Viggo Mortenson does not get enough credit for delivering lines like "not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall" with a complete sincerity and gravitas
The whole lotr trilogy works because every single person on set and behind the scenes treated it seriously and with gravitas. It was completely earnest and I don't know if anyone making movies today has that in them anymore.
one of my favorite parts of the director's commentary is Jackson talking about Sam's "that there is some good in this world" speech. he talks about how when they were writing it, it was like "is this too much? is this too sentimental? are people going to be cringing in the theater?" but at the same time, it was necessary to keep the audience emotionally invested bc TTT was ending on such a dark note. and he knew, KNEW, it was all going to come down to Sean Astin's delivery; there was no wiggle room, he had to nail it. and then, of course, he did.
