I’m re-watching Fellowship with a first-time watcher and I’m just amazing at how fucking wrinkly the dialogue is. Not only are there antiquated constructions that would have been ironed out by some fuckstick studio executive, there are these little brief conversations that do NOTHING to advance the plot but EVERYTHING to put you inside that world.

From the movie (from memory):

Aragorn: Sam, do you know the athelas plant?
Sam: The what now?
Aragorn: [thinking] Kingsfoil.
Sam: Aye, it’s a weed.
Aragorn: Look for it; it may slow the poison.

Implied from this dialogue:

Elves exist. They have their own knowledge and language. Aragorn is steeped in their culture first and is somewhat a stranger to the “common” world.

Samwise is a gardener and knows about plants, but does not know shit about healing morgul blade wounds.

Here’s how the dialogue would look if LoTR was produced today:

Aragorn: I’m going to find some plants to help Frodo.

What we would learn from the modern dialogue:

Aragorn is going to get some plants to help Frodo.