tinaf, those guys are a mix of various enemies of Gondor from different locations, but mostly they are the Haradrim, men of Harad, a southern kingdom and old enemies of Gondor.
ETA: also Easterlings "A general name for the races of Men from the unknown East of Middle-earth, who were a constant foe of the Free Peoples, from the treachery of Ulfang in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad of the First Age to their frequent attacks against Gondor in the Third Age."
Also see the Dagor Bragollach, but now we're getting deep deep into Tolkien geekery detail. (I can't type trivia, this is important stuff!)
oooh thanks for the info Jsw - I went ahead with Men of the East based on spotty recollections- friend was very confused by their non-orcish-ness - she thought only the orcs were bad. It's always interesting to find out what non-readers see vs. what you see.
friend was very confused by their non-orcish-ness - she thought only the orcs were bad.
I think remember a line in RotK about human mercenaries being brought in by Sauron. Meh -- it's a long movie, so it's easy to miss a line or two.
I think remember a line in RotK about human mercenaries being brought in by Sauron.
I missed that - I think the only reason I would have *maybe* understood what they were doing there was because you see them heading to Mordor in TTT.
It is impossible for me to see the movies from any other perspective, obviously, but I often imagine if I hadn't the read books it would all be too much to keep track of and I wouldn't care because of that- not because the story is too complicated - becuase I am that dumb and have a lack of attention span a lot of the time. I am that girl that came out of the movie
Memento
and went "was that supposed to be backwards or something?"
Okay, I wasn't clear...
Leggy being CGI didn't bother me...it was the "Oh, good, a gratuitous and completely implausible series of stunts for the friggin' elf again. Yea. O Yea. SHUT UP, LEGOLAS!"
But I am SO in the minority on this and I know it.
Gratuitous, sure. Improbable? How so?
MM, I'm kinda with you, if only because it made me think "Ya know, if they could've rounded up another two or three wood elves, this would be a piece of cake. Not like those candy-ass Galadhrim that showed up at Helm's Deep and then got slaughtered to the last elf."
Faramir is supposed to represent that the blood of Numenor yet runs true in Gondor.
JSw, wrod. Other than Faramir admittedly being a bit Tolkein!Sue as Jess put it, his uncorrruptibility serves a real purpose in the books, by telling us there's some reason to help Gondor. The only person we've got to represent Gondor before we meet Faramir is Boromir, who's pretty much a dick in the books. More sympathetic in the movie, but between him and Denethor, King Theoden's question of "And why should we aid Gondor?" seems reasonable. As far as the unspoiled can tell, Gondor's as big a threat to the quest as Isengard.
Sure, TTT TELLS us that Gondor's the good guys, but doesn't prove it. I'm not convinced ROTK proves it either, with the exception of the soldiers.
(Starts thinking about a screenplay without Faramir)
Gratuitous, sure. Improbable? How so?
Not getting into it. It's simply improbable.
I'm with MM. I hate Legolas jumping on the horse (in front of its legs!?!), the snowboard shield, and the death of the oliphaunt. They all leap out at me as gratuituous anachronistic crowd-pleasers.
And I like Legolas in general. Even if Orlando Bloom only has two expressions, the one where he narrows his eyes and the one where he widens them.
