It's official, today is my birthday cheering intensifies well, at least it is at this side of the planet, and to celebrate the occasion, I want to do something different from what I've been doing lately, today I'm gonna dissect and analyze gonna make the noggin work for this one my favorite scene of my favorite movie, The Ride of the Rohirrim from The Return of the King, so saddle your ride, sound the horn and let's go!
Source: GIPHY
For a bit of context, the forces of Mordor are attacking Minas Tirith the capital city of Gondor and shit is fucked up, orcs are winning fucked up the gates were broken GROND! GROND! GROND! GROND! and the orcs started flooding the first level of the city, routing the soldiers defending it, we see Gothmog, the orc captain, ordering his troop to go in and destroy everything as a wide aerial shot show us the forces of darkness storming the fortified city
Source: GIPHY
The next sequence is total chaos, we see OTS short for Over The Shoulder shots of orcs fighting men to show the brutality of orcs, tracking shots of orcs running and pilling the city as trolls toss soldiers around like toys terrifying but fun... if you're an orc and ground-level shots showing people fleeing and dead soldiers on the ground feels bad man
Source: GIPHY
Meanwhile, we see Gandalf badass old man and Pippin good-hearted and brave moron riding to save Faramir from being turned into a bbq by his father but they are interrupted by The Witch-King of Angmar and his fell beast, Gandalf being the badass he is, confronts him, but the acting of Sir Ian McKellen, perfect as always, lets us see the fear in his eyes, the feeling of terror of fighting against the greatest lieutenant of Sauron oh and I guess Pippin is there too
Source: GIPHY
Unfortunately, the Witch-King proved to be a greater foe than Gandalf imagined, or did he? he breaks his staff and throws him into the ground, these events are filmed in a low angle, always putting the Witch-King in a higher position than Gandalf to make the illusion of being more powerful and terrible than the wizard, however, before the evil guy lands the final strike he's interrupted by the sound of horns in the distance yay
Source: GIPHY
Here enter Theoden and his six thousand riders, captured by a beautiful wide shot of the horizon as they climb onto the top of the hill accompanied by a slow rendition of the Rohirrim musical theme, the fucking best of all the trilogy here we can see the main theme of the scene, the breaking of dawn to dissipate the darkness of Mordor, this is why the Rohirrim arrive with the sun
Source: GIPHY
Next, we see a series of reaction shots of Theoden King, Eowyn, Eomer and the rest of the riders contrasted by the huge forces of Mordor, shittons of orcs you can see the anguish, terror, and feeling of uncertainty, they could know very well they were riding to certain death, but to see it face to face is another business entirely even Eowyn gives Merry some words of encouragement, she's the best
Source: GIPHY
Theoden loses no time, they rode three days to Gondor for battle so he issues his orders and proceeds to give the first half of his speech which is one of the best speeches in the whole trilogy what do you mean "you bow to no one" is not a speech? culminating this part of the scene with an aerial wide shot of the Rohirrim army with the army of Mordor in the background, sizing the forces in the screen, all of this while the musical theme of the Rohirrim intensifies
Source: GIPHY
Next, Theoden rides along the line of his army and finishes his speech DEATH INTENSIFIES!!!! and an aerial shot of the Rohirrim goes up as finally, the sun breaks at the horizon as the music reaches a high point but not the highest and Theoden order his army to go forth, the horns sound once again and the charge begins FORTH EORLINGAS!!!!!!
Source: GIPHY
What we see next is a minute long charge accompanied by a shift in the tonal music, the brass section of the orchestra fades away and the strings take over making this shit the most epic shit in the history of shits we're delighted by several shots of the Rohirrim charging, front shots, aerial shots, side shots, shots of our heroes and of course a couple of shots of the orcs, at first firing arrows and then shitting their trousers while the riders approached the host of orcs
Source: GIPHY
The charge ends with the clash of the armies or The Trampleling as I call it here the music stops completely and we only hear the sounds of battle, screams, clash of steel, the thundering roar of hooves, this immerses the viewer in the crude brutality of battle, all of it shot from the low perspective of the orc, at the same time it serves as a release of the tension the scene was building since the arrival of the riders
Source: GIPHY
Eventually, the music appears again as the charge scenes finish, we see the orcs scared shitless routing and the Rohirrim army breaking through the orc army, and this way the best charge scene in movie history ends sorry Endgame it is a shame that you were outclassed in every way by a 17 years old movie this is a masterful display of cinematography, all elements show up to enhance the experience, music, photography, script, they all make this climactic scene be my favorite of all time, but I can't leave you hanging like that, I'll leave a link below for you to watch the whole thing!
P.D.
Source: GIPHY
See that Game of Thrones writers??? FUCKING PIKE IN FRONT AND ARCHERS FUCKING BEHIND! Even fucking orcs understood the basics of strategic combat, you fucking morons!
THANKS FOR READING!
Source: GIPHY
THANKS FOR READING!