December 29, 2003

Ages of LotR Characters, Legolas Stunts, and Other
Bob Praz

Alright, I won't waste much time on the first topic, so here it is.

The age of the Fellowship characters by the time they set out from Rivendell (assuming their birthdays were before December):
Frodo was 50
Sam was 35
Pippin was 28
Merry was 36
Aragorn was 87
Boromir was 40
Gimli was 139
Other than that, Gandalf is at least several thousand years hold (being a Maia), and Legolas, some say, is 2931 years old, but I don’t know how they figured that, as Tolkien never provided an age or a date of birth.
As for the other characters: Bilbo was 128, Elrond was perhaps about 6517, Arwen was 2777, Elladan and Elrohir were 2888, Denethor was 88, Faramir was 35, Éomer was 27, Éowyn was 23, and Théoden was 70.

Moving on...

Minor questions: Is it just me or was the sequence of Legolas taking down a Mûmak single-handedly rather exaggerated (and even corny)? I must know your opinions.
Also, does ANYONE know how Legolas actually gets on that horse in TTT, just before the warg battle? I’ve looked at it many times and I still don’t see how it makes sense.

Apparently Viggo (Mortensen) was somewhat disappointed by ROTK because so much of Aragorn’s screen time was cut out. Quote: "Practically half my scenes were cut from the film. Scenes which show important moments in Aragorn’s development into the King of Gondor are missing from the theatrical cut of The Return of the King." So I suppose we can probably expect to see a lot more of Aragorn in the EE. When you think of it, there are many great moments of his character that have been cut out: the Houses of Healing, revealing himself to Sauron in the Palantir, walking up to the throne of Gondor (although we know little of what happens there), and I’m sure there is more. I think now that this could be another flaw (albeit not great) of the movie, as it’s true that there wasn’t as much emphasis on Aragorn as I expected. Then again, I’d rather PJ puts all the emphasis on Frodo and Sam than anything else.

Also, a few interesting notes about the casting in ROTK, for those who didn’t know: Elanor Gamgee, daughter of Sam, was of course played by Alexandra Astin, Sean Astin’s daughter, while the little baby that Rosie is holding at the very end is actually the baby daughter of Sarah McLeod (who plays Rosie Cotton). Gorbag is played by Stephen Ure, who also plays Grishnahk in TTT. Peter Jackson says that he was cast as one of the main orcs in each movie, so I’m sure that he plays the Isengard orc in FOTR who asks Saruman: "What orders from Mordor, my lord? What does the eye command?" and etc.
Finally, Lawrence Makoare, who played Lurtz (the uruk-hai captain in FOTR), also played the Witch-King as well as Gothmog, his lieutenant (the really, really ugly and deformed orc in charge of the siege). So, as you can see, there seems to have been a LOT of repetition in the casting throughout all three movies, especially among the bad guys. Also, there is an insane number of cameos in ROTK.

That’s all for today (well, almost).

PS: Annatar, I truly agree with you. I think overall politics across the world have reached an all-time low. I think it is time for another great leader or two to be elected somewhere in this sad western world of ours, and thus perhaps set an example.