**RotK - Gothmog (Chief Orc at the Pelennor)

[Lily Bracegirdle]

The guy with the skull hat is usually standing next to Gothmog, and he is one of the first run over by Aragorn and the Dead Army.<P>On the A&E special last night they showed the filming of a scene where Gothmog was chopped up by both Aragorn and Gimli. Gimli did his patented "groin chop" again -- I wish he didn't do that. It makes him seem ridiculous. Anyway, this scene or one like it may be on the EE.<P>-Lily

[The Only Real Estel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Gimli did his patented "groin chop" again -- I wish he didn't do that. It makes him seem ridiculous. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Very. I was just thinking to myself a few days ago, "Wow. We actually got through RotK without any of that!" Not to last, I suppose...

[Finwe]

Oh dear, and to think, I thought that our dear Dwarf would finally mature, and realize that hacking at people's groins is NOT a mature way to kill them.

[The Only Real Estel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>The guy with the skull hat is usually standing next to Gothmog<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Really? I didn't notice that. I just figured he died when the Rohirimm ran over them all (who wouldn't figure that?).

[Grimkû the Blood-Axe]

i would like to see this picture of everyones favourite Gothmog from the Sunday Times. I am trying to get a picture of him for my avatar but unfortunately no luck yet. Anyway, who was this 'pirate' orc with the skull and **** voice. Anyone know his name? The URL below is for all us orc fans..<BR> <A HREF="http://www.orcs.ca" TARGET=_blank>http://www.orcs.ca</A> <P>And if anyone can find me a pic of good old Goth'hog' it would be appreciated.

[SamwiseGamgee]

I thought he was hideous, revolting, evil, merciless and generally everything an orc should be, so that's good. However, I don't think he should have been an orc, but I'm pretty sure that's a thread somewhere in the books!

[Erundil]

I honestly think that both "Gothmog" (who looked like he had either a really bad case of leprosy or had had a run-in with the Crack of Doom on a bad day) and "Skull-boy" (that's what I'm calling him from now on) were both horrendously done. I know PJ has made some bad choices in filmitography (Xenarwen, Elves at Helm's Deep, the Searchlight of Mordor), but I think this one comes close to taking the cake.<BR>I mean, come on, the dreaded Lieutenant of Morgul is an albino orc with a skin disease, and his second in command is a nerdy-looking little orc who has some dudes skull tied onto his helmet? This is pathetic. They could have at least made them look a little more 'normal' (however far that adjective goes with orcs) instead of their hilarious clown-like selves.<BR>Thus ends my daily rant against PJ and Co., with me thinking about how crappy a movie that I tried to make would be, but still being mad at them for not being truer to the book.<p>[ 10:31 PM February 02, 2004: Message edited by: Erundil ]

[Finwe]

Perhaps he wanted to humorize (is that even a word??) the Enemy, to balance the "scary" Dark Lord and the Witch-king.

Except the 'scary' Dark Lord was only 'scary' when he appeared at the very start of FoTR as a heavily armoured 9ft+ man-ster. As a vaguely psychedelic eyeball, not so much.<P>Gothmog was just so lame and 80's-looking, made Lurtz look like Morgoth in comparrison.

[Kransha]

Hmmm...I smell the eerie satisfaction and convenience of Extended Edition resolution of this little problem.<P>I had always suspected that Gothmog (before seeing the movie) was not an orc. It didn't seem any orc was smart enough to be Lieutenant of Barad-dur. Plus, that particular orc happened to be the most obnoxious and ugly, though the sidestepping-the-rock thing gets him bonus points in my preverbial book.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Numenorean makes a good point. I remember not enjoying Lurtz's voice but at least he was genuinely scary looking and he was at least a good fight for Aragorn.<P>Can you imagine the hog-orc challenging Aragorn or Eomer or Faramir or...hell, even Samwise! They would burst out laughing and once they had had composed themselves they would nonchalantly stride up and lop his head off. (Maybe not Samwise though, not tall enough.)

Yeah <B>Eomer,</B> Lurtzy was uber-strong, very menacing and utterly convincing in his Uruk arrogance, and like you say, even a handful for Aragorn. Contrast his diabolical presence with Boss Hogg-Orc and theres no contest at all. Hoggy is out of his depth, not that threatening (despite his legions of troops) and in the wrong decade with regards to special effects/make-up. I find it wierd that he even made the final cut.

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

Everybody hates the movie Gothmog, so it seems. I kind of liked the character. He reminded me more of the book's orcs, less beastly and animal-like and more smarmy if that's the word . . . sort of like a Klingon in attitude. <P>I admired the fact that he had the brass to not actually cower in fear at the presence of the Witch-King, no matter how much distance he attempted to maintain . . .<P>While the makeup was 'strange' at best, it did the job of making him distinctive and twice as foul as any normal orc. I wouldn't have minded seeing some hair on him though, or a helmet, or war-paint. I really think the Morgul-Uruks should have been rocking white crescent moons on their dark faces, circling their eyes and such. Would have been comparable to the Uruk's 'White Hand'. The Black Uruks seemed at least as badassed as the Uruk-Hai, and in greater numbers; no wonder Grishnakh didn't buy into that 'we are the fighting Uruk-Hai crap'.<P>I always tend to throw war paint on orc drawings, it seems like something they'd be into.

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

I'll go against the grain and say I liked the movie's Gothmog; twice as foul as any normal orc and just the type to disrespect an ancient name of power and terror. <P>Anyone with the nerve to not cower in fear at the Witch-King's voice and presence, no matter what kind of distance is maintained, is pretty damn tough in my book. Also, I liked his intelligence and how Gothy was quite a bit less animalistic and stupid than most of the orcs we've seen - a lot more like the orcs of the book. The Uruk-Hai seemed sort of intelligent at first, but a breed created solely for fighting is limited in thought, which explains sentences like "We are the fighting Uruk-Hai, we rule . . . White Hand good". Well, it's not a stretch, if it's made up. <P>Gothmog returned orc-kind to a swart, smarmy, even crass race but not a dumb one. <P>Yeah, the makeup was iffy; pasty faced and gross. I like the grossness, and actually it makes sense that the orc-commander of Minas Morgul would be somewhat pale; how often would he be out getting a tan plus, everything about that place seems pale. Maybe he could have used some war-paint, a sickening crescent moon painted on half his face in black - as a matter of fact, that's something I would have liked to see on all the "Morgul-rats".<P>I also liked how he had himself a Warg to ride - after all, a guy in his position had to have some resources.

[The Only Real Estel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I also liked how he had himself a Warg to ride - after all, a guy in his position had to have some resources.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Now <I>that</I> was the only good part (IMO) of Gothmog's inclusion. That shot was awesome, him all cocky, swaying back & forth, & his Warg snapping at the orcs. Although no doubt Saucepan Man didn't appreciate having to see another Warg in RotK .

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

Now that was the only good part (IMO) of Gothmog's inclusion.

I agree!
I saw the film yesterday again and I noticed that Gothmog actually had 2 eyes. I had thought that the hideous hole in his ugly face was an empty eye socket but there was a tiny eye in the hole!! (if there was a "throw up -smiley", I would insert it here)