SEARCH MY BLOG

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fellowship of the Ring Book Vs Movie.

As I said in my review for The Fellowship of the Ring review, I would write a comparison between the book and the movie about some of the biggest differences. For a future post, I would like you to comment or e-mail me some changes in The Fellowship of the Ring that you want me to write about next.
*Warning: There will be spoilers for both book and movie.*

Disclaimer: I am not an expert and this is my opinion.

Aragorn's Sword Andúril/Narsil
In the book Aragorn had the broken hilt of Andúril/Narsil when the Hobbits arrived in Bree and then the sword was re-forged before the Fellowship left Rivendell. However, in the movie the broken sword was on display at Rivendell and Elron later re-forges the sword during The Return of the King and gives it to Aragorn. I am not entirely sure why this was changed. I see no real reason to change it from the book.



Songs and Poems
Although the songs and poems were well written and work well in the book, I cannot stand the over use of songs during movies, especially serious ones like The Lord of the Rings. There is no way that most of the songs could have actually worked in the film without bogging it down.



Shorter Time Span
The book takes place over many years after Bilbo's birthday and Frodo stays at Rivendell around 6 months. In the movie, it appears to only take a year or two from the beginning of their journey to the end. Before reading the book, I have always wondered how everyone at the Council of Elrond arrived so quickly without modern transportation, but the book does give a better perspective of time. However, the time gap does not really affect the story and would have only slowed the plot and making Frodo younger was a better decision, because Elijah Wood was casted in the role. 



Tom Bombadil
"Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!" Tom Bombadil's part of the book was completely removed from the movie. Probably because of the lighthearted feel of those chapters and that the songs and poems in general were removed from the film. While, I found the chapters in the book very enjoyable, it really would not have worked in the movie very well. Only in the extended edition could it have worked at all.

Awren
As I have read from many fans, they were very unhappy with the addition of Awren in a more prominent role. She barely had one line of dialogue in the entire book, if that much. Awren was mostly there to ad a love interest for Aragorn. If I am not mistaken, this story arc is more based on the appendices by Tolkien. Although, I am not the biggest fan of this addition, it works in the movie and did not seem out of place in the story. Her race to take Frodo to Rivendell was an excellent action set piece and having an intelligent horse might have been a little outlandish for the audience to believe so early in the film.




Merry, Pippin and The Hobbits
Another change that was noticeable was how the Hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin, were portrayed as being a little more naive and incompetent at times. Although Merry and Pippin added much needed humor to the films, similar to C3PO and R2-D2 in the Star Wars Trilogy. Many of the funniest scenes involve Merry and Pippin, like the scene "Second Breakfast", which I often quote to this day. On a side note, I wish that Pippin fooling the Orc into thinking that he had the Ring in "The Two Tower" would have been included in the movie.


Ending

The ending of The Fellowship of the Ring is a little different in that it uses the first chapter of The Two Towers rather than the actual end of The Fellowship of the Ring book. However, the film really needed to end with the death of Boromir to give it true closure and the Lord of the Rings was originally intended to be one large book, therefore it did not make a difference.


There were many more changes from the book to the movie. For my next post about The Fellowship of the Ring Book vs. Movie, I would like you to comment or send me an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com about what you want me to write about in my next post. If possible I will write and post the answers to the questions within the next two week.

If you want to contact us or have any question please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

11 comments:

  1. I love the LOTR series. Those movies are good, but so long!! And thanks 4 the cool comment on my post about that show Elementary. I really don't know the whole story of Sherlock, but I'd probably watch it out of curiosity. It has one of my favorite actresses on there, Lucy Liu. For all I know they probably did make a lot of changes. But maybe it will get people to read the original story of Sherlock? Who knows? :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post! :D All the differences from book and the movie were all really interesting to read. I think I'm actually one of the few that liked Arwen having a larger role in the first film- the scene where she rescues Frodo was really cool! :D

    One difference between the film and book was Eowyn- in the movie, Merry knew it was her when they left for the battle but in the book, he didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post! I think that Peter Jackson did a spectacular job making the movie fit so closely to the book. I think the subtle changes he did make weren't bad, but I did have one or two scenes where I wished he had stuck closer to the book.

    I think one scene in ROTK where Frodo turns against Sam is a little annoying because that wasn't in the book, and I hate that Frodo chooses Gollum over Sam. But of course they had to find a way for Sam to disappear so he could save Frodo from Shelob. :D

    The other isn't between a change from the book, but there seems to be a time difference in the end of ROTK when Frodo and Sam are running up the Mountain, and when Aragorn and the rest of the people are fighting the orcs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your post! Can you do one for the other two movies? I agree with pretty much all you said. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. We are talking about the next two?
    In The Two Towers, Faramir was totally ripped off for one thing. He released Frodo at the Forbidden Pool, after having a soul-searching talk that explained pretty much everything up to that point, including why Denethor later has Boromir's horn with him in ROTK. (Faramir found it)
    In Rohan, the scene of restoring Theoden was way different; pretty much all gandalf did, I think , was to throw out Wormtongue, rather than the mind-struggle that was shown. Also, Eomer was never banished; he left on his own because of Wormtongue. And then Eomer arriving at Helm's Deep with Gandalf was changed from a bunch of random guys arriving, so that's understandable. But on the whole, Eomer has a much smaller part in the movie, mainly because he was replaced by gimli since he was banished. No, the "You'll have to toss me," scene never happened.
    And before that, the warg battle wherein Aragorn fell off the cliff never happened either.
    Not to mention that Treebeard also got the shaft, but it must have been time constraints. In the film, Treebeard had to be convinced by the Hobbits to attack Isengard. In the book, he was driven to it in his own after seeing the destruction, not to mention that it took him days instead of hours..
    Well, that's quite enough for one post, and certainly enough for one comment.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I feel really as much as you do... :D
    Arwen, I liked her in the movie. And I like how the movie changes the death of Boromir too...

    ReplyDelete
  7. @HippieGirl21: Thanks for your comment! :D I highly recommend watch the BBC Sherlock series, I think you would like it also.

    @Shena Tokala: I definitely did not dislike the change, especially before reading since I really liked her character and that was awesome! :D Thanks for the question, when I get to the ROTK I will be sure to answer it.

    @Helen: Thanks! I haven't read ROTK yet but that part was in the Two Towers book so I will be sure to write something about that and completely agree, it should have never been changed. When I read ROKT I answer that one as well.

    @Alyianna: Thanks! I will write one for The Two Towers and for ROTK but I have yet to start ROTK yet though.

    @JT: I should have made it clear that I was referring to FOTR ot TTT, since I haven't started ROTK yet, but I will answers those about ROTK when I finish it. However, the ones about TTT I will answer soon. Thanks for all the questions, those are definitely ones I need to answer.

    @Solace Utara: Thanks! :D

    -James

    ReplyDelete
  8. While, I found the chapters in the book very enjoyable, it really would not have worked in the movie very well. Only in the extended edition could it have worked at all. shop men's jewelry

    ReplyDelete
  9. I used to be fan of the "Lord of the Rings" ,even buy crown ring for myself.but now I'm waitting for new episodes of "Game of Thrones"

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am not entirely sure why this was changed. I see no real reason to change it from the book. How would you choose your couple rings.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Another change that was noticeable was how the Hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin, swarovski philippines

    ReplyDelete

One rule: No strong profanity. If you want to link to one of your posts, please do; I am always interested in other reviews and such.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...