Quote:
Originally Posted by Quempel
We may complain about how Tolkien would have hated Gimli sitting on the stewards chair, but that's all he could do was complain.
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Of course... but I don't recall anyone arguing that the changes to Gimli's character were
illegal, do you?
I'd also guess that most people here do realize that a completely faithful adaptation would have been impossible.
Surely the question is not whether Jackson et al had a legal right to alter the story, but whether particular decisions they made were good or bad?
There's another, more general question here, too: if you adapt a book for the screen, are you obliged to remain faithful to the original
at all? In a moral and artistic sense (and a please-the-fans sense), I believe you are– in most cases. After all, you're working with someone else's creation. I'm saying this not because I'm one of those who think Jackson totally butchered the story, but because
STW has stated the opposite view, i.e. that a film version should be treated as entirely separate from the source material.