I think it's appropriate to post my thoughts on the collected Lord of
the Rings movies here. As I say, I was a rather obsessive Tolkien fan
back in high school, so I think these opinions are fairly authoritative.
On the other hand, everyone and his mother are Tolkien scholars these
days, and they're all pontificating about the movies, so perhaps these
observations will be of little value to anyone but myself.
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
When I was young, I was a major league Tolkien fan. I was one of the
founding members of the New England Tolkien Society and edited their
annual literary journal, Mazar Balinû. Yes, I had a hobbit name,
too: Ornoth Sûlhimdil Brandybuck.
My reaction to "the Fellowship of the Ring" movie is very favorable.
They certainly did a far better job than Ralph Bakshi in 1978 or Rank-and Base (sic) in '80. For
the most part, the movie took great pains to stay true to the book, and
most of the depictions were absolutely right on. But you want to know
what was missing, don't you?
Well, my biggest criticism is that the movie didn't capture the sense of
wonder that I associate with high fantasy. While the scenery was
impressive, it just didn't provide the almost spiritual beauty of the
primeval Middle Earth.
On the whole, I was disappointed with the portrayal of Tolkien's Elves.
They initially appear as powerfully angelic, but after their initial
introduction, they settle down to be nothing more than men with funny
ears. They're either too on or too off, when the reality
should be something in the middle. The portrayals of Elrond and Celeborn
were particularly disappointing.
Those were my biggest criticisms. Here are the minor nits:
- Gollum's history as a proto-hobbit was lost
- The encounter with Gildor the Elf in the Shire was removed
- The evening at Farmer Maggot's was removed
- Fatty Bolger, the house in Crickhollow, and the Hedge were removed
- Tom Bombadil, Old Man Willow, and the barrow-wight were cut
- The dance at Bree was altered
- Finding the troll from Bilbo's adventure was left out
- Gandalf's messages at Bree and Amon Sûl were cut
- Why did they put the horse chase in slow-motion?
- Arwen professing her love of Aragorn isn't supposed to come until later
- Bilbo's volunteering to take the Ring was cut, absolutely amazingly!
- There was no mention of the Elven Rings borne by Elrond and Galadriel
- I expected Boromir to be larger, rounder, and more red-haired
- Gollum following them out of Lórien and down the Anduin was not mentioned
But overall, they did a fine job adapting the book to a movie, and what you see is
very true to the image that Tolkien created in his book.
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
Unlike The Fellowship of the Ring, this movie strayed quite liberally from Tolkien's books,
adding and deleting whole scenes, and altering the basic natures of characters. The most aggregious differences are
that in Jackson's movie, Faramir succumbs to the lure of the ring, the Ents decide not to go to war, and Aragorn is missing and
presumed dead for a while. While some of the differences were minor nits, some were very substantial.
Another major difference is that the movie ends quite a ways earlier than the books. The books include the reunion and
confrontation at Isengard, Pippin and the palantír, and the subsequent separation again, as well as Frodo and Sam's trudge past
Minas Morgul, the events at Cirith Ungol, and Frodo's capture while Sam bears the ring.
While some deletions must be made to keep the film's length reasonable, I can't understand why a director would take an
immensely popular literary work and stray so far from the original as to add completely fabricated plot elements and dramatically
alter the basic natures of important characters. There's no logic in that.
Here's the laundry list of noteworthy differences from the book:
- In the movie, Pippin simply spits the Elven cloak clasp onto the ground, rather than working his hands free and running some distance from
the main path of his captors. The descent into Rohan from the Emyn Muil was deleted.
- The entire orc rivalry and Pippin's luring Grishnákh by pretending to have the ring was cut! An orc pursues the hobbits into
Fangorn in the movie, whereas in the book, the hobbits chance upon Treebeard on a sunny
ledge. In the book, Fangorn did not bring the hobbits to see "the white wizard".
- There is no mention of the Entwives, no Ent-draught, and no appearrance of Quickbeam. Amazingly, in the movie the Entmoot decides not to
participate in the war, contrary to the book!
- Éomer gives the horses to the three hunters freely, rather than grudgingly and requiring Aragorn to return them to Edoras.
Gimli has no apparent reluctance riding horses in the movie. Gimli's character in the movie is purely as comic relief, which really demeans
his role and presence.
- The loss of the horses and the three hunters' nighttime visitation by a white wizard were cut.
