I ended up feeling like it was one big battle scene with the occasional cutaway to have Pippin make the point that War Sucks or because Oh Right, We Need A Frodo And Sam Update.

Totally my feelings, too, except I thought there were, in general, too many cutaways. TTT played out in big chunks of one story at a time, which I thought worked better than the "nope, not gonna let this scene end either" style he seemed to prefer in RotK.

Oh frell, are we still white-fonting?

The movie's been out for well over a week. We don't need to whitefont.

Yeah, non readers I've spoken to seem to assume that Treebeard pulled down Orthanc and killed Saruman. Maybe that's just the non attention payers.

It particularly irks because Christopher Lee was a personal friend of Tolkein's, playing a very important figure in the story. I think Jackson should have at least kept the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman at the ruins of Isengard, even if his final end was left off along with the rest of the Scouring.

I think so too, Matt. When I first heard Lee making noises, before the movie aired, I thought he was being an ego case. I was shocked to realize he wasn't in the third film at all. I also think it took something away from the story.

When I first heard Lee making noises

I did read somewhere that the noises were out of proportion to his actual reaction, but I don't have the broadband to run and research.

I see why he got left out, and I think it sucks, but stuff happens.

Into the West is playing on my CD right now.

It makes me melancholy and weepy with its beauty. IHAL.

That is all.

I think I may have mentioned it here before, but they played "Into the West" while I was waiting for Last Samurai to start, and I got all weepy just sitting in the theater.

This might amuse those going back for a second (or more) viewing.

#'s 2 and 12 in particular struck me as funny.

One thing in the weapons and warfare book I forgot: that Sting (Frodo - and once Bilbo's sword) says "Sting is my name - I am the Spider's bane" on it.

Hmm, that must have been added to the weapon later. Bilbo is the one who names it "Sting" when he's hacking up giant spiders with it.

Oh! I also forgot that Glamdring (Gandalf's sword) and Sting were found at the same time in the Troll's horde in The Hobbit.

Yes. One of my minor nitpicks in the movies, Glamdring should have been glowing in the presence of orcs same as Sting. From what I recall, it's a property of elf-made swords, which they both are. I believe there's even a scene in the books when Legolas' sword is glowing dimly because there are orcs on the other side of a river from where the Fellowship is camped, but it's been a long time since I've read them.

Most claymores were 5' long. Some had the leather ricasso covering. A 5' long sword is generally refered to as a great sword and requires two hands to weild. There are three different types of grip, which were used depending on the situation the wielder was in and what he wanted to do with it. You had your standard sword grip, with both hands on the hilt, as well as grips that put one of your hands on the ricasso or on the blade itself about a foot shy of the point. (European swords were generally not razor-sharp like a Japanese katana, which meant you could safely hold the blade while wearing gauntlets without danger to yourself, as long as you didn't try taking blows on the edge, which was generally a bad idea anyway as it ruined the blade.)

The Germans also had a 6' long zwei-handers which could be used as above, but their primary purpose was to break and/or lock up pikes so that people with shorter weapons could get in and start killing the pikemen. I believe the Swiss and some others may have had 6' swords as well, but the German swords are the most well-known.

Anything bigger than that is probably a parade piece.

Also, I liked "The Last Samurai", Tom Cruise or no.