Can anyone think of another instance where the exalted filmmakers completely subverted Tolkien's original intent? I know the speech is inspirational to some, but that doesn't really fit Middle-earth of the long defeat.

Plenty of other examples. Don't have time to detail them though.



Sam's reflection that the menace of Sauron threatening to engulf the world is 'only a passing Shadow' is directly from the book.

(One of LotR's most beautiful passages too.)

Did Movie Aragorn say that, then, in his Black Gates speech? (I honestly can't remember.)

I don't think he was wrong. Evil is, in the long perspective of history (and Eru), only a passing Shadow ... seems a Tolkienian concept to me.

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"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... "
Letter no. 246, The Collected Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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