PJ's butchering of the stories

[Lord of Angmar]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I have posted my views on the changes in the films too many times on too many threads to repeat them all here. Suffice it to say that I have no problem, per se, with Jackson and co making changes. (The Saucepan Man)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I concur.<P>I did not click on and read the content of the initial link, as I have the rather hopeless wish of knowing as little as possible about the upcoming <I>Return of the King</I> movie. However, I do feel qualified to add my two cents to the ever-heated debate of PJ's "butchering" or altering of the books.<P>To address the initial post by Valandil about the addition of Aragorn's fall over the cliff, I would like to defend Peter Jackson. In all fairness, I think that he deserves credit for adding such a situation to the <I>Two Towers</I>. In Professor Tolkien's books, one thing I always found a little disconcerting was that the reader was never presented with any specific scenes in which Aragorn faced extreme mortal danger. Even in the case of Aragorn's defense of the hobbits at Weathertops, I never felt a sense of great danger for Aragorn. Nor did I glean such a sense from the "Paths of the Dead" chapter or any of the battles that he fought thereafter. Since the movies have thus far attempted to expand upon Aragorn's character and turn him into more of a classical epic hero (as I am absolutely sure based on the <I>Return of the King</I> previews they will continue to do), the logical situation would be to set up the viewer with at least one instance in which he comes within an inch of his life, a life-or-death scene to bring us closer to the plight of the character. While the effectiveness of the entire Warg Rider sequence can be debated (I found it, for the most part, rather enjoyable), I feel that it was necessary for the character of Aragorn to face such a challenge, from a cinematic perspective.<P>As I have said earlier, the omission of the "Scouring of the Shire" was a necessary evil from the perspective of the producers of the movie trilogy. Such an epic movie could not sustain an anti-climactic epilogue which would, in essence, diverge into a completely different plot from the rest of the <I>Return of the King</I> movie. <P>I have tried not to read too in depth into this thread, since, as I have said, I do not wish to hear too many spoilers. I certainly hope that Arwen does not "help" Aragorn use the <I>palantir</I>. That would be a wholly unnecessary stretch.<P>Cheers,<BR>Angmar