueless concerning the encounters with
Tom and the
Barrow-wights and thus losing the dreams/premonitions of
Frodo, Tom's powers and the story of
Merry and how he came to possess the
sword he used to eventually kill the Witch King. Too much lost.
I think the Barrow-wight encounter is one of the most frightening chapters of Tolkien's writings. How my imagination goes on overdrive when I reach that chapter in the book. How it might play out on film with so much given to us to bring it to life.
But Jackson believed it was unnecessary because it didn't advance the story! And another scriptwriter, I think it was Boyens only saw it as a rabbit hole, just a waste of time. The arrogance of these ppl astounds me. To second guess Tolkien...
Everyone familiar with Tolkien and true devotees of his understand the importance of
Bombadil and the Old Forest. On top of fabulous narrative/dialogue it provides a great deal of history and back story as well as creating more tension within the story by showing the hobbits and we the audience that the world is very very scary outside of
The Shire.
Plus, Bombadil's resistence to
the One Ring is a great device to show that
the Ring is not all powerful, that there yet exists powers older and more powerful and those resilient to it. What a wonderful creation is Tom Bombadil, older than the
elves, "Master of wood, water and hill." A charachter whose deep
mystery makes him the perfect character for a fantasy film.
The significance of the encounter at Barrow Downs needs little explanation to show its importance to the overall story. The Barrow-wights as agents of
Sauron and as an explanation as to why the Dúnedain are ultimately defeated and cannot rebuild their domain in Cardolan.
Cardolan, a once great land that encompasses much of the actual story including
Amon Sûl (
Weathertop),
Bree, The Great East Road and the Shire among many other
places of great distinction. Cardolan has a long glorious but eventually sorrowful history whose telling explains much of the story of the LOTR. I don't expect it all told in the film but the film should ignite curiosity in filmwatchers to discover more. At the least Aragorn could have said more when he and the Hobbits approached Amon Sûl instead of merely calling it, "the once great watchtower". And if we cut out some of the other nonsense written into the film by Jackson, et al there would have been room for Bombadil and the Barrows.
Oh see, now you got me started! What we need future producers, directors and screenwriters are ppl who truly love Tolkien and recognize his genius. We need talented individuals who will honor his writings and not try to do better than the source material. Tolkien has given you everything you need to succeed. So, all of us who wait patiently for that day demand better treatment of his works and more respect shown to his devoted fans.
