wow, i've really enjoyed reading all the comments from so many people who are so passionate and learned in the tolkien world. here-here.<P>I have to admit, I loved the film. I had never read any of tolkien's work previously (i had tried, i have just always had a difficult time reading fantasy-literature, i just can't picture it). After reading the trilogy since watching FOTR I still love it. Granted it does have it's problems, but this is a only one-third of a finished product.<P>As someone who had not read the books before seeing the film, I thought it was seamless. There was nothing I would have changed (except Gimli--Peter Jackson's answear to Jar Jar Binks--bad lines, no depth, all the acting at one level the entire time). I was completely immersed the whole time. I experienced terror, joy, grief, and love. I was never left questioning why something happened in the film. <P>After seeing it I immediently started reading the LOTR the next day (so in a month i have read those, plus being half-way through book of lost tales). It inspired me to read somehting that i had never read before. <P>After reading FOTR I went back to see it again. I was amazed at just how much more I got out of the film from having read the novels. I understood why Gandalf hit his head on the chandelier (besides the fact that he was tall). At one point in LOTR (novel, not movie) Aaragorn talks to the hobbits about the fact that Gandalf is a great and powerful and fearful man, not just a magacian who makes fireworks. Showing this side of Gandalf puts the viewer in the hobbits shoes. We don't see him as this great and powerful man, we see him as a kind man to be loved...only later is the awesome scope of his power revealled. <P>This is one tiny, tiny example of the depth that Peter Jackson and the writers went into in creating this film. No, it does not go verbratum with the novel...but my god does it have depth.<P>What would have change now that I have read the novels and seen the movie multiple times? Well, Gimli's characterization for one. Yeah, that's the main thing. Ilsidur's sword is the second. The gifts that Galadriel gives the fellowship (i'm simply thinking about the importance of all the gifts later on). And i would not have sent the Horn of Gondor over the falls with Boromir. It plays too large of a role later on to do that--but then again in the movies it might not, we will have to see.<P>Again, thank you all for providing such wonderful conversation on this board. Much more intersing that "wasn't Stryder hot".
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