22 minues, 22 seconds: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

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Right, following up from where we left off in the 22 minutes, 22 seconds screenshot series, we get to the second installment in the Lord of Rings movie trilogy, The Two Towers.

Not only was The Two Towers my favourite of the Tolkien books, but it also emerged as my favourite of the films as well. By far. The awesome siege-battle at Helm's Deep, Shadowfax, Ent attacks, Gollum's schizophrenia and the minimal amounts of Sam and Frodo making goo-goo eyes at each other. Combine this with intelligent cross-cutting between the different events, and it's cinematic perfection. Much better than Return of King with its seven different endings.



Anyway, 22 minutes, 22 seconds into The Two Towers, hobbits Merry and Pippin are making a dash, or rather a crawl, for freedom as their orc captors turn on one another over the issue of food. This scene is one of the few in the LOTR trilogy where the orcs (both the generic kind and their enhanced super brethren, the Uruk-hai) get to do more than simply pull grotesque faces, and run bloody errands for their evil masters Saruman and Sauron.

At exactly 22 minutes, 22 seconds into the film, a foot comes down hard on the hobbits' backs. And the ugliest of the orcs - who has been quite vocal about wanting a tasty meal of hobbit legs - appears in close up.


Orc: Go, on. Call for help...



Orc: Squeal...


Orc: No one's gonna save you now...


A spear strikes the orc in his back.


The orc shrieks and collapses.



Hooray for the cavalry! In rides the banished Éomer and his renegade band of Rohirrim to slaughter the orcs. Not that Merry and Pippin hang around to witness this.


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Just a totally unrelated heads up, tomorrow you can expect my Curious Case of Benjamin Button review.

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