A custom edited collection of music from the Lord of the Rings films, focused on the kingdom of Rohan, the curing of Theoden, his son's funeral, and the final charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields (Return of the King).
It's sad that he's gone, but it's good to know that he will be immortalized in one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history, he wont be forgotten any time soon.
Rest in Peace Bernard Hill “I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed. I felled the black serpent. A grim morn, and a glad day, and a golden sunset!”
Arise, Arise riders of Theoden! Fell deeds awake! Fire and Slaughter! Shield shall be shaken! Spear shall be splintered! A sword day! A red day! Ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride to Gondor!
I'm a 24 year old male and i was brought up on this shit (thank you step dad) i am so in love with the story, the music, the characters, the environment, literally everything about this type of fantasy movie i am in love with. FFS looks like i have to go watch the entire trilogy again!
Eduardo Cooper No I definitely mean what I said. Literally by definition “in filmmaking and video production, a scene is generally thought of as the action in a single location and continuous time” the Charge of the Rohirrim specifically is a scene.
Eduardo Cooper Yet another definition of scene in film making.. “A scene is a unit of story that takes place at a specific location and time. If one of these changes, you have a new scene.” Good try though bud.
Just imagine it. You're in the front line of the King's Company, facing down more orcs than you've ever seen while Gondor burns. You've probably got a family back home that you will likely never see again. Your mount keeps bucking beneath you and shifting, its anxious cries twisting with those around you. You can't distinguish friends amidst the mass of Riders surrounding you. Then suddenly, Theoden's sword hits your spear as he rides down the line and you're snapping back to attention. You may not make it back to your family, but this is for them either way. If Gondor is lost, then they'll be next. You face almost certain death and the horns blare in your ear. Then you move. Slow at first before you can get into a gallop. Your King is beside you, and the orcs are coming closer and closer, and still you know Death is on your side. Then you ride for ruin, and the world's ending.
Well this did happen irl; the siege of Vienna in 1683, which this is based on. The Ottoman empire (Orcs) were spreading rapidly into Christian Europe and eventually a huge army of over 150,000 reached Vienna (Minus Tirith) the last stronghold of Eastern Europe and the gateway to Rome; if Vienna fell Christianity and Europe would be conquered by Islam. The defenders, outnumbered 15:1, bravely defended Vienna for two months, losing men, suffering from starvation and constant mine warfare. However just as the city was about to fall (orcs breach the city/Ottomans were about to blow up the city walls), a collation of both Protestant and Catholic European powers, led by the Polish (Rohirrim) arrived, with their elite cavalry; the famed, Winged Hussars. As the Ottomans began panicking, the Polish king assembled his cavalry, charged down the hills of Vienna and annihilated the Ottomans, thus saving Europe and Christianity (Middle earth). Difference is though, the Charge of the winged Hussars included 21,000 Calvary! Nearly 4x the amount of Calvary in this scene. Can you imagine that! Afterwards the Polish king said, 'Venimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit' - We came, We saw, God conquered. Tolkien was a hardcore Catholic and fought during WW1, when Britain was at war with the Islamic Ottomans, hence the allusion.
dragondov yes I can imagine that how can you be so idiot. There were a few reasons siege of vienna. Hungarians asked ottoman empire to help them because they had sect conflict. Austrians were bullying hungarians. Whatever that was your problem. Otherwise we reached rome you know attila, etzel whatever you name it
@@thefakecorvus7842 How is it not believable? The army of Uruk-Hai was only about 10,000 and that's only mentioned in the movies and not the books where it could possibly be less. Rohan at the time had a maximum capacity of around 12000 soldiers of which around 3000-4000 defended Helm's deep in the battle. 3000-4000 men with horses and lead by Gandalf and the great kings of men at the time is definitely not outrageous at all. And more so considering they won the battle, it's not like they personally killed off the whole force or something.
@@thefakecorvus7842 The people who single handly jumped and killed a bunch of Uruk-Hai weren't normal soldiers. They were literally Aragorn and Gimli. Both extremely strong warriors, a normal soldier couldn't have done it 🤦
@@thefakecorvus7842 Dwarves are great fighters, you clearly don't know much about Middle Earth if you're saying that. And again, it's very believable, they just had to fend off the Uruk-Hai for a while there and then run off. Aragorn and Gimli fighting off Uruk-Hai is not at all unbelievable tf. Also, Aragorn isn't even a normal human bro 🤦
@@thefakecorvus7842 Okay, you clearly know nothing about Tolkien. The dwarves are known to be the strongest race physically bro. They're great warriors. Just cause you don't want them to be doesn't mean they aren't.
