RotK: a successful adaptation?

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by Khamûl
Eruviel: . . .But about the siege: there's only so much you can do. In the books, Tolkien says that the armies of Mordor encamped outside of bowshot range. Interesting point about them having to wait until enough masonry was broken before they had anything to throw back.

Well, Tolkien may have said they encamped out of bowrange, but PJ didn't--in the movie, they were close enough and unless I was too tired to notice things properly, at the movie, they did start shooting at the armies once the masonry exchange started. I think the way they did it in the movie, well, it looked like the Gondorians could have done so much more, but didn't. I mean, yeah, they might have been waiting for orders from their crazy Steward (alas! poor Denethor! what they did to his character!) but then why did the Steward not notice the big army that came right up to his gates? I mean, did he take an extra long lunch break or something? It takes a while for an army of that size to set up the way they had! So why did Denethor act so surprised?

Oh, and again, I actually liked the thing with Frodo sending Sam away. I thought it worked.