Prepare for another thrilling program of The Quest for New Zealand’s Lord of the Rings by MEE!!! (DVD not included)
We saw two scenes today (exceeding my expectations). And I am very happy to say that we were able to pinpoint exact locations. So, shall we begin? Beginning was rough (after the highway that is). We had drive for about 39 km (about 19.5 miles) down a very dusty and gravely road. Yeah. But, we were rewarded.
Two Towers, first disc, The Fate of Merry and Pippin. Are you hipped? Didn’t think so. Ew, nasty start to that scene. So, the trio rides up the hill on horseback to discover a pile of burning orc bodies. They despair as they realize they have failed Merry and Pippin. Gimil says, “We’ve failed them.” And Legolas starts murmuring something in Elvish. But, you should actually return to the start of that scene. And then rewind a couple seconds.
You will see the back of the horses as they near the smoke and Fangorn forest. So, that’s a hill at the edge of a forest. If you were to bake that camera up several feet, you would encounter a fence followed by a road…and then another fence. Our directions prompted us to jump the fence, but we (sadly) decided against it.
Anyway. We continued on the road, driving several more miles. As we moved forward on the road, we moved back in time, back to the first movie and the breaking of the fellowship.
Go figure, the scene (Fellowship of the Ring, second disc) is called The Breaking of the Fellowship. The scene opens to Aragorn confronting a plethora of orcs. Fastforward until you encounter Frodo (he’ll be falling over a tree root). Keep going past the cutscene to Aragorn. Frodo then regains his footing and quickly crawls behind a tree (cut scene to Aragorn…). Pause as you return to Frodo cowering behind the tree as orcs run by.
The rock in the bottom left hand corner of the screen was added, who knows why. Yeah…well, we found that exact spot, which was really cool. Keep watching. The scene will switch to Merry and Pippin, as they peer out from between two roots. Merry calls out, “Frodo.” Pippin says, “Hide here, quick.”
Well. We also found those trees. That was so cool because we were staring at this one fallen tree and I looking at the angle of its dissent and I realized that if this was the right tree, then the spot Merry and Pippin hid had to be on the other side. And when I saw it (despite the lack of little trees that you see surrounding Merry and Pippin) I knew it had to be the spot. I was worried that the trees might have been built in and then taken out, but they weren’t.
There was also a perfect hallow between the trees, which I suspect was dug out somewhat. The two trees have also rotted away a little bit, losing some of their former greenness to browns. I also believe that the trees around Merry and Pippin were added for the scene, before being taken out.
And one more thing about that spot. It’s not right across the path from Frodo. It was like way over somewhere else. Hm…if you continue on to Boromir’s death scene you will see a hoard of orcs and one uruk-hai making their way down a steep incline toward Boromir. I’m fairly certain that was the same slope Frodo fell down as he made his way to the tree he then hid behind.
But wait, we’re not done yet. Fastforward until Boromir dies and the scene changed to Frodo standing at the edge of the lake. When the scene first changes, a large tree is overhanging the rocky beach. We are fairly certain that we found that, although not positive. The scene changes to a front shot of Frodo. Is that in the same place? I don’t know.
Continue until Frodo hops into the boat and Sam bursts from the forest. Same place? Don’t know. However, Sam then makes his way into the river (which I might add was more green and brown then blue). The lake starts out as a shelf for several feet, getting slowly deeper. It then drops, suddenly, into an emerald green pool that would be way over my head. I might add that in one take, as Sam struggled through the water, he got a really nasty cut on his foot and then had to helicopter him out to a hospital.
Anyway. The scene of Sam struggling in vain to swim and ‘nearly’ drowning was done a stage, a dry stage if I’m correct. They just blasted him with a lot of wind and added bubbles later. So. Frodo continues on to save Sam’s life, pulling him into the boat. I wonder how many times it flipped before they decided to anchor the boat down.
And then the whole scene where they are sitting in the boat talking (Sam: “I made a promise Mr. Frodo. A promise: ‘Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.’ And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.) The boat was anchored there too. Although the lake (river?) wasn’t moving too fast, it was moving fast enough that the boat would have been moving as they talked.
And I might add that the lake was obviously not moving that fast, as they were able to move with those ridiculous paddles. Yes, very decorative, but they must have been big and bulky and just not good for paddling.
The eastern shore they then cross to is actually in the same area. They did really paddle from that shore they were just on, to the other shore (even though what they claim is the eastern shore is in fact the western shore). When they do finally reach the eastern shore you see a shot of them walking up a hill. Is that hill actually on the eastern shore we saw? Who knows.
For some more trivia, keep watching until Boromir’s and his boat tumble over the edge of the waterfall (yes, the boat was animated). Legolas then shouts, “Hurry! Frodo and Sam have reached the eastern shore.” Pause the movie as he begins talking.
Okay. We’ve got some trees and some shore line and lake. And then there’s this huge rock diving the water (which then cascades down a waterfall). Yeah. Rock+waterfall=digital effects. Aka, it certainly wasn’t at that lake in the first place.
You’re nearly at the end of the movie, and with the end of this movie comes the end of this program. But as Sam points out after Frodo says, “I don’t suppose we’ll ever see [the others] again.”
“We may yet.”
Perhaps tomorrow will hold more surprises, even if there is no more Lord of the Rings sights to my knowledge. But then again. You never know.
This ends The Quest for New Zealand’s Lord of the Rings by MEE!!! Special thanks to the photographer(s), the person who organized and chose the photos for this entries and the person who lined our actor up to match the actors in the Lord of the Rings scenes. We thank you warmly and bid you farewell. At least until tomorrow.
