Corrected entry: In the first film when the fellowship is attacked by Balrog, Gandalf says something like "Swords are no use here" to Aragorn who wanted to tackle it with his sword. But in the next film you see Gandalf stabbing Balrog with a sword. This makes no sense.
Corrected entry: In the Helm's Deep scene when the orcs charge the castle and begin to prop up the first set of short ladders, Aragorn yells "Ladders." in Elvish. Gimli shouts in response, "Good." However, Gimli most certainly does not speak or understand Elvish. In the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring, Gimli grows angry when those around him are speaking Elvish, and speaks Dwarfish to anger them in return. (02:15:07)
Corrected entry: You'd think that in the Battle of Helm's Deep, where the defenders of a fortress are hopelessly outnumbered, one of the best hopes would be to take out as many of the enemy as possible before it came to hand-to-hand fighting ? ie, shoot as many as you could before they reach the walls. Certainly we see the Elves (and the Men) firing often. However, even at the end of the battle, most of the archers have quivers full of arrows. There are a number of shots where this can be seen but the most obvious is just after Haldir has been wounded ? there is a brief shot of the retreating soldiers (Elves and Men) and most, if not all of them, have quivers full of golden-fletched arrows. I know that Tolkien speaks of archers 'gleaning' arrows from among the dead, but so many, and in the middle of a huge battle? Plus the arrows are all clean and neat looking.
Correction: There is a brief overhead shot of Helm's Deep sometime during the day in a previous scene, before the battle, and if you look closely you can see a few soldiers placing quivers of arrows in barrels along the walls. It makes sense that once a quiver was empty, the archers would just pick up a new quiver from a barrel and keep shooting.
Corrected entry: In the scene when Frodo and Sam hide from a Mordor soldier by making the cape look like a rock, the surroundings change after the soldier is gone. When they take the cape off there is a large rock nearby that was not there. When the soldier was looking at them, the only large rock visible was the cape itself.
Correction: Yes, because when the soldier was looking at them it was a closeup shot that showed the cape taking up almost the entire width of the screen. The large rock is not visible at this time because it is off the screen to the right.
Corrected entry: When one of the Uruk-hai captured hobbits drops his leaf brooch it gets stepped on and we can see it in a clear patch of mud. Later when Aragorn picks it up it's resting on fresh grass.
Correction: Aragorn had previously said that the Uruk-hai were a day's march ahead of them. Any mud would have been dried up in the bright sunlight that was shining overhead. This is also assuming that the brooch hadn't been kicked or stepped on or moved *again*; it's easily possible that one or more of the other dozens of Uruk-hai in the column kicked it or shuffled it out of the mud to a more grassy place.
Corrected entry: When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Eomer and the Riders of Rohan, Eomer says that they burnt all the bodies of the Orc company. He points towards where they Orcs are piled and from a distance there is a shot of smoke rising from a fire. There is no forest nearby. When the travellers reach the pile of dead Orcs they are only yards from the eaves Fangorn Forest, which is vast and would surely have been visible even from a distance.
Correction: The pile of corpses is actually far to the left of where the smoke is "appearing" over the obscuring hill -- the wind is blowing the smoke way off to one side. The next scene where Aragorn and company come upon the corpses bears this out, as the smoke isn't rising straight up in that scene either. Thus, when Eomer gestures towards the smoke, Fangorn is not visible because it's off the screen to the left.
Corrected entry: After Merry and Pippin escape from the Uruk-Hai, Merry has a deep cut over his right eye. Very often the cut changes. It starts out over his right eye all bloody, then it changes to his left eye and it is still bloody. Then it goes back to his right eye but is clean, then it disappears entirely and comes back later to over his right eye and not bloody.
Correction: The cut is bloody at first because it is fresh. After Merry has had time to clean the blood away, the cut is less noticeable, but it never "disappears entirely". It *is* hidden from view or partially obscured by Merry's hair, hanging in his face, in a couple of scenes, but if you look closely the cut is still evident.
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie Gimli's axe keeps changing. It changes between a one-sided and double axe on several occasions.
Correction: He has two - there's at least one time when he's using his single-headed axe for something, and you see the double-headed one on his back.
Corrected entry: In any shots of Fangorn Forest from a distance it is an evergreen forest. However, when it is seen from close up or inside it is a deciduous forest.
Correction: The native beech forest of New Zealand where these scenes were filmed ARE evergreen and will look that way from distance. However they aren't coniferous forests (ie pines, firs etc) and the beech trees have actual leaves rather than needles, so I guess if you didn't know them you could mistake them for deciduous in a close-up shot. Just to avoid any confusion these trees aren't any relation to northern hemisphere beeches, they only grow in NZ.
Corrected entry: Whilst Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are on the trail of Merry and Pippin at the beginning of the film there is a panning shot beside a mountain, when they are seen running. If you watch Orlando Bloom he slips on a rock and skids slightly before recovering his balance and running on. Surely Legolas, a member of the most graceful creatures on Middle-Earth, would be able to run over some rocks without slipping?
