Musings upon a Fifth Viewing

[Gerbil]

The scene is where Gandalf rides to Minas Tirith to find the docs Isildur wrote about the Ring.
Basically it's when he rides up, stops and looks a bit worried, then it cuts to what he can see.
The view is Minas Tirith on the extreme right and in the 'foreground' (although obviously still fairly far away), and the mountains to the west of Mordor are visible - you see dark clouds swelling up behind them, and lightening, and (I think, can't verify until I've seen it again ) you can see red flame, presumably from the top of Mt Doom, towards the top left.

And Osgiliath may be ruined, but without explosives and such stuff, I can't see how 'ruined' can mean 'flattened completely to the ground', it would just mean more than a tad run down and most definately deserted, but still visible.