The King is dead. Rest in peace, Bernard Hill. Go now to your forebears. "Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. Hope he rekindled, and in hope he ended; over death, over dread, over doom lifted out of loss, out of life, unto long glory."
RIP Bernard Hill, King Theoden was perhaps one of the greatest kings in fantasy and in fiction. 😔 Body not broken, he finally found peace after a long life.
"My body is broken. I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed"... RIP Bernard Hill aka King Theoden, died on May 5th 2024 aged 79... :(
@Eduardo Cooper Wow Eduardo, you are so clearly better than all of the rest of us who didn't pick up on a distant fokelore reference that Tolkein was harking back to. I'm sure you could recite the entire Kalevala and all of the girls would hanging off your every word.
@Eduardo Cooper Mate you said it was "stolen", and implied heavily that anyone being impressed by this was inferior to you. Hence my presumption that you were being, in your own words, "an arrogant jerk". But your wall of text with staggering levels of projection has convinced me otherwise. Anyone who knows what Hamlet is is clearly my intellectual superior. Godspeed on your quest to make the internet a better place with smug putdowns and massively butthurt rebuttals.
@Eduardo Cooper "Everyone reads Roland in high school, it's not obscure" Lie. "Be impressed if you have to" is not smug and condescending: Lie. "You don't want to confront that LOTR is borderline racist" = "Oh shit I'm losing the argument, quick, call my interlocutor racist". "This unusual defensiveness and how offended you are" Haven't had such a good laugh in a while, thanks chum.
@Eduardo Cooper You're literally making assumptions about something without having any tangible evidence apart from the fact that you think they're similar and then calling a whole story racist because of it. And a little heads up, not everyone reads The Song of Roland in highschool, it's not an obligatory reading in most places.
Hey mate... Shall life give us time check for a book called "The age of Freedom". You can't find it now... But 10 years from now you will find it mate!
That bit of dialogue combined later followed by the charge with this music is always amazing to me. The music alone tells such an awesome story, it's like: 'we know we are going to die, we are therefore going with courage anyway'.
This is why Theoden is my favourite character. He truly believed Men were destined to lose and that they were riding to certain death. Yet he fought anyway, because it was the right thing to do.
Theoden is my favourite character from LotR. His flaws of mortality are shown, yet he does what no other lord of any race, be it humans or elves or dwarves would do. He rides to the aid of Gondor. This one act threw the plans of Sauron into tatters, for he did not believe there were any of the race of Men left who could challenge him. Seeing the Horselords line the horizon of Pelennor and hearing the horns of the Mark is the greatest piece in both the movie and book. Not to mention, Theoden conquered his own fear, the fear of mortality...
After I first saw LOTR, I was left with the opinion of Theoden that I had from The Two Towers: a foolish kinglet whose only good actions were led by Aragorn. But over time I revised this opinion. I remembered who had said "Rohan will answer".
Rest in peace Bernard Hill (1944 - 2024) 😢 you will always be remembered as King Theoden, son of Themgel, who starred in the legendary scene of the Rohirrim charge. ⚔️
I was a young, ignorant kid with no geeky friends. But one of my friends had a brother, who invited us one day to go with him to the cinema just to see a "movie". That "movie" ended up being the Fellowship of the Ring. I don't think he knows how eternally grateful I am for that.
"Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! spear shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered, A sword-day! A red day! Ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now!Ride for ruin! And the World's ending! Death! Death! Death!!"
The head orc showed that. Was so confident, so sure.....but that faded quickly as the Rohirrim just didn't stop. Would have been quite a sight to see and to feel the ground shake beneath you.
I seriously don't believe a trilogy HAS ever or WILL ever top these movies. Not even the Dark Knight and Ledger delivered a cream of the crop performance. For LOTR, the acting was outstanding, the writing was phenomenal, the production was impeccable, and the music was UNBELIEVABLY PERFECT. Imo, the soundtrack was the best part of the trilogy, and that, in my experience, is extremely rare for movies that exhibit this extraordinary standard of proficiency across the board. Fantasy cinema will always have a reference point with this trilogy, but my god, the bar was set at an ethereal level!!!
