Minas Tirith - Portrayal in Adaptations

Portrayal in Adaptations

Tolkien's description of the physical layout of the city of Minas Tirith itself is followed relatively faithfully in Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, (the city also has a cameo in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf goes there to discern the identity of Bilbo's ring, and it also can be seen in the distance for a few seconds when Faramir takes Frodo, Sam, and Gollum to Osgiliath in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) Jackson's version interprets the top of the rock as flattened and paved, and also the location for the coronation of Aragorn. As with most other landmarks in the film, the city is portrayed as relatively isolated (the Rammas, the Pelennor, the River Anduin and Gondor's abundant populace are virtually not featured); the absence of these features is mentioned on the original DVD commentary.

Portions of Minas Tirith were constructed as full-scale sets, and the whole city as a very large, highly detailed miniature or "bigature" by Weta Workshop. A remarkably detailed three-dimensional digital model, for CGI shots, along with the whole of its surrounding environment including the Pelennor Fields and Mindolluin (but not the Rammas Echor, which was visually omitted from the films, despite being mentioned in the dialogue, where Théoden gave the order to the Rohirrim beginning "After you pass the Wall..." quoted directly from the book.) was created by Weta Digital. The set was built on the foundations of the disassembled Helm's Deep set.

According to the non-canon New Line book The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, in the films, the height of Minas Tirith from the bottom to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion, which individually is said to be 300 ft (91 m) tall is around 1,000 ft (305 m), same as the Eiffel Tower, and the diameter of the city almost three-quarters of a mile (3,960 ft/1,207 m). The book also suggests that the towering bastion of stone, shaped like the keel of a ship, which rose from behind the Great Gates on the first level to the citadel on the seventh, was seven hundred feet tall. However this height does not take into account the Tower of Ecthelion, which was situated on the seventh level. In the book, the Tower of Ecthelion was said to be fifty fathoms tall (Vi) meaning that in total the city is about 1000 feet tall. This height is further supported by the statement " the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain" (Vi).

In The Atlas of Middle-earth, predating the New Line films by over a decade, Karen Wynn Fonstad estimates the diameter of the city to be much smaller - estimating 3,100 ft (945 m) for the First Circle of the City.

In the novel, the outermost walls of Minas Tirith was virtually indestructible like the similar black surface of Orthanc, as they were built by the Dúnedain before their craft waned in exile, and Tolkien says only an earthquake or similar seismic convulsion could cause them significant damage.

Despite the description of Minas Tirith's outermost wall as a black, indestructible wall, Jackson depicted all of the walls as white, and many of them were easily destroyed.

In the films, the towers of Minas Tirith are equipped with trebuchets. However, this kind of siege engine is not specifically mentioned in the book. The book also mentions that the engines in the city had insufficient range to hinder the assembling of the enemy's catapults, while in the movie at least one catapult was destroyed by a direct hit. It is possible, however, that after assembly the catapults were moved forward, thus bringing them in range of the walls' defences.

According to the "Making Of" featurettes on the Extended Edition DVDs, the appearance and structure of the city was based upon Mont Saint-Michel, France.