January 30, 2004
Nit-Picking the Lord of the Rings
Although most of Jackson's deviations from the book didn't bother me, I never understood why he made some of the most egregious ones. This guy takes it a bit far, though. Still, it's a nice, detailed list of everything Jackson changed.
A silly list, to be sure. The writer is obviously a painful geek--I really can't understand the people who don't appreciate the beauty Jackson created out of the Arwen/Aragorn backstory. But a useful list, and there are some items I actually do think are worth pondering.
[i]5. There is a 17 year span of time between Bilbo's departure and Frodo's departure from Hobbiton (FOTR p.72). Jackson makes it seem like, at most, a year has passed. Forgivable, yet that cuts out all the time during which Aragorn and Gandalf track down Gollum, Gandalf searches the archives of Denethor, etc.[i/]
This is definitely nitpicking, but the amount of time elapsed is important--Frodo becomes more attached to the ring and of course it doesn't make any sense that Bilbo has aged 20 years within what seems like a short time in the movie.
[i]22. Frodo remains defiant up to the point when the Black Riders are unhorsed by the river (FOTR p.285-286). Jackson has Frodo barely able to breathe and half-dead...and defended by Arwen. Bah![/i]
Is playing down Frodo's heroism a mortal error? Certainly the desicion to cast Elijah Wood as Frodo and make him a receptacle for suffering throughout the film is something of a controversial and perhaps ultimately mistaken move, considering the fact that Frodo is actually the hero and the most courageous figure in the book. This criticism applies to many of the Nitpicker's entries--including, most appallingly, Frodo trusting Gollum over Sam and sending Sam home.
If one listens to the commentary on the extendned DVDs, the screenwriters talk about "building up dramatic tension" and Gollum forming a cleft in the friendship between Frodo and Sam. All of which is annoying as hell to someone who believes the best scenes in the movie took their inspiration from the book's imagery.
Well that's enough for now. That's a long fucking list.