Two cavalry charges

[Hamfast Gamgee]

I have been watching the DVD of Rotk recently and having watched a lot of it in one go, one thing did strike me. The charges of Faramir attacking Osgiliath did look in many ways, earily similair to the charge of the Rohirrim on the Pelennor later on. Which makes me wonder how similair a cavalry charge which only a madman would force his men to do and a heroic cavalry charge which changed the course of a battle and indeed a war are!

 

[frederica bolger]

... the military mavens here will probably know more, but I assume that the sticking point is that Faramir's is against an entrenched position, with archers well covered by the ruins of Osgiliath's walls and buildings, whereas Theoden is attacking a line of pikemen and archers, where all depends on whether the line, and morale holds; breaking through will deliver a real shock to the Orc army. So the second is difficult, and the first rows of horsemen will probably have huge casualties, but the first impossible. And the battle cry 'Death! Death!' also makes the point that they do not expect to survive but will take a lot of Orcs with them nonetheless.

And there is another cavalry charge; of Gandalf, Eomer & co. at the end of TTT, where the riders crash down the hillside like the flood that swallows up the caverns of Isengard. Now there is a nice bit of symbolism...

 

[Darkstone]

...that Faramir lost.

If the orcs hadn't been able to build up their defense of Osgiliath in time Faramir would have rolled over them. On the other hand the Rohirrim would have been dead horse meat if the orc pikemen had been able to keep their cool and maintain their formation. The orcs had Pelennor won until they ran.

Pikemen are traditionally the "rock" to cavalry's "scissors". One example is The Battle of the Golden Spurs, so named because of the spurs victorious Flemish pikemen looted off all the dead French cavalrymen piled in front of them.

 

[weaver]

In the Rohirrim charge, they went into that battle clearly knowing their circumstances, and choosing to do so anyway, for a greater good. And the king who gave the order led the charge. That's heroic.

In the case of Faramir, Denethor ignored the truth of the situation, and sent Faramir out on a hopeless mission, for a selfish end, while he ate his dinner. That's tragic.

Of course having heroic horn music as accompaniment in one case, and a funeral dirge in the other, has something to do with how we see these scenes, too! The film makers clearly framed them to achieve a specific emotional impact -- if these were "real" battles in history, they'd be looked at from a lot of different viewpoints as part of determining if they were admirable or foolish strategies to undertake.

 

[Hamfast Gamgee]

Thanks for your replies people! I appreciate the points, but you must admit that there are eerie similarities between the two cavalry charges, both have horses galloping along, both have the riders pointing their swords at the enemy, both have some of their riders falling to arrows as they gallop determindly. Another question that could be asked is which one is the more heroic? Naturally, many might say the Rohirrim one, but surely it is just as brave to undertake a charge which you know is doomed, but you have to anyway!

 

[weaver]

Horses...pikes...guys falling...I can't see many other options on the way you'd film this.

And I agree that the guys in the charge are heroic in both cases -- the end result doesn't change the fact that in both cases the riders put their lives on the line -- the motives of the guy "in charge", though, that's another story!