Barad-dur

The Dark Tower was well portrayed in the LOTR as a place of immeasurable power, fear & malice. It seemed almost as scary as the Dark Lord himself! But what did Tolkein have to say about it in letters & other sources?

[Elmo]

I actually feel that after the first film, Sauron on Barad-Dur resembled an angry lighthouse. In Lord of the Rings isn't Barad-Dur cloaked in darkness so Frodo could not have seen Sauron so I think it was poorly done in the films.

[Rhod the Red]

Jackson had a good portrayel, I think. Well suited.

[The 1,000 Reader]

Barad-Dur did its job of being a frightening tower in the movies, and a lot of the pictures people drew of it before stunk, so PJ did something amazing (Well, all of the movies were amazing.)

[Elmo]

I thought it was immense in the first film but I don't know why Peter Jackson had to change the eye...

Perhaps the tower could have looked broader, instead of being so narrow. I liked the illustration in the hardback copy of LOTR best.

[Rhod the Red]

Broader? I hate the square/rectangle styled 'mansions' of evil charachters. That's very stereotypical, a tower is better.

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

Broader? I hate the square/rectangle styled 'mansions' of evil charachters. That's very stereotypical, a tower is better.

Just think of all those flights of stairs Sauron's minions would have had to have walked to reach the top! The headquarters of the Dark Tower are definately best served as being broad upto about halfway. It doesn't matter for Sauron though, as he could perhaps fly up & down?

[Rhod the Red]

Float, I think a formless being floats

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

Float, I think a formless being floats

Sauron is not formless

Originally Posted by Letter #246

Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic.

And, IIRC, Gollum talks about him having only nine fingers.

[Rhod the Red]

Yes he was, after dying in the destruction of Numenour

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

Yes he was, after dying in the destruction of Numenour

The only thing Sauron lost in the destruction of Numenor was his ability to appear in fair form; afterwards, he makes a new "guise", which is, again, destroyed in the battle of the last alliance. Afterwards, as I quoted from the letters, he makes a new form again. It is only after the final destruction of the ring that he remains in bodyless state, "reduced to impotence, infinitely recessive".

Originally Posted by Akallabeth, Silmarillion

But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.

[Annatar!]

I've always loved how Tolkien described the power of Barad-Dur as being reliant on Sauron. It was made with the power of the ring, which was a direct "vessel" (if you will) of his power. In a personal way... however the Dark Tower looks in our own minds is essentially how we as individuals view Sauron. Perhaps PJ saw Sauron as the tall lanky fellow who bullied him at high school... i see the Barad-Dur as being both wide and tall, denoting strength and immovability (stubborn and pig-headed if you will), the only weakness that lies in these two is the small and beautiful ring by which they both draw their power. A wonderfully poetic juxtaposition.