Why Can't Movies Be Like Books?

[Sauron the White]

Davem ... I do appreciate this exchange and I am appreciating your position more and more. Not agreeing with it - but appreciating what it means to you. I do think that we are placing Jackson into the position of he is damned if he does and damned if he does not. You concede that Jackson did not put in all the action and violence that is written by JRRT. But you find fault with the stylings of how it is depicted. You explain it this way

A reader is free to imagine the 'violence' in the books in as graphic a form as they wish. The movie violence is extreme & often gross - even worse, its often presented in a humourous way (like Legolas shield surfing down stairs & skewering an Orc at the bottom with the spikes on the shield).

The first half of your objection would apply to any author of any book as compared to any on screen depiction. Obviously what happens in a readers mind in terms of how much detail they want to see can never be captured on screen since the director is forced to make a choice that the viewers can see. It would seem that your criticism there is not directed at Jackson so much as it would be the simple process of filmmaking where things must be shown clearly. Of course, the alternative to that is the type of violence which was depicted in the sanitized Hays Office years of the movies - Thirties and Forties - where blood was hardly ever shown and carnage was invisible. Some feel that that type of depiction of violence is far worse because it gives people an unrealistic view of the consequences of violence. And I would agree.

You saw Legolas surfing down the stair as humorous - as is your right. I believe Jackson was going for "oooh thats cool" reaction from the younger viewers. I do not feel that scene was an attempt to be humorous in the least. So we see that differently.

Regarding Boromirs death - we are tending to repeat our positions here but I felt that it was far more effective on screen than in the book. We see the sacrifice of Boromir in all its dramatic magnitude and we gain a tremendous appreciation for it and for him despite the previous scenes of his less than gallant behavior towards Frodo. Having him dying in this way is an on screen display of personal redemption that seemed to ring true with the viewer. Again, repeating a previous point, but I have seen many posts over the past few years from people indicating that this scene really helped them gain a new respect and love for the character. So it did work on screen.