I am reminded of the battle at Helm's Deep from The Lord of the Rings. There are only two other cinematic scenes that come close: the gun battle in downtown Los Angeles in Heat and the taking of the beaches in Saving Private Ryan. Helm's Deep is probably one of the greatest war scenes in all of movie-making history. Backs against the wall, Théoden's forces were faced with an existential threat of wave after wave of never-ending combatants who laid siege to the wall. The Deeping Wall protects the Deep behind the Keep, this is the only escape for the Defenders. Sauron knew that if the wall was breached, then his invading forces could take the Hornburg. Better, then, would be to keep one's main focus on the wall. The tactical importance of walls should seem obvious. Even Sun Tzu wrote about the exhaustion of trying to overcome walls: Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk... (Read Full Post)