3:25 To this day, I just...I can't even. WHAT? Elves, the WHOLE idea of that formation is to take the brunt of the charge. Pinning the enemy in place, allowing an easily outflank. Phalanx formations have been doing it since antiquity. It's like that for the same reason shields are broad and heavy armor is thick - to take the hit. By jumping over it, you merely demonstrate incompetence. And probably get some of your own number skewered on Dwarven spears in the places where it becomes a crush. I can't help but imagine the Dwarven officer's grunt of frustration at 3:42, because they now have to break their own phalanx in order to charge forwards and join the melee...with spears. Probably losing more soldiers, trying to save the Elves from themselves and their inexperience. **Edit** - Imagine you're watching a gritty war film on the Second Battle of Fallujah. And during the climax of the film, the music swells, and the soldiers charge out of their positions to run across an open courtyard to start clubbing the enemy with their rifles. And rather than simply shoot them, the enemy do the same, getting up and having a melee, for seemingly no reason. Then the tank crews do it. Followed by the helicopter pilots, who land their vehicles, dismount, and get stuck in with fisticuffs. It's not played for comedy. The Hans Zimmer music is blasting. And the director is filming this completely straight. Expecting it to look epic. But all it does is shine a spotlight on the directors lack of understanding. Lack of even preliminary research. And it makes the characters (particularly the losing characters) look like fools. THAT is the Battle of the Five Armies.

You gotta give it to the Dwarves. Their anti-arrows defense is on another level...

I love how shocked the elves get when suffering losses. The notion of death is so unnatural to them, they know every loss could have been avoided.

I love how quickly the elves and dwarves teamed up against the orcs despite just now starting a battle

The dwarves are so brave in this scene when the orcs arrive. No questions asked, they go straight to their death to deal with the Mordor army. God I love them

Imagine living for thousands of years and dying by being rammed by a goat with a short hairy person riding it. Glorious.

I love how the elves are perfect at everything, but they still can’t compare to the dwarves ingenuity and teamwork

"shield walls are formed so we can look cool while jumping over them" - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

This has got to be the most satisfying and frustrating battle sequence throughout Jackson's adaptations, from a tactical and C2 perspective. The "twirlie-whirlie" countertactic employed by the dwarves was ingenious (artillery whose only doctrinal shortfall would be its niche operational utility), and then - although captured in only a few seconds - the column formations dynamically taken by the elves to "herd" the dwarven cavalry charge into a spear enclosure has me thinking of the Battle of Zama, 202 BC. The way the elves immediately begin to interoperate with the dwarves by forming up into small sections, opening up lanes for the dwarves to maneuver through. The orc's use of the banner to issue battlefield commands is likewise very cool. BUT THEN THE ELVES PARKOUR OVER THE DAMN PHALANX!! WHY?! Sure- break up the orcs' charge, but that phalanx was perfectly set up for them to hold the orcs in place, while you did LITERALLY ANYTHING YOU WANTED TO! Reposition archers, or the dwarves their twirlie-whirlies, up onto the embankments and provide fire support; maneuver your swords to the wings of the dwarves' centre, so as to secure their flanks; maneuver troops around to the orcs' rear to neutralise the nydus worms (Starcraft 2 reference), cutting off the flow of troops- LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE WOULD PRODUCE A MORE COST EFFECTIVE BATTLEFIELD EFFECT!

"Don't you think it'd be better to wait till they kill each other? " "Nah, send them out. It's gonna look epic."

I love how each race has their own attributes that make them great. Elves are wise, and elegant; but the dwarves are brave and mighty.

Elves are like, "No, orcs, only we get to bully dwarves. Fuck off."

When you suspend your disbelief this is an incredibly enjoyable scene. Then just laugh at what it gets wrong

Love how the dwarves don't think twice about charging the orcs

“Eh, howdya like that? The ol’ twiddly widdlies. Haha ye buggars” I can just feel Tolkien’s influence in that line, truly capturing the how dialogue was handled in all of his books.

2:50 idk why but the way the elves regroup into squads while dwarves rushes to form a shield wall is just beautiful. aww man I hope there were others who noticed this. It was a small but nice detail.

The elves are aesthetically pleasing to watch. Long hair, capes, cool armor, disciplined, in sync and skilled …they’re like Batman with big ears

The twiddly-widdly ballistas are possibly the coolest medieval-fantasy tech I’ve ever seen.

Sun Tzu writes "The Art of War" in 500 BC. People in 501 BC:

Gimli was right, Dwarves really are natural sprinters

I'll always love that moment when the dwarves and the elves stand together

Anyone else think the dwarves setting up their shield wall looks awesome? Just how quickly and efficiently they do it too.

