What are your favorite cinematic shots in The Battle of the Five Armies?

James The Tolkienist is at it again, ranking the ten best cinematic shots in the Peter Jackson Tolkien films. Quoting him: “In filmic terms, a shot is basically a number of frames. A shot can be anything – a landscape, a setup, a character’s face – in front of the camera. It can be of any length in duration, without breaking away from the action – thus, without any editing cuts.”

James love this one: Thorin (Richard Armitage) and the dwarves charging forth from Erebor.

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) leads the dwarves as they seek to rally the defenders of Erebor in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

I’ve discussed some I like before, such as the shot I called Thorin’s Caspar David Friedrich moment, or this one, when Thorin retrieves Orcrist from the body of the orc that Legolas (Orlando Bloom) has just skewered:

Thorin (Richard Armitage) pulls Orcrist from the body of a falling orc, in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

But here are a few more that, off the top of my head, impressed me. I noticed in compiling these lists that I seem to like shots that play with perspective.

The one that immediately occurred to me involved Bard (Luke Evans) using his son Bain’s (John Bell) shoulder to aim the black arrow after the windlass failed. There are number of shots here that really compel the viewer.

First, the nocking:

Bard (Luke Evans) aims his arrow at Smaug over the shoulder of his son, Bain (John Bell), in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

Then, the look of on his son’s face when he realizes what is going to happen:

Bain (John Bell) bravely allows himself to serve as guide for his father’s arrow, in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

and the sheer determination on Bard’s face as he tracks Smaug and starts to aim:

Bard (Luke Evans), his face full of bloodlust, aims at Smaug in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

And then, the release of the bowstring and the whoosh of the arrow past Bain’s shoulder and notionally, that of the viewer:

Bard (Luke Evans) lets go the arrow that will kill Smaug, in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

That was just a delightful series of shots. OK, what else did I like?

Liked the tunnel perspective of this shot:

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) comes to parley with Bard in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

Loved Bombur blowing his horn, I think because it was a reminder (one well-needed in this film, which really cut down drastically on the character sketches for the sake of brevity) of the thing that got the dwarves this far — that even the people whom one might think were a drag on the company had their unique talents and special roles to play:

Bombur (Stephen Hunter) blows to announce the dwarves’ entry onto the battlefield in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

And then, I really liked the eerie feeling I got from watching Azog underneath the frozen lake from Thorin’s perspective — a moment that made me shiver.

After his fall through the ice, Azog (Manu Bennett) floats as Thorin watches him, in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Screencap.

So — those were a few of mine. What are your favorite shots in The Battle of the Five Armies, or, since we haven’t done this before, in the Hobbit films in general? If you would like to leave a comment with a brief explanation, I will post a screencap for you tomorrow.

~ by Servetus on March 1, 2015.