- Unbelievably, Aragorn never tells Éomer or Théoden or Háma about Andúril or the fact that he is the
rightful king of Gondor!
- There is an actual fight in Meduseld's halls. Furthermore, Théoden's recovery is depicted much more along the lines of an
exorcism, whereas in the book Gandalf mostly simply convinces the king to throw off Gríma's counsel! There is never any
mention that Théoden's sword is stashed away in Gríma's quarters.
- Éowyn doesn't lead the women and children to safety at Dunharrow, but tags along to Helm's Deep with the boys! The entire warg
attack was not in the book, nor was Aragorn's fall and subsequent separation from the main host.
- In the book, Elrond never sent any Elves to fight at Helm's Deep. There's no mention of Erkenbrand's forces. Aragorn sallies forth
with Gimli, rather than Legolas. The appearance of the Entwood at Helm's Deep is cut.
- Frodo and Sam's fall and the use of the Elven rope that was Galadriel's gift to Samwise to descend from the Emyn Muil was lost.
- Sam's bumbling fall and near-detection at the gates of Mordor did not happen in the book.
- In the book, Faramir refuses the ring, passing the test in the same manner as Galadriel. However, the movie twists it so that he
lusts for the ring, and attempts to take Frodo and Sam back to Gondor! The entire attack on Osgiliath did not appear in the book.
- The movie ends prematurely, without depicting anything about the reunion at Isengard, the confrontation with Saruman, Pippin and
the palantír, the trek past Minas Morgul and Cirith Ungol, Shelob, or Frodo's capture and Sam's period as ringbearer.
Still, despite the rather liberal interpretation of a work that many people dote on, and the fact that even the book is mostly filled
with battles or the ringbearer's plodding along,
the movie was reasonably enjoyable. I suspect that it will wind up being much like the Fellowship, in that subsequent viewings
will enable me to ignore the differences and enjoy it simply for itself. Furthermore, I suspect that like the Fellowship, the Two Towers
will probably come out with an expanded DVD containing extra footage, which will hopefully include much of the substantial deleted material.
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
If the Fellowship was “mostly true to the book”, and the Two
Towers “strayed quite liberally” from them, the Return of
the King was an outright butcher job.
It didn’t help that Jackson decided to end the Two Towers film far
short of where Tolkien’s book left us. Because of that, Jackson
had to fit an additional third of a book into the final, climactic
Return of the King film, which itself contains enough material to exceed
a single film. The result was a film that, despite running to three and
a half hours, still gave us an emasculated Return of the King.
While that might sound a little hash given that Jackson’s
slashing didn’t dramatically change the basic storyline, I think
that anyone with the brazen audacity to attempt a LotR movie should
endeavor to depict the books as faithfully as possible. While Jackson
did significantly better than previous attempts, when push come to
shove, literary fidelity lost out to expeditiousness and editorial
caprice, resulting in a work that, despite beginning well, ended very
poorly.
So what did Jackson do in Return of the King that was so egregious? Are
you buckled in?
- The entire confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman and the breaking of
Saruman’s staff were deleted.
- Rather than being thrown at Gandalf by Gríma Wormtongue, the
palantír is found in a pool of water by Pippin.
- Rather than looking into the palantír on the road alone, Pippin
looks into it at Edoras, with Merry looking on.
- At the time, Aragorn also grabs the palantír and looks into it,
but no further mention is made of it in the movie. In the book, Aragorn
later uses the palantír at Helm’s Deep to reveal
himself to Sauron as the returned King of Gondor in order to further pressure Sauron
to move before he is ready.
- In the movie, Aragorn and Gandalf accompany Théoden to Edoras. In
the book, Gandalf and Pippin leave before the company returns to
Helm’s Deep or Edoras, and Aragorn goes to Dunharrow directly from
Helm’s Deep.
- In the movie, Gandalf is despondent at Edoras. Totally out of character.
- In the book, Halbarad and the remnants of the Dúnadain join
Aragorn at Helm’s Deep and go with him via Dunharrow on the Paths
of the Dead, as do Elrond’s sons Elladan and Elrohir. They bring
both the king’s standard and counsel from Elrond regarding the
Paths of the Dead. All this was cut from the movie.
- In the movie, the Grey Company’s horses bolted at the gates to the
Paths of the Dead. In the book, they don’t.
- Absolutely no mention is made of the corpse the Grey Company encounters
on the Paths.
