History Film / TheLordOfTheRings

* HollywoodTactics: Only affects the heroes, funnily enough. The orcs almost always outmaneuver them while the heroes blindly charge in, and then they win because the script says so. One of the biggest changes from the books, where battles had several stages of realistic maneuvers and fewer sudden reversals.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The three movies are way darker than the original books.

* CharacterDerailment: Denethor. Possibly excusable, since Denethor's character was developed very delicately through chapters of dialogue, and it would have been nigh impossible to portray this in the film. Still, he deserved better than being an old fool who got slapped around by Gandalf ''twice'' - to say nothing of his "exit"...

*** Also, he wanted to move Shelob to the third movie because ''anything'' was going to pale next to Helm's Deep, and that left Frodo and Sam completely out of danger for the entire movie. There had to be a threat, and poor Faramir got drafted.

* AllThereInTheManual: If you haven't read TheSilmarillion, or the books, or anything about the backstory of LOTR, you'd better have a friend who has, or else you're going to be wondering what the bloody hell is going on half the time.
** Case in point: Arwen dying. It seems out-of-place and a DeusExMachina... until your geeky friend explains that Arwen is choosing to become human, since she's a quarter Man, because Elrond is actually a Half-Elf who chose to live as an Elf, while Elrond's long-passed twin brother chose to live as a Man, becoming the First King of Numenor, and doing this when Sauron is about to take over and corrupt all of Middle-Earth means she's going to die from this. This also helps explain how Aragorn is actually in his mid-80s, yet still looks 30.
*** Not...really? It's entirely possible to follow what's going on even if you've never heard of the series before.
*** Case in point: Recently watched this -all 3 extended editions- with several friends who had never seen the movies, let alone read the books. They only had the vague idea that it was fantasy, and one of them (living under a rock most of their life, naturally) had never even heard of them. All understood the movie just fine (and all liked it very much of course).

** '''SeanConnery''' was offered the role of Gandalf, as well as a percentage of the gross, but turned it down because he's not a fan of the fantasy genre (the same reason he turned down the role of [[HarryPotter Dumbledore]]).

* DarkerAndEdgier: The three movies are way darker than the original books.

* DarkerAnsEdgier: The three movies are way darker than the original books.

* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: Galadriel's gifts. All of them. Even moreso in the book, where she gives Sam a [[JarOfDirt box of dirt]] with a magic bean in it. It helps.

* [=~I'm A Humanitarian~=]: "Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!"

** Right at the climax of the third film, [[spoiler: when Frodo succumbs to the lure of the One Ring while standing on the edge of the Crack of Doom. It's actually two smaller "no"s, then followed by what might be the biggest "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" ever heard as Frodo puts on the Ring, alerting the Big Bad to his presence.]]

** This.
--> '''Corsair Captain''': Boarded?! By [[YouAndWhatArmy you and whose army?]]\\
'''Aragorn''': ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome This]]'' army.

** In the book, the Witch-King [[MissedMomentOfAwesome specifies what will happen to Eowyn]] if she "comes between a Nazgûl and his prey."
--> '''Witch-King:''' He will bear thee away to the Houses of Lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.

* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: Galadriel's gifts. All of them. Even moreso in the book, where she gives Sam a JarOfDirt.

** Sam's speech at the end of The Two Towers; Even Gollum was visibly affected by this speech, at least for a moment.
--> '''Sam:''' It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? (...) Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. (...) Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. (...)
-->'''Frodo:''' What are we holding onto, Sam?
-->'''Sam:''' That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

** The idea of Sauron taking form (specifically ''[[HeavenlyCreatures Kate Winslet's]]'' form - The Eye was really ''[[bishonen]]'' back in the day) and kicking Aragorn's ass at the final battle was also briefly entertained, and then mercifully abandoned in place of a troll.

