My favorite parts are the audience clue-ins, like when Faramir taps on the map 1,230,980,982 times to "inform the characters of his wherabouts" or when an orc says "He'll wish he'd never have been born," to no one in particular. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can surpass Denathor's death for sheer ignorance of the laws of cinema, physics, and general intelligence. Denathor--or, this man--
catches the firey wrath of Gandalf and lands on his preemptive funeral pyre. After catching fire, Denathor runs the length of the castle and climbs a bunch of stairs before catapulting off the none-too-short phallic edge of a convenient cliff. This takes ten minutes and twenty eight seconds. Well, okay, more like one minute, but it stretches out during my moments of remeniscence.
As the battle storms on, twenty minutes after the death of Denathor, my friend Madeline nudges my arm and says, "What they don't realize is that Denathor's still burning. He's running to the top of Minas Tirith to jump off again".
"Actually, I believe he's still falling," I replied.
This very same Denathor dismissed Pippin from his service, telling him to die in "a manner best suiting you". Sounds like another quiz for Seventeen Magazine! Customize your perfect death in five easy steps! It'll be right next to "Burn that Fat!" and "The Perfect eyeshadow to match YOUR season!"
Oh, and the title of this post? The actual name of a movie of a certain genre (cough cough)I accidentally caught the end of on HBO when I was twelve.
