Dumbing it down

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

The quite amusing thing is that I have seen many adaptations of comic books which I have found immensely entertaining, only to be told by afficionados that such films are 'rubbish' (and stronger, more Anglo-Saxon words have been used...) as they do not stick to the originals. So it's not just Peter Jackson who mucks things around.

This reminds me of a point which was mentioned earlier in this thread (I forget by whom) but not really picked up on. And that is that there are many "historical" films which totally misrepresent the events that they purport to portray. I understand that Braveheart falls into this category and there are numerous Hollywood-made WW2 films that replace some or all of the original heroes with Americans to make them more appealing to American audiences. Clearly, such changes are made with the intention of increasing a film's appeal with its intended audience. And changing historical fact, with the effect that people end up believing that this is how it really happened, irks me far more, and seems to me to be much more of a crime, than altering what is, after all, a fictional story.

That said, in a recent poll concerning just this issue (perception of historical fact against filmic portrayal), something like 2% of the respondents believed that the battle of Helm's Deep was a historical event.

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I still question just how small a proportion of the audience was made up of fans of the books. Are they not amongst the most widely read books in the world?

Undoubtedly. But I would say that only a small proportion of those who have read and enjoyed the book are quite as fanatical about it as the average Barrow-Downs member.

As for the contention that the changes made make little sense or somehow confuse the story or make it "dumber", I take the point. I simply disagree. With very few exceptions, I found the changes to make complete sense. In my view, they do not make the story "dumber" - they just make it different. There are a few inconsistencies and plot-holes, yes. But I am sure that careful scrutiny of most films, certainly those of the same oeuvre (nice word, Rim), would reveal much the same. After all, how many film scripts are written with the same dedication, devotion and time that Tolkien lavished on LotR?