I like how the Elves and Dwarves were killing each other a few minutes prior to becoming a well defined Orc slaying unit.

love how elves and dwarves hate each other but work flawlessly together when needed.

Giving props to the people behind this and have subsequently given us this masterpiece. The production, the scoring, and just the overall layout is more than enough to immerse you in their world.

Still better strategy than the Battle of Winterfell.

If the orcs had waited like 30 minutes it would have been much easier

I like it that the Elves and Dwarves united to fight a common enemy. They were literally just fighting each other minutes before

I love the way how the archers PERFECTLY does an volley under king Thranduil's command

2:45 "The hordes of hell are upon us! Fight to the death!" I love the fact that the Dwarves immediately recognize the threat of the Orcs and waste no time in forming a DOUBLE spear wall and bailing on the Elves. Meanwhile the elves just hold until the last moment when they realize what is happening. This is why I love the Dwarves.

After seeing the tactics used by the elves in this, it makes sense they are so few ...

For me, one of the best battle scenes of all time.. ingenuity is just a precious gift, we rarely see these days!!

Dwarves: Set up a strong defensive line so that the elves can reinforce it or provide arrow support and wipe out the orcs Wise elves with thousands of years of experience: cHaRgE! REEEEEEE

Those dwarven anti-archer balistas are pretty sick. Not only do they negate the archer volley but they can also attack at the same time. And shocking thousands of years old Elvish king is also a nice bonus.

Seeing how the dwarves responded quickly to the arrival of the other army shows that they are naturally impulsive. Whilst the elves are more contained they do not move until they are told to do so. But above all both creatures fought admirably in this scene.

This scene was way better than the Avengers Endgame finale battle, old time , not much CGI and old technology… True masterpiece

God only knows how much I love this series ❤

2:47 "The hordes of hell are upon us!" Dwarves: run to form defensive shield line. Elves: line up for epic hair commercial.

I love how quick to adapt the dwarves are. Without hesitation, after the Goblins announce themselves, they all change direction toward the goblins and set up formation, all while the Elves are trying to make sense of whats going on lol. What a scene.

In the old days.. When everyone was a sick warrior

Dain: "THE HORDES OF HELL ARE UPON US!" Elves: *"Look majestic, everyone. Look majestic!"*

Elves - Excellent strategists Dwarves - Excellent craftsmen Orcs - Numbers, numbers and NUMBERS.

3:20, the moment when the Dwarven commander says, 'Rakan Bekar' and they follow by, 'Ai Ruse Ai'. And then the following music at 3:26 is so damn addictive.

The dwarves are freaking so brave and mighty ... The moment they see orcs, "fight to the death" ...then all run towards them, while The Elves disciplined themselves. ...such a great creature.

God, a had the best childhood! Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Matrix, Batman, Pirates of Caribbean an others 90s-2000s were great!

I like this battle a lot because it shows the dwarves and elves, both studying and preparing for each other´s tactics but also understimating each other. First the elves, thinking that dwarves are only used to close combat battles in the mines, try to overwhelm them with arrows, but the dwarves were prepared and counter them with ballistas that were clearly designed just for that. But then the dwarves charge at the elves with goats, thinking they are only used to fighting at the distance in the woods behind the trees, only to be surprised by the elves´ incredibly organized spear formation, which traps and slaughters the riders.

0:36 There is nothing worse than a fight between friends and brothers, just like in real life, when this fight between brothers is then taken advantage of by their real enemies...

So hard to watch elves and dwarves figthing when the real enemy is on their tails.

Elves : fires thousand of arrows Dwarfs : Destroys all of them Thranduil : Choked pikachu face

It's 2021 and tons of movies came out but this trilogy and The lord of the rings trilogy will never be forgotten, epic

Just watched this movie for the first time and man it was so epic

The anti-arrows defense system is on another level

People are going to complain about cgi and shit, but the sound design of this battle is absolutely off the charts.

I love how the elves manage to keep themselves beautiful while fighting

I remember watching it when it first came out in the cinemas. Seeing the dwarves go into formation, my nerdgasm blurted out "Phalanx!" in the middle of strangers. My eyes lit with joy and I sit at the edge of my seat admiring the immaculate version of the phalanx. Heavy armor. Double stacked. No gaps. Just a literal iron wall with spears. Then I slumped into my seat in depression as the elves jumped over it. Some audience cheering not realizing the sheer stupidity of that move..

