LotR3-RotK-Seq04

[alatar]

I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm. - Psalm 55:8


Gandalf and Pip ride south to Gondor. The scenery on the way is breathtaking, as is now the standard. Mountains, woods streams – what’s not to like? We see the White City gleaming across the plain of the Pelennor. The Rammas is noticeably missing. Also the fortress, for that is what it truly is, sticks out from the mountain more than I had imagined that it would. One would think that it would have been closer to the mountainside. Note that nothing is on the road or in the field. Or at least that my eyes can see (there are some little dots on the plain, but I’m not sure what they are to be).

Gandalf announced the place as the city of kings - not, noticeably, of stewards. He and Pip ride round and up the city levels, and it’s here that you see the detail on this bigature. Gandalf is in haste, and almost rides down more than one pedestrian. The city’s real details are also not skimpy, with the extras filling in as a populace going about their business. Finally Gandalf and Pip reach the top level, which oddly looks like a helicopter landing pad. Note that the ‘palace’ on this level was not part of Mount Mindolluin, but that it sits in front of it. We get to see again that dead white tree that Pip saw when he peered inside the palantir. The hobbit prompts Gandalf, who then starts dispensing information, telling poor Pip what he mustn’t speak about, and it’s comic that Gandalf eventually comes to the conclusion that it would be best if Pip were just silent. A funny moment, and not a belching dwarf in sight. Gandalf walks into the hall to greet Denethor as Pippin takes in the place. Statues of kings adorn the room, and the black pillars with gold strips at the bottoms add a somber and regal touch. A very clean and sterile place, not a hint of the organic. Denethor rightly sits at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the throne.

After hailing the Steward, Pip and Gandalf await some sign from the sitting and seemingly catatonic figure. Gandalf continues, assuming that Denethor has heard him, and offers counsel. Denethor, however, would like information of the cloven horn carried by his firstborn. Pip is suddenly frightened, as this is now kindly king with which to discuss herb lore, whether galenas or athelas. Denethor ups the anxiety of the moment by asking why his son is dead. Pip, shocked and not silly for once, recalls the death of Boromir, the man who died defending Pip and Merry. Also, what comes to my mind is the scene in FotR where Boromir took the time to train the two hobbits in fighting with swords. PJ’s Boromir isn’t some big dumb guy who makes a grab for the Ring, but a conflicted yet honorable (and therefore likeable) brother of Faramir and father figure to the two hobbits.

Pip, moved by the memory of Boromir, gets the courage to speak, and tells Denethor of Boromir’s last moments. He kneels before the Steward and offers his service, basically his life, in place of the one who will not return. Gandalf grimaces, as seemingly his cold counsel would be against such warmth of heart. That or he rightly fears for the Steward’s life, as we know what happens to people near Pip…

The cheek of Denethor quivers just a bit, almost breaking into a smile, but then the sorrow and despair creep back in, and his frown reigns once more. The strength and truth in Pip’s words about Boromir wound Denethor. Gandalf in seconds has had enough – maybe he’s prompted to get the scene rolling again – and so he pushes young Peregrin back with his staff. Gandalf jumps in with words of war and rumors of war, and prompts Denethor to action. Here Gandalf seems cold-hearted, as Denethor is not given time to speak a moment with the one who last saw his son alive. Like Boromir said outside of Moria, for pity’s sake, give the man a moment.

Note the faint hint of stubble on Denethor’s face. Are we being given a small clue that this man is starting to let go of his duties, and of this life?

Gandalf almost commands the Steward to light the beacons so that Rohan can come to help. Denethor retorts that he knows what’s up Gandalf’s sleeve, and it’s not cards. It seems to the Steward that he is to spill his blood upon the ground so that there is a kingdom ready for the ascension of Aragorn. Didn’t Boromir, when he first arrived at Imladris, say that Gondor needs no King? Was this something that he heard each day at his father’s side? That man, in the end, changed (at his death Boromir acknowledges Aragorn as his King), and so why not Denethor? But, from the twitching of his face, we might not be dealing with a sane rational person, and so change may be beyond his reach…at least for now.

Gandalf doesn’t like what he hears, and pretty much says that Denethor can take a flying leap for all he cares. Aragorn will be King, and that’s how it will be. Nice tact there, Gandalf.

Pip, caught in the middle, is shocked to hear these two, presumably on the same side of the war, argue and shout/spout. Does he now regret his decision to enter the service of such a man? I’m reminded of WWII and Montgomery and Patton.

Gandalf turns and storms away, and gets in the last word, speaking of “vain ambition.” Note that, when Denethor returns to his chair, I can’t help but see Captain Pike of the Star Trek episode “The Menagerie.” Gandalf continues, telling Pip, and therefore us, the history of the city mixed in with more doom and gloom. “Ya see this city Pip? Stood for a thousand years it did. That Madman in there is going to lose it this week, you’ll see…”

Pip is getting paid back in spades for his lack of control in Rohan.

We learn the importance of the White Tree, and hear that the guards that surround it are actually guarding it, which is news to me. Hope - that’s what they have, Gandalf says, but methinks that they really need a gardener. Gandalf tells us in brief of the downfall of the West, where tombs were made more splendid than the houses of the living, where ancestors became more dear than the names of children. The Kings began looking backwards and ignored the now and the future.

Great stuff, and you know why.

Gandalf says that the kings were, “asking questions of the stars.” What does this mean? That they fiddled while the fields burned? Is it something akin to astrology (I won’t go there, but if you want, let’s do it via PM)? Finally, Gandalf, in that brief minute of film, tells us that, basically, that is why the line of Kings failed. By the by, I just love the scenery though it is CG. It’s not my Minas Tirith, but it does look real. Gandalf saves one small bit of scorn when he mentions that Gondor’s rule was given over to “lesser men” at the end. We know what that head nod means, as that’s where this monologue started.

Pip gazes east. Mordor. Gandalf confirms Pip’s statement, and his attitude is like, “Yes, there it is, and though my many years it’s been one big pain.” A storm comes from the East, and it’s not Manwë’s doing. We hear that Sauron has brewed this fugue, and that his orcs will benefit by the lack of sun. Let’s keep that in mind when we get to the battle of the Pellenor fields.

Pip, sliding back into his old self a little, tries to lighten the moment. Okay…been there, done that, and soon will get the shirt (and the hauberk and the helmet and…), so let’s leave, eh? Gandalf snuffs out that flame and tells Pip that they are here to stay, that war comes and this is the raft to which they will cling.

If help is to come, it must come from outside the city. But will it?