joxy said:
We are supposed to be shocked when we see the devastation - at the same time as
Treebeard, do you mean, or are we supposed to have seen it at the same time as P first did?
I meant we don't see it until Treebeard sees it. Of course, for myself (being a book reader) I wasn't very shocked- but I imagine that the reason the devastation wasn't shown until that moment was so that it would "shock" the audience, at least the Tolkien-naive audience.
To be honest I didn't catch
Pippin's glance until Foehammer (of all people) mentioned it, but that was in December of 2002. The next time I saw it in the theaters I closely watched Pippin's expression during the scene, and I was satisfied that he was looking at the destruction. I put the blame for not seeing it on myself- though it was an admittedly brief sequence. I will happily point out that a common gripe among those claiming to be purists is that PJ's movies lack the subtlety of the
books. A bit duplicitous to be clamouring for more subtle film-making on
the one hand, but complaining that something else was not "made clear" enough on the other.
I would think that the problem of Pippin not realizing the significance of the devastation would replace the problem of him not chatting about it to
Merry, not add to it. Merry can not see the devastation because he is slightly lower down on Treebeard's shoulders- Pippin climbs past him to get a better view of
Saruman's troops, and that is apparently how he makes the discovery.
Why do I think that missing the significance is within Pippin's character? Because he does this several times in the books- ideas pop into his head in a flash (when they occur at all!), rather than coming around by methodical thought. Witness these two descriptions from the books:
Every now and again there came into his mind unbidden a vision of the keen face of
Strider bending over a dark trail, and running, running behind. But what could even a
Ranger see except a confused trail of orc-feet?
...
The thought came suddenly into Pippin's mind, as if caught direct from the urgent thought of his enemy: '
Grishnákh knows about
the Ring! He's looking for it, while
Uglúk is busy: he probably wants it for himself.'
These are sudden epiphanies- they don't seem to rely on prior thought or experience. And again I remind you that in the books Pippin never realizes that
Aragorn is the heir to the throne of
Gondor until he is told by
Gandalf; nor in the movies does he realize that the
wars in
Rohan and Gondor will effect
the Shire until he is told this by Merry. It doesn't seem at all improbable to me that Pippin does not understand the significance of the devastation, given these explicit mentions in the book. Remember, at the time of the scene in the movie he knows very little of Ents- he does not know that they will consider going to war against Saruman, and he certainly does not know that the
Ents will refuse to go to war out of isolationist policy. It isn't until after the Ents say that they will "weather this storm" and Merry mentions that the "fires of
Isengard" will burn the woods of the Shire that Pippin has his epiphany.
Finally, the "two weeks" of film time for Treebeard to discover the devastation is only a guess. The Saruman/
Orc Captain conversation takes place after the orc draught scene with Merry and Pippin. In the books the two
Hobbits met up with Treebeard two days after drinking the draughts, and in the movies only two night scenes are explicitly shown between Saruman giving the orders and the Hobbits meeting
the old Ent. The smoke had been a warning to him for many months, but he could have been investigating it for many months and been satisfied that the deforestation was limited to Isengard. Given that even when he was a young 'hasty' Ent he was in the habit of doing nothing but 'breathing' for weeks at a time, it would not surprise me that he would not see the devastation in the relatively narrow window of time which he was given. After all, as bad as the clearcut was, it was limited to a few acres of the literally hundreds of square miles of
Fangorn forest. This is not the same as saying that it was a forgivable error on his part, but I think this is in agreement with the books. "To his later intense regret", as you put it, is very accurate for both the books and the movie. However, it really bothers me that in the books the Ents did nothing. It went far beyond simply "looking the other way".
Skinbark {one of the first three Ents that are still alive during LotR} lived on the mountain-slopes west of Isengard. That is where the worst trouble has been. He was wounded by the
Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree-herds have been murdered and destroyed. He has gone up into the high
places, among the birches that he loves best, and he will not come down.
To me this passage is just too much. That an Ent (one of only thirty or so alive, apparently) could be actively attacked by orcs and other Ents could be
killed without some form of retaliation is beyond belief. I actually prefer the movie version in which Treebeard's (and the other Ents') negligence is rather more forgivable. The trickery is, as has been said before, nice in that it keeps the Hobbits more involved as part of the story, rather than just the observers and bearers of tidings which they are in the books.
That being said, the one thing that also bothers me in the movies is the sudden arrival of the Ents after Treebeard yells. I think that an easy way to get around this would have been for Treebeard to tell the Hobbits he'll take them home while the Ents were still at the moot. Then Pippin could have done his trickery about going south, and the whole group of Ents could have accompanied them to the Southern border, just to make sure they arrived safely. It would have been an interesting contrast- the end of the Entmoot in the books with the Ents marching angrily and resolutely to war, with a similar column of Ents in the movie, but now walking quietly and somewhat ashamedly, but both columns headed towars Isengard. It also (I believe) would have made the whole thing appear less 'hasty', as all the Ents could have stared at the devastation for some time before heading through the clearcut.