- The book has Aragorn summon the Dead to the Stone of Erech, where they
debate before joining him; the movie doesn’t mention Erech, and
the debate occurs in the tunnels.
- In the movie, the muster of Rohan takes place in Dunharrow, not Edoras.
- The whole bit about Arwen going to the havens and turning back did not
appear in the book. Nor did the ridiculous crap of her taking ill as a
result of Sauron’s strength.
- In the movie, Andúril is reforged and brought to Aragorn at
Dunharrow by Elrond. In the book, it was reforged prior to the
fellowship’s departure from Rivendell, and Aragorn bore it thence.
- Throughout the movies, Elrond is depicted as selfish and negative,
completely out of character.
- The whole scene where Gandalf has Pippin light Minas Tirith's beacon never happened
in the book.
- Bergil and Beregond and their friendship with Pippin do not appear at
all.
- Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth was removed entirely.
- The movie had Pippin go with Gandalf to assist Faramir’s retreat
from Osgiliath.
- The song Pippin sings to Denethor (“Upon the hearth the fire is
red”) only appears in the trilogy when the hobbits are leaving the
Shire, between the encounter with the black rider that drives them off
the road and their meeting Gildor. It is most emphatically not a
plainchant. It is described as a walking song, and Pippin ends it in a
particularly high and emphatic “And now to
bed!”
- What is up with Gandalf’s Kosmik Karate against Denethor? That
wasn’t in the book and is totally out of character for Gandalf.
- Beregond’s saving Faramir from Denethor was removed, and Denethor
is amazingly accidentally killed by Gandalf. In the book, Denethor kills
himself, with the palantír in his hands.
- The movie barely even depicts one of the most important symbols of
power: the lack of a dawn during Sauron’s strength, and the return
of the light during his defeat.
- The entire ride of the Rohirrim is deleted, including the Woses and
Ghân-buri-Ghân.
- In the movie, Éowyn and Merry and Faramir tag along for the march
to the gates of Mordor. In the book, they are all near death in the
Houses of Healing. Ioreth professes that the hands of the king ae the
hands of a healer, and Aragorn confirms his royalty by finding some
athelas and healing them before the march to the gate. While recovering
back in Minas Tirith,
Éowyn and Faramir’s romance blossoms. Amazingly, all this
was completely cut from the movie.
- The parley with the Mouth of Sauron was deleted.
- The scene where Gollum tosses the lembas never appeared in the book.
- It is totally and utterly out of character for Frodo to side with Gollum
and abandon Sam, telling him to go home. Complete fabrication.
- Sam’s following the orcs beneath Cirith Ungol is deleted, as is
his lengthy use of the Ring and resulting reputation as a mighty Elf
warrior. The Watchers outside Cirith Ungol are also completely deleted.
- In the movie, Sam tells Frodo that he doesn’t expect there to be a
return journey; in the book, Frodo tells Sam.
- Frodo and Sam’s “capture” and forced march by orcs
from Durthang was also completely deleted.
- Aragorn’s final confirmation of kingship-finding a sapling
of the White Tree-was also cut.
- Sharkey/Saruman’s destruction of the Shire was completely cut,
eviscerating the end of the book and the hobbits’ reputation as
heroes within the Shire.
As you can see, Jackson only depicted about 60% of Tolkien’s final
volume, and introduced some capricious and lamentable additions of his
own devising. From the standpoint of capturing what Tolkien wrote, both
in terms of specific details as well as the wonder and magic,
Jackson’s Return of the King is a dreadful finale to a project
that started out pretty promising.
As for the trilogy overall, it’s still a pretty good effort.
Capturing Tolkien is not something that could be easily done, and
Jackson made a far better showing than any previous attempt. Still, I
think it became obvious that he’d bitten off more than he could
digest when he moved a third of the Two Towers from the second to the
third movie, and even a three and a half hour running time
couldn’t accomodate the amount of material that needs to be
depicted in order to do justice to the story.
Is it worth seeing? Yes. Is it faithful to the books? Moreso than any
other attempt, but I’d say it only gets a C+ for fidelity. Is it
an utter failure? No, Jackson did well within the constraints he was
given.
In the end, I did enjoy the movies. They were entertaining, and I hope
that they inspire yet another generation of fans who will accept fantasy
as a valid literary genre, and then mature from more juvenile high
fantasy to the more adult low fantasy that
DargonZine publishes.