Topping Perfection

I was going to post this before but held out until now not to spoil the subject of my blog for Noobies like me who love Lord of the Rings. You should have seen it by now so if I spoil something, tough!

My favourite scene from Return of the King is bar none when the Rohirrim ride to Minas Tirith to the aid of Gondor. Every scene is perfect. The dialogue, the shots and music all creates an emotion which overwhelmed me. It represents so much in terms of virtue. Courage, bravery, nobility, loyalty, strength and I could go on. The scene is so powerful that I can't count how many times I've watched it and just shuttered. I didn't think it could get any better, but it did.

The original scene leading into the entrance is Gandalf leading the Gondorian soldiers, encouraging them to be brave as they are clearly losing against the forces of Mordor. It shows Gandalf with the bold expression, "Fight, Fight til the very last man. Fight for all your lives". It is here the Rohirrim horn blows and we cut to exellence.

The extended edition leads in differently. That scene is shown but instead of cutting away, it moves a little past with Pip and Gandalf off to save Faramir. Enter the witch king and his pure display of evil. Without ruining too much, the scene ends with Gandalf beat, staff shattered and the witch king ready to do away with him. Gandalf is without question the symbol for goodness in the movie and having him beat says scores for the story as the forces of evil have seemingly defeated good. However, this is where we hear the horn of the Rohirrim, acknowledging that good will not fall so easily and from there we cue to perfection. Simply awesome.

That alone is worth the price of the DVD and all the time I spend watching it. It's just wonderful, simply put. It's reasons like this that Peter Jackson is a genius and a genuine artist and deserves all the acclaim he has recieved.