the opening of the helms deep battle
scene in the two towers reminds me a lot
of the opening scene from sergio leone's
Once Upon a Time in the West both movies
have classic scores but both use silence
and some spare Foley sound effects to
set the stage silence is important
because a battle like a shootout is all
about contrast
Helms deep is full of contrasts as a 39
minute sequence that has to carry the
dramatic weight the ups and downs of a
mini movie within a movie to hold our
attention in fact since the two towers
is essentially the middle of a larger
story Peter Jackson and his co writers
needed to help speed battle to be
climactic enough to provide enough
temporary closure that the film could
stand on its own in the end it's that
necessity which I think generated the
best cinematic battle of the trilogy in
one of the best movie battles of all
time you can break the helms feedback or
the Battle of the Hornburg as it's known
in the books in 224 feet these leads
provide a rough layout for the rhythm of
the sequence by the way speaking of
contrast you can see looking at it this
way that a large part of the battle is
virtually monochromatic the late great
cinematographer Andrew Leslie has the
really difficult task of maintaining the
seal of a night battle in the rain while
making sure that the visuals were
intelligible enough to the viewer he
does this by infusing the scene with a
strong blueish backlight ostensibly the
moon which draws out edges and by
keeping the color palette very limited
he ensures that shots aren't too busy
for the eyes and brains of the audience
intelligibility is really important for
a giant set piece like this not only do
you want the audience to be able to see
what's happening you want them to have a
sense of how the fighting is developing
for each side which is why these 24
narrative beats are crucial each beat
represents an action or development that
carries an emotional cue whether it's
the feeling of anticipation at the start
or the feeling of vulnerability when the
Urich I explode the Deeping wall and
march up the causeway or the feeling of
hope at sunrise and when Gandalf finally
arrives if you were to graph the
progress of the battle using these 24
beats along an axis of how close the
heroes were to victory or defeat it
would look something like this what
strikes me right away is that this shape
resembles almost exactly a traditional
story arc in miniature complete with
inciting incidents
growing obstacles
many triumphs
you
[Music]
and a roaring victorious climax just
when things are at their most dire
some feet really is a movie within a
movie it has a fully realized narrative
structure that that parallels the
narrative shape of the trilogy where
things get darker and darker and closer
to defeat with some small victories
along the way including Helm's Deep
itself but only at the very end when all
hope is lost
does the climactic triumph occur having
a complete narrative arc like this is
how you keep an audience interested in a
39 minutes secret but to keep them
invested you have to do even more as I
said before Helms Deep is full of
contrasts of clothes and hand fighting
contrasts with sweeping crane shots
moments of levity flash monkey hug le
dish production contrasts with moments
of tragedy darkness contrasts with light
beauty with vileness reckless hate with
moral conviction one of the contrasts
that Lord of the Rings always has to
balance is the one between the real and
the mythic it film has to be emotionally
realistic enough to register on a
personal level but it also has to have
that extra heightened element of fantasy
of myth as if we're watching something
more perfect than the true story can be
you see that in color palette like I
mentioned but also in the rain and smoke
and other atmospherics the peppered use
of slow motion of course there are shots
like this it's these things that make
the scenes narrative arc
three-dimensional Peter Jackson Andrew
lesney and the crews and actors who
spent four months of night shoot filming
the sequence not only made it easily
comprehensible for audiences but also
resin with the rest of the film on the
theme of darkness contrasted with light
that defines the trilogy Helms Deep is
at once self-contained and a critical
part of something bigger in other words
it's not only a masterful sequence how
thief is the reason why epic battles
exist
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was actually a conversation i had there
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enjoyed that and I just like meeting
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the rest of you I'll see you next
Wednesday