Actually the omission of the Barrow Wights is quite significant in terms of the portrayal of the deep-seated courage of the hobbits. It is the first major challenge that Frodo faces in terms of his attempts to conquer his fear and avoid the temptation of the ring. That combined with having Arwen taunt the Nazgul at the ford instead of Frodo means that the audience doesn't see the beginnings of the courage and determination that play a major role is driving Frodo on later in the book. Definitely a miss in terms of character development.
I first heard about the tragedy from a former co-worker who called me at 9:00 yesterday morning. I had been laid off from the company last week. She had quit a few months before. I'm starting to wonder if that was providence. I would normally have been walking out of the PATH train from NJ (which is in the basement of the WTC) right around the time the first tower collapsed. Our building was two blocks from the trade center. In fact, my office used to look out onto both towers. After turning on the TV and seeing what had happened, I grabbed my camera bag and ran out to Sinatra park in Hoboken which overlooks downtown Manhattan. PATH service into the city had already been shutdown, so there were probably close to 1000 people milling around watching the fire and wondering what to do. I set up my camera and started to shoot photos. Halfway through the second role, I took my eye away from the viewfinder so that I could change lenses. At that moment I heard everyone in the park start yelling and crying. I looked up and saw the first tower collapsing. I hit shutter and held it down letting the camera eat up the rest of the role. I'm still not sure whether anything will even be in focus. People all around me were crying and praying and uttering curses. I felt numb and shaky. I managed to change rolls again and start taking more pictures of the aftermath and the cloud of debris rolling into NY harbor. It was right around then that the military started to make its presence known with fighters running CAPs around lower Manhattan and a frigate cruising down the Hudson. A few minutes later, the Hoboken police closed the pier down and herded everyone off it. I went home to start checking on friends to make sure they were ok. Since then, everytime I see footage of one of the towers collapsing, I have a hard time accepting that it has actually happened. It just seems too surreal to be possible.
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Actually the omission of the Barrow Wights is quite significant in terms of the portrayal of the deep-seated courage of the hobbits. It is the first major challenge that Frodo faces in terms of his attempts to conquer his fear and avoid the temptation of the ring. That combined with having Arwen taunt the Nazgul at the ford instead of Frodo means that the audience doesn't see the beginnings of the courage and determination that play a major role is driving Frodo on later in the book. Definitely a miss in terms of character development.
I first heard about the tragedy from a former co-worker who called me at 9:00 yesterday morning. I had been laid off from the company last week. She had quit a few months before. I'm starting to wonder if that was providence. I would normally have been walking out of the PATH train from NJ (which is in the basement of the WTC) right around the time the first tower collapsed. Our building was two blocks from the trade center. In fact, my office used to look out onto both towers. After turning on the TV and seeing what had happened, I grabbed my camera bag and ran out to Sinatra park in Hoboken which overlooks downtown Manhattan. PATH service into the city had already been shutdown, so there were probably close to 1000 people milling around watching the fire and wondering what to do. I set up my camera and started to shoot photos. Halfway through the second role, I took my eye away from the viewfinder so that I could change lenses. At that moment I heard everyone in the park start yelling and crying. I looked up and saw the first tower collapsing. I hit shutter and held it down letting the camera eat up the rest of the role. I'm still not sure whether anything will even be in focus. People all around me were crying and praying and uttering curses. I felt numb and shaky. I managed to change rolls again and start taking more pictures of the aftermath and the cloud of debris rolling into NY harbor. It was right around then that the military started to make its presence known with fighters running CAPs around lower Manhattan and a frigate cruising down the Hudson. A few minutes later, the Hoboken police closed the pier down and herded everyone off it. I went home to start checking on friends to make sure they were ok. Since then, everytime I see footage of one of the towers collapsing, I have a hard time accepting that it has actually happened. It just seems too surreal to be possible.