**This Troper has always taken this line as Legolas saying, "Hey, that's clever. This could work."
*** Still, [[ViewersAreMorons that's probably why they had him say that]].
*CallThatAFormation?: Averted - most battles quickly devolve into total chaos but the most disciplined soldiers on both sides do keep formation at least when taking an enemy charge (most notably elves in the prologue, and the uruk hai taking the reinforcements' charge at Helm's Deep. Any lack of formation can be explained by the less disciplined men, who were very much medieval in nature, and the chaos of battle, where any seasoned unit can break up. both armies do use mixed weapons, with archers/crossbowmen firing from inside the formation. However it was a common tactic for skirmirshers to take cover in infantry ranks. Its possible for archers to be trained to do it as well.

* [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]: The small glass vial containing the Light of Eärendil, given to Frodo by Galadriel in the first film. It comes in handy in the third film, when [[spoiler: Frodo is lost in Shelob's lair]]. The elven rope given to Sam also comes in handy, though it's only given a bit of relevance in the extended edition. Given the length of time between the release of the film in theaters, this turned into a bit of a BrickJoke.
** In the book ''all items'' received by Fellowship in Lothlorien fit this trope (most notably Elven cloaks and broches). The movie keeps most of them with the exception of Boromir's belt (in the book it served to help Faramir realize that he indeed saw his dead brother and not just a vision).

** The March of the Ents/Eagles/general badassery about to happen theme (can be heard here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePIXwrL2-dE).

** "My precious..." which was of course from the book, but got to meme status from this.
** "Stupid FAT hobbit! Pah!"

** "Gondor has no pants...Gondor needs no pants" is co inspired by both this movie and Ralph Bakshi animated version.

* {{Narm}}: '''"THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!"'''

* NarmCharm: [[spoiler:Denethor's]] death scene (where he [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes nuts]], lights himself on fire, and ''jumps off a cliff'') in ''Return Of The King''. It may look funny, but it's also kinda ''creepy''.

* Aragorn is the RebelPrince

* ShieldSurf: Legolas does this down some stone stairs during the battle for Helm's Deep.

* TearJerker: Quite a few moments from all three films, but notably the Hobbits saying good-bye at Grey Havens.
** "I can't carry it for you...''but I can carry you!''."

** Sam's speech at the end of The Two Towers;
--> '''Sam:''' I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

*** Even Gollum was visibly affected by this speech, at least for a moment.

** Theoden's mourning over the loss of his son and sayins, "No parent should have to bury their child." Really hits home for people in that same situation.

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: "They have a cave troll.".

* WalkIntoMordor: It's what they do. But not simply.

** The idea of Sauron taking form (specifically ''[[HeavenlyCreatures Kate Winslet's]]'' form - The Eye was really ''bishonen'' back in the day) and kicking Aragorn's ass at the final battle was also briefly entertained, and then mercifully abandoned in place of a troll.
** The movies were originally planned as duology because Jackson thought making a trilogy was going to be a hard sell. Thankfully, when he pitched it as a duology to New Line, they responded with "why do you want to make two movies?" and just as Jackson was about to launch into his defense of why it couldn't be possibly done in one film, they continued... "this is ''three'' movies."
** Stuart Townsend was actually cast as Aragorn and in New Zealand filming. A couple of days in they realized it wasn't going to work out and called up Viggo Mortensen. [[http://www.herr-der-ringe-film.de/v2/media/archiv/hdr/townsend02.jpg There's even a still of him in character.]]

** When Mirimax was unable to finance the original two films, they tried to get them meshed into one two-hour movie. Apparently it was suggested that they cut Bree and the Battle of Helm's Deep, "lose or use" Saruman, merge Rohan and Gondor with Éowyn as Boromir's sister, shorten Rivendell and Moria as well as having Ents prevent the Uruk-hai kidnapping Merry and Pippin. Thankfully, Jackson understandably considered this to be "cutting out half the good stuff".
** Frodo was originally gonna push Gollum and the Ring into the lava.

** Despite all of the series' wins and nominations, the trilogy's cast was [[AwardSnub snubbed]]: the only acting Oscar nomination was Ian McKellan for the first film. Most notably, Andy Serkis was not eligable for being nominated for best supporting actor because his character was CGI.

** Balrogs have wings.