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It has been a while since I visited this thread, and I feel compelled to clear up my last post. Not that anyone took issue with it, but from my own review of other posts I see that many are taking the question as viewing characters differently from a personality standpoint rather than a visual one. When I read the books I don't see any of "my" characters as they are in the films in their character or personality, but I am bothered by the fact I visually see actor faces competing in my mind with the faces I imagined in my many readings of the books. The characters I have come to know and love are so firmly set in my mind no movie can touch them. I am overcoming the visual problem. I can't say that anything in the movies brought me more depth than what I have read, and I have to forget the misconceptions in the film to keep my memory of what "really" happened and who these folks really are. I actually backed down in a discussion with a friend about the council of Elrond when he said a certain event really happened in the book... and it wasn't until later that I re-read and was rather embarrassed that I didn't stand up for myself when it turned out I was right!
I can appreciate the films for being what they are. I am coming to appreciate them more as I overcome my disappointment in the flaws (my own perception, and most of the things I am disappointed in have been dealt with in minute detail in other threads and there is no need of reiterating only to hear myself vent). I don't hold myself out as holier than thou as far as book v. movies, but I know (most of us know) that much more depth and breadth is to be found in the reading, and it saddens me when I talk to people who have never read the books and insist they "know" the story Tolkien wrote. They do not... they know only a movie based upon. What I have come to realize is that it is okay if people love the movies with no interest in the books. They will not know my love, and I will not know theirs. That is certainly okay.
And on the bright side... I would have never found this site if the movies hadn't spiked interest in Tolkien. Years and years ago (when the internet didn't have a billion hits for each search) there weren't many sites for Tolkien, and I hadn't looked around for a long time until the movies came out. I don't post much, but reading many of the fascinating posts of others has been a real pleasure.
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