My Tolkien Thoughts, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the movie

[moreau]

Well, TTT is out, and now the debate can rage among the hardcore Tolkienologists about whether or not PJ has done an acceptable job of translating the books into a movie...


As one of those Tolkien faithful, I have to rejoice that I haven't fallen into the trap of being either a basher or apologist. Maybe I'm growing mellow in my old age (29) ;-).

The bashers say, "I saw a fly on screen in frame 13270 of the extended edition, and that clearly isn't in the book..."

The apologists say "PJ had to do that so that the movie would have the proper Dramatic Arch" etc. etc.

I just sat in a theater for three hours, had a hell of a time, ooohed and aaahed at the right times, and so on.

I'm happy to discuss the differences between book and movie, good and bad...

But, I am fortunate to be able to enjoy both on equal terms.

I hope the same for all of you

Cheers, and enjoy...
CEM

[ZokesPro]

All I have to say is, if you didn't enjoy the movie then shut the hell up and make your own!

[Byock]

It will be interesting to see what people have to say. Jackson was quite liberal with the changes in this one, some I like, others I did not. All in all, killer movie still.

[James_D]

Oh.., yes a real killer movie.. btw did you know that the favorite food for Orcs are ..... Yes you guessed it... Chicken...


James..

[Dogbert]

Good morning Dr. Strangelove

[knirfie]

well 4 stars for the movie, it was great, but again, if you read the book you will be disapointed by quite a few things, ah well, it's probably impossible to make it as it should be, it still was a good movie though.

[BuddMan]

My question is WHY did he change it so much. It was a good movie, but were the changes necessary?? I mean he could have followed the book, which would have been just as exciting. I mean we have Sheelob, Frodo seeming to die, and then Sam leaving Frodo for dead and taking the ring. And there you go, you have your ending, plus you have a great opening to go with for the third movie. You begin with Sam deciding to go back, seeing the Orcs take Frodo and realizing that Frodo is alive, rescuing Frodo from the tower and battling the orcs, going into Morder while battles outside of it take place, crossing a bridge and ending up running along with Orcs and almost caught, blah, blah, blah.

I think it's a poor excuse to say that the movie needed to be different in order to have a more dramatic effect. There's plenty of drama in the book already. Farimar's character was totally out of place with the character in the book. Basically, I didn't think I was watching LOtRs anymore. It was a totally different story (until the end where they get back on track, though they end it prematurely in respect to the 2nd book's end). There's so much you could say about this, but overall I think PJ missed the mark...

The rest of the movie, it was awesome. They probably had a bit too much humor with Gimli during the battles, but I enjoyed it (some of my friend's didn't). Anyway, I'll stop now, cause if I don't I could make 5 pages worth of discussion on this topic.

[knirfie]

The movie went especially the wrong way from the moment boromir's brother found out about the ring, and the ending being to soon, for the rest they kept to the story close enough i guess.

[knirfie]

I do wonder who PJ is gonna solve the bit's that got left out, such as the ending of the second book, and gandalf and saruman meeting again. Those were 2 important parts of the book according to me. Will he put those in epi 3? if he does and epi 3 is 178 minutes too, he'll have to leave out a part of the third book or run into time shortage.

[Seaspray]

Re: TTT changes

WARNING SPOILERS

I saw the film on Sunday and whilst I wouldn't consider myself a purist I do have a problem with some of the changes. In particular, why make changes that add nothing to the film or the story?

I mean I can understand and live with the Aragorn / Arwen additions. A modern audience expects some love interest in a film and maybe wouldn't accept Arwen just turning up at the end and marrying Aragorn.

I can't understand why the Elves turned up at Helms Deep, what did that add to the story? Even worse the changes to the characters of Faramir, Theoden and Treebeard.

In the book, Faramir's ability to resist the temptation of the ring (in contrast to Boromir) basically defines his character.

Theoden, after being 'cured' by Gandalf (another scene that was overdone in the film) recovers his courage and agrees to fight Saruman. In the book it is Gandalf / Aragorn who suggest going to Helms Deep to meet Saruman, as it is more defensible than Edoras. In the film Theoden suggests it, against the advice of Aragorn and it is presented as being a cowardly move. "I will not risk open war".

I won't go on and bore you. There are a lot of changes in the film, some of them I can understand and live with, some of them just baffled me. Don't get me wrong, its a great film and I did put aside my misgivings and really enjoy it, but it could have been better.

Totally agree with the other people who couldn't understand why the second film didn't finish the second book. Will those scenes be in the third film, if so what bits of the third book will be left out?
Maybe, if PJ hadn't put so many other changes in, he could have finished the second book in the second film.

I worry that the second half of the third book will be cut very short in the third film. In which case the third film will be just lots of big battles plus brief 'ending', which would miss one of the best bits of the third book IMO.

Definately go see the film though, its great.

Jon