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.

I watched it a week ago and only made my way through this thread now! All I have to note, really, is that I agree there were pacing problems. I've never been with a more restless audience-- I actually had to shush a guy three times. And that, like Steph, having never read the books, I thought Frodo was a goner. In fact, when he was being airlifted out of there by Gandalf's magic eagle, I thought he was dreaming the reunion sequence. It was simply too rosily silly to be real. (cf Titanic.) But, obviously, I was wrong.

I also wanted to post this:

Just went to see The Return of the King, which opened in Australia today. As the Nazgul were dive-bombing the crap out of everything during the battle of the Pelennor Fields, I found myself wondering whether there was a deputy assistant undersecretary from Gondor’s Defence of the Realm Department hiding under his kitchen table somewhere on the fifth level of Minas Tirith thinking, "I must have written dozens of memos about Mordor's air superiority, but would they listen, oh noooo! Just like every other year, the whole goddamn budget was blown on horses, silver filigree and whitewash."

when he was being airlifted out of there by Gandalf's magic eagle, I thought he was dreaming the reunion sequence. It was simply too rosily silly to be real. (cf Titanic.) But, obviously, I was wrong.

That's *exactly* what I thought, too!

when he was being airlifted out of there by Gandalf's magic eagle, I thought he was dreaming the reunion sequence.

That's *exactly* what I thought, too!

I was too busy thinking, "Eagles. Carrying people in and out of Mordor. They couldn't have come up with this idea 2.5 movies ago?" Yes, yes. Flying wraith thingies and the power of Sauron and etc. would have made that impractical. But still.

ETA I wouldn't have missed the rest of the movies for the world. I just had a flash of empathy for Sam and Frodo's long slog at the time is all.