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The LOTR Movie Site
April 10, 2000

Leonard's Comments About the Trailer
Kaal

The First Truly Spectacular Shot

I've read Leonard's comments about the army marching away from Oroduin we can see in the trailer. He said it might be the Last Alliance and not Orcs leaving Mordor for the final assault on the West. Here's something that supports this view:

In the night scene where we see warriors charging a line of spearmen, the spearmen wear a bow-shaped crest on their helmets. Now if you look closely at the second shot we get of the army on the march, you will notice that the plate-cladded warriors marching in the lower right corner of the screen wear the same crest on their helmets!

Orcs: Wicked, Very Wicked

Now about the black-clad Orcs being ordinary Orcs and not Uruks, I would say Leonard is right on that one too: when Jackson is speaking, you can see pieces of equipment strewn about behind his shoulder. The helmets and armor bear the White Hand of Saruman, so it is logical to conlude that any Orthanc Orc would have that symbol on his equipment. The Orcs we saw in the action footage did not.

I might add that I think it's interesting that some Orcs have that uber-cool spiky helmet, while others don't. Are these supposed to be 2 separate breeds of Orcs, or do some choose not to wear the funky helmet? -- MATTHEW