It took me a while to accept that no other fantasy movie/show would ever come close to matching LOTR. i truly feel sorry for the fantasy movies that came out directly after LOTR because i thought they all sucked. they weren't all bad, but i made the mistake of comparing them to lord of the rings. as you say, i think the music being utterly perfect is one of the main striking differences between this movie. i can listen to the soundtrack and i'm immediately there in the movies
@@MorgulLord7 It's rather fitting, in all honesty. There will always be great stories. There will always be great shows. And there will always be great movies. But much like the Fantasy genre as an entire whole, and indeed, all the other genres from which it commonly interacts with, there will always be one Lord of the Rings - the precedence setter, not the follower. The foundational block: Forever strong, and sturdy. The fact people still know and talk about it today is, in of itself, a testament to that very undeniable fact. Tolkien truly created something that has stood the many rigors of time, and hopefully will continue to do so long from now. That's an accomplishment eternally worthy of praise.
@Oswald Mosley I'm not too sure if he would have truly hated the movies (likely would have hated the inaccuracies more, if anything else), but if anything, he'd likely understand the limitations of the craft; it's one thing to read about the world of Middle Earth, it's another thing entirely to try and actually show it. Think he would have been happy enough to know his books were actually being receiving *this* well. Can't imagine too many other authors who would be entirely opposed to that line-of-thinking (at that time). But yeah, I think the staff who worked on these films really did enjoy the world of Middle Earth. Wouldn't have tried to be as faithful as they were if they didn't like the original Lord of the Rings. Now we just have to see if the same holds true for the show lol.
@@kybergaming623 I think both Star Wars and LOTR stand on equal ground in terms of their respective genres. Both movies where made by Directors and crew with a passion and dream and spent so much time and effort into them to bring forth the story they wanted to tell. Both trilogies are trend setters, with many Sci-Fi movies trying to copy what Star Wars did, the same as Fantasy movies trying to copy LOTR. They both set the standards of their epics. Heck both have a prequel trilogy that wasn't well received by fans that had the studio get heavily involved and forced both directors to rush their process to get them done faster. And while the prequels are not as good as the originals, you can still see that the Directors and Crew did their best with what they had to bring together a series of movies that, while not the best, still have the heart and soul of the worlds they created. In my opinion, neither one is better than the other as they both belong to different categories. Star Wars dominates Sci-fi and Lord of the Rings dominates fantasy.
T.A.D. G.R It wasn't Eowyn that killed him tho, it was being Merry being a hobbit with the use of a blade given to him on Weathertop by Aragorn. Eowyns gender had nothing to do with it.
Its because the Amazon series is being made with the intention of taking Tolkien's works and using them to both create their own story that is heavily saturated in meeting a status quo and create a reflection of modern times using Tolkien's works.
I've rewatched the movies recently. They're so perfectly cast, it's absurd. Viggo Mortensen IS Aragorn. Ian McKellen IS Gandalf. Christopher Lee IS Saruman. The list goes on. And of course, Bernard Hill IS Theoden. The way he portrays his vulnerability always moved me deeply. These movies will be a part of my life until I die. Thanks to all people who created them.
Rest in peace, Bernard Hill. Thank you for everything, you are part of my favourite trilogy, which influenced me a lot while growing up. Forth Eorlingas! :,)
One of my favorite moments is when Éowyn says "courage, Merry. Courage for our friends." You can see the fear on her face, but she remains resolute in her desire to fight alongside her countrymen. She's incredibly brave.
@@prashanthadepu3013 I adore Star Wars, but it’s a huge mixed bag. It barley holds a candle to Lord of the Rings. I love both dearly, but Tolkien’s legendarium is just so much grander and amazing.
@@marcheskitv starwars was released 20 years a head than LOTR, i mean it inspired many movies and and it paved a way to universe things. I adore both of them but starwars world is huge and uncomparable to LOTR.
Just before death, I wanna see this trilogy again. It's better to take the last breath with the purest emotion filled in my heart. May GOD accept my wish.
