Film vs. Book: Battles

[Naryaló S dú]

Doesn't it seem that the number of orcs wasn't accurately defined in both The Battle of Helm's Deep or The Battle of Minas Tirith. In the book there was like 10,000 orcs seiging Helm's Deep, and 100'000's seiging minas tirith, though the numbers shown in the film didn't seem to differ that much (even though The Battle of Minas Tirith was shown as larger and more complex). What's your thoughts on this?

[paranoid marvin]

The films focus more on the mini-battles featuring our heroes , as to be fair, do the books. Regardless of the size of the enemy army , Jackson capably presents the scenario of a small band of warriors defending against a numerically far superior force

[Rider]

Well, Tolkien also, described a band of soldiers engaging the enemy, not how the entire battle played out. But if I remember correctly, then he didn't mention the number of persons in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, only the peoples in it... The only battle for which I remember correct numbers was the Battle of Morannon which was at 'less than 6,000' for Gondor, Rohan and Dol Amroth together.

[Delvo]

Originally Posted by Naryaló S dú

In the book there was like 10,000 orcs seiging Helm's Deep, and 100'000's seiging minas tirith, though the numbers shown in the film didn't seem to differ that much

I don't know how you could manage to come up with something so far off. The number of enemy soldiers shown was indeed very different between the two settings. In the CGI that they used for "army" scenes, you just tell it how many to make, and that's how many it makes. Screenshots will show this quite easily.

[fingy773]

in the movie saruman mentions that he has 10s of thousands of uruks to wormtounge

[power 0wns]

hmm. they were quite good making the films to be honest, i have to say you cant beat the book, the film was really good, apart from aragorn, he was described as a pretty uglycharacter the books, rough skin sort of thing. Everyone was going crazy over him, but he was good at acting ( vigo mortisn or summin) the battles were to scale but its hard to make the big battles into film as you can only view on part of the siege at a time, unless you would not be able to see anything because the cameras would be to far away for detail,

power 0wns, thnx

[misterwong]

i think that film was better than book

[sarakoth]

Originally Posted by misterwong

i think that film was better than book

You're one of the few people who think that.

Although the movies were very good, I think the theatrical versions were too cut down.

[pyan]

Though in general I enjoyed the films, and especially the big battle scenes (Battle of the Last Alliance, Helm's Deep, and the Pelennor Fields) I do wish Mr Jackson hadn't taken so many liberties with the text...Elves at Helm's Deep? Pshaw!

[paranoid marvin]

Originally Posted by pyan

Though in general I enjoyed the films, and especially the big battle scenes (Battle of the Last Alliance, Helm's Deep, and the Pelennor Fields) I do wish Mr Jackson hadn't taken so many liberties with the text...Elves at Helm's Deep? Pshaw!

tbh I think we got off lightly , considering what Hollywood usually does with book adaptations

It very easily have ended up more akin to 'Dude , Where's My Ring?' than Tolkein's vision

[Ursa major]

I don't think the film misrepresented the different scales of the battles.

In the Battle of Helm's Deep, the orcs attacked over a relatively narrow front. At the Battle of Minas Tirith, the attackers are shown as covering the plain that lies in front of the city, which would require far far more troops.

[sarakoth]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

I don't think the film misrepresented the different scales of the battles.

In the Battle of Helm's Deep, the orcs attacked over a relatively narrow front. At the Battle of Minas Tirith, the attackers are shown as covering the plain that lies in front of the city, which would require far far more troops.

In the film, Sauron's army DID cover the plain that lis in front of Minas Tirith hence the name, Battle of the Pellenor Fields.

[sarakoth]

Originally Posted by pyan

Though in general I enjoyed the films, and especially the big battle scenes (Battle of the Last Alliance, Helm's Deep, and the Pelennor Fields) I do wish Mr Jackson hadn't taken so many liberties with the text...Elves at Helm's Deep? Pshaw!

Jackson got this inspiration from a line from the book. Legolas said that the battle would be so much easier if they got a couple hundred Elven archers.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by sarakoth

Jackson got this inspiration from a line from the book. Legolas said that the battle would be so much easier if they got a couple hundred Elven archers.

That's as may be....but I'll always be annoyed that he stuck things like this in.
Why? It adds nothing to the result of the battle, annoys the purists, and flies completely in the face of common sense: in order to get there on time, they'd have had to have left Rivendell at least 10 days beforehand - when the still unbroken Fellowship were still floating down the river from Lorien!

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by sarakoth

In the film, Sauron's army DID cover the plain that lis in front of Minas Tirith hence the name, Battle of the Pellenor Fields.

I think you could agree with me using fewer words, you know.