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01-10-2007, 04:26 PM

People have to understand the vast differences of PJ's and Tolkien's media of choice: the movie and the book. Movies don't have nearly the complexity of books--there go the many more minor characters of the book, the many subplots that Tolkien was able to explore in depth. Movies need to introduce distinct main characters that the audience can quickly grasp and identify (that blond sexy elf; that old guy in a hat; the guy with the round shield and a chip on his shoulder; et cetera). The pacing must be relatively quick to get through the whole book (there go even more subplots, along with various favorite scenes, some of which make it into the extended edition). Books, on the other hand, have much more space to them (especially books for an adult audience; until relatively recently, young adult books were pretty much capped at about 220 pages; thanks to Harry Potter and others, that cap has been blown off and authors have much more freedom). Books, by their very nature, don't really have 'previews' that readers can look at (especially with new authors; where would you put a preview? in someone else's book?); they draw their target audience in a much different way than movies do. A person might flip through a book for a taster, or rely on previous works by the author, or read the reviews of the book (movie watchers can do this, too, of course). The worlds are vastly different.

In the writer/producer commentary for LotR, PJ explains why he cut some scenes and put others in different order than they were in the book (Shelob's Lair, for example, is in Book IV (tTT) but appears in RotK because, chronologically, that is when it happens). The huge change in Faramir's character was written because if he just ferried Frodo and Sam straight into Mordor, Shelob's lair would be in tTT, leaving pretty much nothing for RotK but Sam and Frodo trekking across the Plains of Gorgoroth (which would likely bore most audiences to tears).

While I don't particularly like some of PJ's decisions, I can at least try to understand why he made them.

01-10-2007, 04:26 PM	#11
merln Guest Posts: n/a	On a more serious note... People have to understand the vast differences of PJ's and Tolkien's media of choice: the movie and the book. Movies don't have nearly the complexity of books--there go the many more minor characters of the book, the many subplots that Tolkien was able to explore in depth. Movies need to introduce distinct main characters that the audience can quickly grasp and identify (that blond sexy elf; that old guy in a hat; the guy with the round shield and a chip on his shoulder; et cetera). The pacing must be relatively quick to get through the whole book (there go even more subplots, along with various favorite scenes, some of which make it into the extended edition). Books, on the other hand, have much more space to them (especially books for an adult audience; until relatively recently, young adult books were pretty much capped at about 220 pages; thanks to Harry Potter and others, that cap has been blown off and authors have much more freedom). Books, by their very nature, don't really have 'previews' that readers can look at (especially with new authors; where would you put a preview? in someone else's book?); they draw their target audience in a much different way than movies do. A person might flip through a book for a taster, or rely on previous works by the author, or read the reviews of the book (movie watchers can do this, too, of course). The worlds are vastly different. In the writer/producer commentary for LotR, PJ explains why he cut some scenes and put others in different order than they were in the book (Shelob's Lair, for example, is in Book IV (tTT) but appears in RotK because, chronologically, that is when it happens). The huge change in Faramir's character was written because if he just ferried Frodo and Sam straight into Mordor, Shelob's lair would be in tTT, leaving pretty much nothing for RotK but Sam and Frodo trekking across the Plains of Gorgoroth (which would likely bore most audiences to tears). While I don't particularly like some of PJ's decisions, I can at least try to understand why he made them.