@@kkm9292 sad how today's movie would portray strong woman all manly and grumpy. I love when a woman is strong all while still embracing her woman's personality.
The Charge of the Rohirrim remains to be the most epic moment in all of cinema. Not even Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Marvel combined could live up to such epic. Here we see an army, ready to die for the good peoples of the world. To ride forward either to victory or to their ruin, but without fear in the face of Great Evil.
No magic, no explosions, no flashy CGI, just the best warriors on horseback ready to die fighting the armies of evil. Its perfect an nothing has come close, nor will it, not until people eho make movies vomit their ego on the floor and leave it behind
The craziest thing is that the largest cavalry charge in history at Vienna would have been over 4x the amount of cav in this scene. Just imagine what that would look like.
I wish our commander wasn't a retard and actually lifted the siege for a battle wich would be extremely hard to fight even if we were prepared. Instead he gave the order to form ranks at a VERY late moment. And the rest is history.
@@anarrivingwingedhussar9692 the western firearms and armour were of higher quality too but combine that with bad leadership + a cocky attitude you get lots of routs...
The scene was based of the siege of Vienna by the ottomans that had been held for 60 days. Vienna was almost ready to give up. Their troops were dead or dying. The ottomans built trenches to put explosives to blow the city walls. Before tgis happened, polish winged hussars arrived, breaking the siege and saving Vienna. Rohan is actually meant to represent Poland in the lotr universe. Thus, the battle of pelenor fields is based of the siege of Vienna.
I gotta say: I love in the extended edition how the Witch King lays Gandalf out flat, proclaims the age of men is over, and then suddenly we hear the horns of Rohan on the horizon.
"ARISE! ARISE RIDERS OF THEODEN! SPEARS SHALL BE SHAKEN! SHEILDS SHALL BE SPLINTERED! A SWORD DAY! A RED DAY! ERE THE SUN RISES! RIDE NOW! RIDE NOW! RIDE! RIDE FOR RUIN, AND THE WORLD'S ENDING! DEATH! (DEATH!) DEATH! (DEATH!) DEATH! (DEATH!) FORTH E'OLINGAS!"
Adactus L Vox It's so epic that every time I listen to these words I want to grab my sword and join them in battle. the way they all cry DEATH! is so cool.
@Eduardo Cooper ok boomer. Tbh though you have no idea how strong or weak I am just based on this single comment. You know literally nothing about me 🤷😅🤦🙈 how about we all just focus on our own struggles? 🙈
Paying tribute to King Theoden of Rohan, actor who played him passed away on may 5th, let this be day, a day to remember, to all those who will come to this world and experience this trilogy for their first time, for us was present, past, to them will only remain as history. I pay tribute to Mr. Bernard Hill, thank you sir for bringing this mighty character to the screen, caring, king. Statue for those who rule, on and offscreen, his speeches, tone, voice, his intimidating, yet honest and brave expressions to fellow brothers in arms, in one cause. This movie is the greatest fantasy film there will be. Cinema will not change for better from now on. But these 40 years of production may be the best 40 years of cinematography in the time line of past present and future mankind. Remember yourself, remember them, praise, pray, believe.
Theoden: Gandalf? Gandalf: Yes, old friend. Theoden: Dark have been my dreams of late. Theoden stands up. Gandalf: Your hands might remember your old strength better, if they grasped your sword.
Honestly people might be making fun of Tolkien for being generic (and even then I ask them to get their facts straight before I whoop their asses) But that man has writ the best, pardon me, THE *BEST* SHIT out there!
@@adonissherlock that's... What I was implying with the stuff in brackets. Because he CAN'T be generic if he's the one who set up all the stuff that became generic afterwards.
HEY NOR HOCSKI YOUS NOT NEED TO DO THE CRY CRY IS BAD GOD SAY CRY IS BAD BEACASUSE CRY MEANS UR A SAD MAN AND A MANS THAT A SAD MAN CANT BE HAPY AND ONCE THERE IS A BLACK MAN THAT SAI BE HAPPY NO WORRYS DONT YOU UNDERSTAND SAD IS NOT GOOD TO BE GOOD YOU NED THE GOD IN LIVE LIFE NEED S THE A GOD DOG IS NICE PLS THANKS :0
