Jackson's LoTR Movies from the Perspective of JRRT - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

William Cloud Hicklin · 12-10-2023, 10:59 AM

Well, judging by Letter 210, his excoriation of the Zimmerman film treat ment, he would have hated Jackson's handling of Weathertop.

"The Black Riders do not scream, but keep a more terrifying silence. There is no fight, ... Why has my account been entirely rewritten here, with disregard for the rest of the tale? I can see that there are certain difficulties in representing a dark scene; but they are not insuperable. A scene of gloom lit by a small red fire, with the Wraiths slowly approaching as darker shadows – until the moment when Frodo puts on the Ring, and the King steps forward revealed – would seem to me far more impressive than yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings.....

I have spent some time on this passage, as an example of what I find too frequent to give me 'pleasure or satisfaction': deliberate alteration of the story, in fact and significance"

12-10-2023, 10:59 AM	#2
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,332	Well, judging by Letter 210, his excoriation of the Zimmerman film treat ment, he would have hated Jackson's handling of Weathertop. "The Black Riders do not scream, but keep a more terrifying silence. There is no fight, ... Why has my account been entirely rewritten here, with disregard for the rest of the tale? I can see that there are certain difficulties in representing a dark scene; but they are not insuperable. A scene of gloom lit by a small red fire, with the Wraiths slowly approaching as darker shadows – until the moment when Frodo puts on the Ring, and the King steps forward revealed – would seem to me far more impressive than yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings..... I have spent some time on this passage, as an example of what I find too frequent to give me 'pleasure or satisfaction': deliberate alteration of the story, in fact and significance" __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.