Dumbing it down

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I don't think that that has been disputed.

I know. But the point that I am trying to make is that we ought to retain a sense of proportion. The views expressed by most here are genuine, heart-felt and for the most part eloquently put. I don't agree with a lot of them, but I can understand where they are coming from. But they are the views of a small minority (albeit an important one) of those who have seen these films. Many more have seen the films and not felt such reservations - whether that be because they have not read the book, because they have read the book but don't have such strong feelings about it, or because they have strong feelings about it but (like me) are content to have their cake and eat it.

For me this goes back to the question of moral rights that davem raised and also the question of "ownership" that I think Lalwendë raised. There is a sense amongst many of those to whom the book means a lot that it is, in a way, theirs to protect and that any tinkering with the characters or the storyline is somehow wrong. And this tends to be expressed in terms of arguing how the changes don't work. But, as far as the vast majority of the many millions of people who enjoyed this film are concerned (myself included), these changes clearly haven't significantly impaired their enjoyment of them.

Yes, perhaps the films could have been better. Perhaps they could have remained (even) more faithful to the book and still retained their widespread appeal. There are some areas (only a few) where I think this is probably right. But the fact remains that those responsibe for making these films were fully within their legal and (as far as I am concerned) moral rights in making them and in making them in the way that they did. Maybe they could have been better (whatever that really means). But I have never been one much for crying over spilled milk. We have what we have and what we have is actually (in my opinion of course) exceptionally good and has given a large amount of enjoyment to an extraordinary amount of people.

And now I shall stop because whenever I post on this thread, I tend to start repeating myself ...

PS:

Originally Posted by davem

Well, they were working on the scripts for years before production began, so they did have time to work out a proper storyline.

As I understand it, the original script was actually a lot more faithful to the book, and many of the changes came about as a consequences of the practicalities of transforming it onto the screen. The script was being re-written right up to the moment that scenes were being filmed.