Best LOTR scene?

Mines of Moria with the Balrog at the bridge made one think, " okay, how in the world is Jackson going to top this scene?"

But I think he did, with the scene of the death of Boromir and the scene with the Beacons of Gondor being lit.

But my favorite of all was the scene where the little children coming running all over the verdant fields crying "Gandalf!" near the opening of the FOTR as Howard Shore's "Shire" theme music filled the theatre.

Perhaps because after all the years, that scene early on gave me such a warm and excited feeling of anticipation "Well, finally they made the film, and there is the Shire, as green as I always knew it was! How wonderful! It is more beautiful than I had imagined!" the great memories of reading the book so many times, years ago as a kid were brought back to mind in an instant.

There are two others, as the FOTR ends with Sam and Frodo trudging up the mountain their friendship and hope shines as they look at each other. and again with Sam and Frodo near the end of TTT as the attack of the Nazgul ends in Osgiliath and Sam tells Frodo that the old tales they had heard had meaning because they provided hope that a new day would shine thru and even gollum shows the emotions that Sam's words bring out in Frodo, then the scene flashes to the Gandalf and Rohirim winning the day at Helms Deep as Sam's words continue. awesome scene. worth a bucket of tears.

the profound effect and synergism of Shore's outstanding film scores in conjunction with the actions and words on the screen is unsurpassed in any film i have seen.

Took the words right out of my mouth, kuvasz.
I only read the book once when I was about 15 years old. Going back 10 years now. But I loved every page.
I must admit when news reached my ears that Peter Jackson was making a film of it, my heart sank. I was convinced that it would be a total flop and ruin the good memory of the book.
When The Fellowship of the Ring came out, I went to the cinema with nervous anticipation of a bad film.
Oh my god was I wrong. Peter Jackson did an awesome job of transferring the story to screen. I thank god it was him who directed it and not somebody else. Thanks to him, the Lord of the Rings has been revived. We now have some great Tolkein games on Playstation, much better than the ones on ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, lol. Anyone remember trying to escape the goblins dungeon on 'The Hobbit'? haha

Anyway, my favourite scene? ahhh so many! But ones that stand out are Strider (Aragorn) fighting the Black Riders at Weathertop. And the bit in ROTK where Gandalf rides Shadowfax out to battle and stops the Winged Nazgul from attacking Minas Tirith. Beautiful cinematography.

The landscapes of New Zealand certainly matched what my mind had seen in reading the books. Rohan was especially impressive (the only full size set built in complete form for the film). The landscape of England only matched the Shire which is why I always envisioned that Tolkien's land existed when the British Isles were attached to the mainland.

Welcome to A2K and the film forum, BTW, Monkeon!

thx, Lightwizard.
I was originally disapointed that Jackson chose New Zealand over England. But after seeing the films I can fully understand why he made that descision. A lot of NZ countryside is untouched by man and looks very authentic for Middle Earth, where as present day England is a patch work quilt of farms, buildings and roads. There isn't one scrap of England left untouched. Anyway, the New Zealand locations all looked great and the Rohan set really fitted the description in my minds eye.
But yes, the British Isles back in old times I can imagine would have been the perfect setting for the Shire and no doubt the rest of Europe for other parts of Middle Earth. (Accept for Mordor, lol, I can't think of any country that looks like that hell hole).

The interior of Iceland is a volcanic wasteland that would do well as set for Mordor. The north of Scandinavia also still has large tracts of unspoilt wilderness that could serve as background.

However, I believe New Zealand was perfect because it combines all the European landscapes in one country.