It’s still pretty wild to me how the elves and dwarves went from literally killing each other one moment and then seconds later having to basically help each other after just seeing them kill their own allies

Elves: * Shoot arrows * Dwarves: *_Uno reverse card_*

Imagine being a hobbit where orcs, goblins, trolls, wargs, men, elves, dwarves, gargoyles, and a giant ring worm all trying to kill each other. Like, wtf my species is back there smoking pot playing with mud and galabanting around

Love how the dwarves were first to meet the enemy

Just started reading the novel. I'm living in another dimension.

Dwarfs are the best! As soon as they saw the orks, they turned imeediatly towards them and wanted to fight 100vs 1000000

Elves are OCD about their battle formations and I love it.

I LOVE how that unexpected elven counter-charge just shatters the Orc lines!

Rip to those elves and dwarwes who died fighting each other😂 they missed the fun

Sauron: "You will lead my armies, Azog." Azog: "As you wish, Great One." Sauron: "I trust you won't do anything stupid like interrupting the Elves and Dwarves fighting. Watching our foes slay each other is much more fun." Azog: "...sure."

Dwarf: I don't like elf Elf: I dont like Dwarves Dwarves and elves: but i despise orc

This scene gives me chills. When the Elvish General realizes “damn we gonna have to fight these bastards” he knows he’s in for a fight. I love the dwarves.

still gives me the chills in so many years

Still better than game of thrones season 8

Meanwhile those dead elves and dwarves would be like dafuq we died in vain

those elves will never mess with the dwarves

Uma das melhores batalhas, obrigado pela felicidade de ter assistido essa obra de arte.

It never fails to make me cry when I see the elves vaulting over the dwarves shield wall. It’s tactically nonsensical but it’s too epic to be a plot hole. Idk if it’s weird that this makes my eyes leak it’s wholesome af

"Hey, how do you like that! You twiddly widdleys!" Oh man, classic

Love the word "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"when I see this. Fighting to the death seconds ago, but when worst enemy show up, they don't give a fuck about killing each other and kicking the orks ass is just awesome

Dwarves: form a phalanx! Elves: Leerrrooyy Jenkins!

Dwarves and Elves: fighting Orcs: *appear* Dwarves and Elves: Let’s forget that happened.

Orc: Are you gonna wait until the battle is over and we can destroy the winner? Arzog: No I dont think I will

What an clever anti-arrow,arrow

Dwarves are forming a defence line, to let enemy smash on it like Spartans did. Elves jump over them and go into open fight, instead of waiting them to collapse and jump into their heads. TaCtIcAl DeCiSiOnS sUmMoNeR.

Truly the cinematic action sequence of all time.

Ah yes. One of the best movie clips of all times😊

You can tell whoever wrote this scene played way too much total war

The dwarven rams not hitting any elves in their charge, and being boxed in an elven formation is actually a tactic used by Alexander the great in the battle of Gaugamela. Alexander's troops responded to the enemie's scythed chariots by opening up their ranks, creating alleys through which the chariots passed harmlessly, and finished them off when they were completely encircled.

Dain Ironfoot and his awesome Battle Boar, both them are BEASTS

The orcs should have waited for elves and dwarves killing each other.

Why does this comment section contain the most experts of strategy

3:24 여기 부분이 멋집니다. 피터잭슨 감독이 엘프 군대 병사들을 모두 고등학생들만 배우로 썼다고 했어요. 긴 금발에 매우 아름답고 전술이 좋은 엘프병사들 모습이 감동적입니다.

Just the fact that both elves and dwarves ended their fight the moment the orcs entered the battlefield is astonishing. Elves and dwarves may have a never ending hate against each other but when it comes against orcs they just run and face them off with no second thought.

3:25 “it’s stupid but at least it’ll look cool”

Thranduil: *loses 1/5 of his army because he launches arrows at dwarves* Also Thranduil: *lets do that again*

While I absolutely adored Lee Pace's Thranduil, when Billy Connolly popped up as Dain on the big screen, I couldn't help squealing out "yay! It's the Big Yin!".

Best scene ever when the elves jumped over to fight

Just wanna clarify this does not happen in the books. Gandalf breaks it up.

Another thing, the Elves strategic defense against the Dwarves was really nice and made a lot more sense than when they just went ape wild and just jumped right in front of a shield wall against enemies charging at full speed.

I love this scene❤

I was happy that dwarves were getting there representation in this series. We knew mankind was cool, elves are badass, orcs are cool, but now my favorite race(dwarf) are being showcased and I love it.

"Never interrupt your enemies when they are making a mistake" Orc: This sign isn't gonna stop me because I can't read.

orcs: surrender now elves!! galdalf: come and get them! elves: awoo... awoo. awoo..!!

There's got to be a friendly fire on those arrows when dwarves & elves teamed up.