Correction: As Gimli says, the three companions had been traveling for THREE DAYS without food, or rest, or sign of their quarry. Even an Elf's stamina would be tested by something like that, and although Elves are indeed graceful, they are not utterly infallible. A small slip is not outside the realm of possibility.
Corrected entry: When Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach the black gate of Mordor, there is an army of men marching towards the gate. According to most film books they are Easterlings, who are marching from the east to Mordor to help Sauron. However, if you check a map of Middle-Earth you will that they are marching from the west, not the east.
Correction: There's only one entry to go to Mordor: the Black Gate where we see the army of men going through. Even if they come from the east , they have to pass round the Ash Mountains.
Corrected entry: Just prior to the attack scene from the Orc riders you can see Aragon's horse changes from brown to white, then back to brown again.
Correction: There is one shot of Aragorn about to ride off where the main part of the horse you can see is the side of the saddle, and it's reflecting light and looks white, but the horse is definitely brown (you can see a bit of it at the edges of the shot).
Corrected entry: When Gandalf first confronts Theoden, he throws his cloak off his shoulders and it can be seen falling to his feet, it then shows another full shot and the cloak is nowhere to be seen.
Correction: It's very brief, but you can see the cloak ? just after Gandalf says 'breathe the free air again' the camera moves up, and at the end of this overhead shot the cloak can be glimpsed, lying at the foot of the stairs up to the throne just where Gandalf dropped it.
Corrected entry: When Treebeard, Merry and Pippin exit Fangorn Forest and they see Isengard, you see a shot of Isengard taken from where they are standing. But on Faramir's map you can see that Isengard is to the west of the Misty Mountains, not to the east as it was when Treebeard looked upon it. This brings up the idea that Treebeard was going north, and not south.
Correction: Actually, if you look at official maps of Middle Earth you'll find that Isengard lies in a valley at the south end of the Misty Mountains. In this valley it has mountains to the East and West.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, after the battle of Helm's Deep, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the king ride their horses to the top of the hill to look at the lightning over Mordor. However, earlier in the film when they had been on the hill there was no sign of Mordor in the distance.
Correction: It is not the same hill and they are not looking in the same direction. Mordor would only be visible when seen from a particular viewpoint, which the earlier shots did not use.
Corrected entry: After Sam slides down the hill in front of the gate to Mordor, he ends up half-buried. Frodo goes and pulls him almost all the way out, but in the next shot, Sam is still buried.
Corrected entry: When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are chasing the Uruk-hai just before the Rohan riders appear, they run between two rocky outcrops over a ridge. Aragorn signals to hide, and almost at once the riders appear. Strangely Aragorn can hear Uruk-hai on foot 1 day's march away, but not a group of riders 30 seconds ride away. Legolas, famous for his eyesight, obviously forgot to have a look over the ridge where he might have spotted the riders.
Correction: In order to hear the Uruk-hai, Aragorn had to lie down in perfect stillness and put his ear to rocky ground, which transmits sound much better. Remarks that he couldn't hear "a group of riders 30 seconds away" are ridiculous, as he DOES obviously react to the Riders' approach. As for Legolas not looking over the ridge, the Rohirrim came upon the three companions from *behind* them. The terrain in Rohan is so varied and the Rohirrim travel so swiftly that they could have easily appeared from out of virtually nowhere and caught the Companions by surprise.
Corrected entry: When Gimli is talking to Eowyn about dwarf women, and his horse throws him, the axe in his hand goes flying. In the wide shot, the axe is shown going a fair distance from the horse, about 4 or 5 metres. In the shot of Gimli on the ground, the axe lands right next to him, only about 1 metre from where it flew out of his hand.
Correction: It has been shown numerous times before that Gimli carries multiple axes, strapped to his back and sides. The axe from his hand does fly off to the side; the axe that "lands right next to him" could easily be one of the other axes, dislodged during his fall.
Corrected entry: Gandalf is walking out from Fangorn Forest with Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli, and he stops to call Shadowfax. The shot where you can see his feet shows that he is wearing trainers/sneakers.
Correction: Gandalf the White wears white boots to match his new white robes. Understandably these look similar to sneakers, but aren't.
Corrected entry: When Elrond is telling Arwen to not stay with Aragorn, they have a vision of Aragorn lying dead with his hands grasping his sword, but in one scrolling shot his hand clearly re-grips his sword.
Correction: Aragorn is not re-gripping his sword, nor is he moving his fingers. Arwen's hand is resting on top of Aragorn's, and it is her hand that moves, not his.
Correction: Gandalf can fight the Balrog with a sword because he is powerfully magical, and the Balrog is falling and at a disadvantage. The book tells a little of their long fight, from the chasms deep below Moria to the high mountains where the Balrog is finally beaten. If Aragorn had tried to attack the Balrog at the bridge, he wouldn't have got anywhere near it before being killed; Gandalf knows this.
STP ★