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I respectively totally disagree with Tolkien here. Leave Frodo and Sam out of the film for 1.5 hours, then bring them back to cover the other 1.5 hours and finish the movie off? OK, we would have the best Cliffhanger in all of movie history if we followed this to a tee, but that is the ONLY advantage I can see in this way of telling the story.~Essex
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I would actually have to agree to, and maybe one of the only things I'm glad PJ changed. I know what you're talking about, I think it's
letter 210 where Tolkien is going after Zimmerman, and talks about how it should be as written in the book. I too disagree with Tolkien, I think the linear style he uses of telling both stories works absolutely fine in a book. I've never liked books that constantly jump around go back/forward in time. I like the linear style and telling each story seperately.
With that being said, I don't think such a story telling would work well in movies. I liked the mixing of each story in the movies, and I agree I don't think it would be good to tell Aragorn..etc and then Frodo's journey...theatrically...works fine in the books. I will even go further and say Jackson did an EXCELLENT job of telling all stories at the same time, a very difficult thing to do and Jackson had to deal with telling all 3 stories (Merry and Pippin, Aragorn and Co, Frodo and Sam) and at the same time.
The thing that bothers me most about this scene is the humor of Gimli. I thought FOTR Gimli was rather light-hearted and funny, yet I never lost the sense of what a Dwarf was and what type of people they were. When we get into TTT however and this "wheezing and falling down" Gimli, it is so totally undwarvish you would think Jackson didn't read the books. What's even more annoying about this scene is it creates the wrong impression and I've seen several threads questioning why is Gimli in the Fellowship, he serves no purpose and all he did was slow Aragorn and Legolas down. It's these kinds of changes in Gimli that get me the most annoyed. (I actually think the Dwarf Women scene is quite hilarious...and I will get to it as I catch up on all I've missed) but pretty much the rest of the humor through the rest of the movie (and ROTK) I don't find funny and find it a detriment to the movies.
Other than that I must say another great job, Merry and Pippin with the Orcs were well done. Though Grishnakh seemed to be more driven by eating the two hobbits than getting smart and thinking they had the Ring, you get a good feel of the ruthlessness and cruelty of the Orcs.