10. The absence of Tom Bombadil. Unlike a lot of Tolkien fans who read the books before the release of the films, I really couldn't have given two shits about this character's presence in the adaptation of Fellowship. The main reason for his exclusion seems fairly obvious. It's the same reason for the time discrepancy between the books and the films (for those who have never read the books, or maybe have read them but have forgotten, somewhere around twenty years are supposed to pass between the time of Bilbo's birthday party and when Frodo finally leaves the Shire with Sam, Merry, and Pippin). Jackson and co. were trying to create a sense of urgency. The hobbits have the ring - which basically puts a big honking target on their backs - and nine of the most dangerous creatures ever to walk middle-earth, the ring wraiths, are on their tail. Maintaining that desperate sense of urgency in a film would be next to impossible if you decide to stage a little interlude in which the hobbits hang out with some cheery fat guy who dances around forests and sings to trees. And while Bombadil seems important to the overall Tolkien mythology, when it comes to the actual story of the Ring, he's a pretty minor character. Even peripheral characters like Radagast the Brown, the Sackville Bagginses, and Glorfindel are more directly important to the story than fat ol' Tom.
9. The battle between the Rohirrim and the Worg riders in The Two Towers. There was no such fight in the book, and I was happy to see it in the film mainly because of another discrepancy. In the books, the Fellowship fight a ravenous pack of worgs right before they go into Moria. In fact, the presence of the worgs is one of the main reasons why they decide to brave Moria. Since that fight wasn't in the first film - and since they had little to nothing to do with the rest of the story - I was afraid that we wouldn't get any worgie goodness at all in any of the flicks (there were a few in Return of the King during the siege of Gondor, but not many).
8. The Council of Elrond. This scene, in the book, is long. Arguably, too long. Maybe. I don't know. Depends on your tastes. Definitely not the best written portion of the books. You find out a lot of cool stuff about what's going on in the world that isn't 100% directly relevant to the story. But if you're someone like me who enjoys learning about the peripheral stuff in Tolkien's world, it's pretty cool. But still, translated word-for-word on screen it wouldn't have worked. I mean, even if they cut half the stuff out it would've been too long. For example, one of the biggest differences between this scene in the book and the film is that in the book, neither Elrond nor anyone else summoned all these people to Rivendell. They all just kind of end up showing up at the same time for different reasons. Boromir's there because of a prophetic dream. The dwarves are there because Sauron's people have been knocking on their doors and trying to turn them to the dark side, while at the same time while they don't know exactly what's happened in Moria, they've lost contact with Moria and are worried about their fellow shorties. The way it's done in the film comes out much more smoothly. The one difference I'm not sure about is Bilbo's absence. Though his presence in the Council isn't really, really important or anything, it does show a lot about his character and his continued obsession with the ring when he volunteers to take the ring to Mordor himself.
7. Aerwyn. Her character is just a little blip on the screen in the books. I thought the long-distance love story turned out quite nicely, and her character simply meant a lot more in the films. I am glad that Jackson and co. didn't go as far as they originally intended, however. According to the behind-the-scenes stuff in the extended editions, Jackson actually filmed scenes in which Aerwyn showed up at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers with the rest of the elf contingent. That would've been going way too far. Plus, if Aerwyn had been at Helm's Deep, how would you explain her going away after being reunited with Aragorn? And if she didn't go away, how could you have that nice, gooey reunion in Minas Tirith at the end?
6. The Scouring of the Shire. I think this is another place where I differ with a lot of Tolkien fans. In the books, the four hobbits return to the Shire to learn that a bunch of evil humans have taken over the Shire and have essentially enslaved the populace. The leader of the humans is eventually revealed to be Saruman. Now, unlike Bombadil, I do think the Scouring is important to the story because the four hobbits are able to handle the situation without any "big folk" to help them, and it shows just how much they've changed since they left. It also shows that even their idyllic little slice of heaven could be corrupted by the evil that was threatening the rest of Middle Earth. Still, its absence in the films was necessary mainly for two reasons. First, after the siege of Gondor, the battle at the Black Gate, and the destruction of the Ring, "Riot in Hobbit Town" couldn't have seemed like anything BUT anticlimax. Second, dude, do you know how long I'd been holding in my pee by that point already? Forget it.
5. Bree. In the book, there's a lot more stuff that happens in Bree. There's this whole drama involving a guy who's basically been bribed by the ring wraiths, there's the story of how Sam gets his mule, a story about the innkeeper and his connection with Gandalf, and some of it is kind of neat. Still, the movie would've been something like a half hour longer with all of it in there. And there are a few things that happen in Bree in the books that are just plain stupid. For example, one of the hobbits (either Merry or Pippin, I forget which, though I think it's Merry) end up running into a couple of the ring wraiths, and they cast some spell on him that puts him to sleep...for no discernible reason. They don't follow him to his buddies once he wakes up, they just put him to sleep. Kind of makes you wonder why they didn't just cut the little shit in half. It's kind of silly. I never got that.
4. The love affair between Legolas and Boromir. I just always skipped that part of the books. Not trying to be narrow-minded, it was just icky. And I don't care if he's an elf, I don't see how he could have that many piercings down there.
3. All of Elrond's martial arts fights with Neo. I just never thought they were relevant. Figured they should make a whole separate movie for that.
2. How Tolkien told the stories of The Two Towers and Return of the King. In the books, Tolkien completely separates the stories once the Fellowship splits. So, for example, when you read The Two Towers, it starts off with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn going after the Uruk-hai who captured Merry and Pippin, and the first half ends with the Battle of Helm's Deep. During that whole time, you never see or hear anything about Sam and Frodo. Then, the second half of the story starts with Sam and Frodo beginning their journey, and ends right after the fight with, um, the big spider whose name I'm forgetting and am too lazy to find out even though the books are, like, ten feet away from me, oh HELL, hold on...SHELOB! Heh, remembered before I even got to the books. Well, anyway, I guess it goes without saying, but having the movies unfold that way would have been pretty damn stupid. Though, I do think it worked very well in the books.
1. All the FUCKING singing. Yeah, there was some singing in the films. And there was a little bit more singing in the extended versions, but NEITHER had all the goddamned singing that's in the books. That, more than anything, should be enough to dissuade any Tolkien purists who think it should've been adapted word-for-word. If it had, it would've been a fucking musical.
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