I am, by the way looking forward to Jackson's rendering of the Hobbit. In particular, I am curious as to what his dragon will be like. I have seen quite a few films with dragons but most of them fail to present the dragon as a believable character:
- Dragonheart (1996) had good CGI and good acting and story line
- Dragonslayer (1981) had a good dragon. (I believe the animatronics robot is now part of Disneyland Paris)
- Ring of the Nibelungs (2004) was a made-for-TV movie, but their dragon was not bad (unfortunately the main cast was not up to te task; older versions of the ancient Nibelungen/Volsung saga are much better in that respect, but their dragons are obviously cardboard creations)
- Reign of Fire (2002) wasted a fortune on SFX and none on cast or script, crap.
- Dragon Fighter (2003) was utterly B-crap with no money for a decent dragon.
- Dungeons and Dragons (2000), well less said about that one the better.

My fav LOTR scene has to be the fight scene in the second part, the one in Helm's Deep or something like that.. even if everybody says that the fight scene from the third part was way better, I don't think that.. the one from the second movie is more focused on the chars and more dramatic, whereas the other one I motioned is more.. freaky

Peter Jackson filmed the Trilogy, not only because of the landscape but because its also cheap to film here, movie production companies get a lot of tax incentive deals ....

My favorite scene of LOTR is, without any doubt, the "they set the alarm fire!" scene. First when Pippin (is it Merry or Pippin by the way?) sets the first fire, and then hopes that it will be seen... and YES! Fires are set all over the mountains. I found these images, the music, the tension of the moment so beautifull that I cried every time I saw this scene!

...I also like those Ghosts...thought that was pretty cool!

That was Wagnarian in scope and it did get an emotional rush from viewing it -- no matter how many times I see that scene it will be effective. Probably one of the most inspired in the entire film and not at all like the Balrog.

the dead faces in the war-ter...

all the war scenes (hated the love scenes as they were total diversions from the book - most of them anyway), anything with Gimli, especially the battle of Helm's Deep where he and Legolas have a war over who can kill the most orcs - FANTASTIC!

But my real favorite is when the Ents storm Isengard and it is flooded, the graphics and cinematography in that was amazing.

I agree that Jackson did a good job with the films, but I have to say that I think he changed stuff that was unnecessary - like what was the point of villianizing Farmir at Osgiliath, and why did he have Aragorn almost die by falling off the cliff and into a river - never happened?! The Fellowship stuck much more closely to the books then the other two, and so is my favorite, but they all are good and I am grateful to Jackson for making them.

Making a Film on Lord Of the Rings was a mammoth task and it surely deserves all Oscars it got.

I didn't mind the additions Jackson inserted even though I know the motivation was primarily commercial. It didn't feel the films had to be a faithful recap of the books. One gets two different experiences by reading the books and then seeing the films. Although some of the details like Aragorn falling off a cliff I'd have to research. I found I was doing that after seeing the films and found that most of the things I thought Jackson had added were actually in the book. In "Fellowship," the incident with the troll is entirely different.

oh, i was not saying that he didn't do an astronomical job with the films. I loved them. But some things he changed seemed unnecessary because people would have still enjoyed the film even if it were like the book...the example that sticks out in my mind is Faramir: he did not make the hobbits stay at Osgiliath, and he was not jealous like his brother. That is an important fact of his character.

But like you said lightwizard, as long as you realize that the book and movie are separate entities, its not too bad.

just before the Battle of Helm's Deep, they're standing there waiting for the enemy to approach, and you hear the first few raindrops pinging off the metal...

I think Faramir keeping the Hobbits at Osgiliath was a clever way of cutting almost an entire chapter out of the book. I'm sorry, but even though I immensely enjoyed the books, Tolkien did have a perchance for digression. Don't get me wrong -- that's actually fine with the books as one savors the detail but it doesn't work in cinema. Otherwise we'd all be sitting watching three five or six hour films. Originally Tolkien wrote the tale in six books and Jackson was originally going to make two films. New Line Cinema executives actually requested that he do three films. He was selling himself short.

The scene where Frodo thinks Sam has nicked all the lammas bread,but Sam knows Gollum's been "sneaking" :wink:

Faramir kind of shocked me too, as I liked the character very much in the book, and I saw he was almost as annoying as his brother in the film. This is almost the only "choice" of Jackson I disagreed with (this and the "two endings"... ).