Jackson Purists Deplore Tolkien Changes

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Jackson Purists Deplore Tolkien Changes
By Viv Morter
August 21, 2005
www.allnewsallthetime.com

It's been nine months since the last of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films was released in extended edition, but some of his more avid fans are now making waves about a new book, based on the movies and penned by British author J. R. R. Tolkien.

"I'm absolutely outraged," said Sean Johns, president of the internationally known "Peter Jackson is the Lord of the Rings Fan Club". "The changes that Tolkien has made to Jackson's work are thoroughly unacceptable."

Among the changes made in the book, which is published in America by Houghton Mifflin, are the addition of a lengthy storyline involving a new character named Tom Bombadil, the removal of the Two Towers storyline where Aragorn falls off a cliff, and the strengthening of numerous characters including Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Faramir, Theoden, and others.

"No one will take this work seriously as a representation of Jackson's masterpiece," Johns said. "Arwen is only mentioned about five times. Faramir just lets Frodo and Sam go instead of taking them to Osgiliath. Sam joins Frodo for the journey into Shelob's lair. I could go on and on."

Amanda Locko, another prominent Peter Jackson fan, agreed with much of Johns' assessment but said she doesn't mind the changes as much. "Although Tolkien certainly doesn't follow the Jackson canon, his work is overall enjoyable. Merry and Pippin are less childish, the Ents never waver in their decision to go to war, and a strange event called "The Scouring of the Shire" is added. Not a big deal, in my mind. I'm the most unhappy about the removal of any swashbuckling stunts by Legolas."

Johns calls the book a "pretender to the throne," and says it will never be taken seriously. "Tolkien has done a fine job of writing, to be sure, but Peter Jackson's movies will forever remain THE Lord of the Rings."

Locko said she thought the book would do quite well. "As far as movie-based books go," she said, "this one is the best I've ever read. It even surpasses the Star Wars-based novels."

J. R. R. Tolkien was unavailable for comment, and Peter Jackson declined to comment as well.

David Flowers and Donny Boyce also contributed to this report.

[Ainaserkewen]

Teehee.

[Alcarillo]

Is this a joke? If so it's terribly funny. Elladan and Elrohir, the link you provided brings me to a page that says "Coming Soon". I didn't see an article.

J. R. R. Tolkien was unavailable for comment,

I get a kick out of reading that.

[Knight of Gondor]

Good catch. Sounds like something Scott Ott of Scrappleface.com would write.

I liked the quote from someone in the RotK:EE commentary who said we now have two windows into Middle-Earth. Not only does it make a clear definition between two seperate but distinct windows -- Tolkien's and Jackson's -- but it also makes one feel as if these worlds do exist.

[Elrowen Tinúviel]

"The changes that Tolkien has made to Jackson's work are thoroughly unacceptable."

Heehee... I got a kick out of that one.... Jackson's work...

-Elrowen

[Frodo Baggins]

ummmmm hmmm wierd. Either this is some wierd joke or whoever wrote that is a total idiot! However, I am still rolling on the floor over "Tolkien's changes to Jackson" and Tolkien unavailable for comment. I mean don;t they READ the credits when they say "Based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien??

I guess it's BAD to strenghten Characters? (See my post in Elves and Hobbits) Oh Arwen taken out, how sad *not*. Yes Farmir so dumb he lets the hobbits go, no wonder his father hated him. Ai Varda!

Jackson's masterpiece *put on very incredulous face then stifles giggles Willy Wonka style*

[Son of Númenor]

I would not go quite as far as Mr Johns or Miss Locko in criticizing the new novelization of Peter Jackson's epic. Most of the changes Tolkien made were reasonable enough, although I was somewhat dismayed to learn he left out Legolas's gnarly Hornburg railgrinds, Aragorn's famous "Let's hunt some orc!" and Gimli's thoughts on dwarf-tossing.

I found it a bit strange that Tolkien would bog his adaptation down with all the trite stuff -- historical allusions, poems, Bombadil -- that Jackson rightly chose to gloss over. The pacing bordered on the ludicrous (Seventeen years before Frodo leaves? Where's the urgency?), the characters were given less than their fair share of witty one-liners despite the abundance in Jackson's films, and the nature of Sauron and Saruman's relationship was plain wrong.

Despite these shortcomings the book was pretty snappy, if overlong. It captured the 'essence' of Jackson's work: unfortunately the written word is by nature a constrictive medium -- reading is simply not the same as seeing when it comes to a world as brilliantly composed as Middle-earth -- but Tolkien manages to get around this and still provide new insight into Jackson's world.

I highly recommend The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien as a companion to Jackson's Legendarium. I would go as far as to say it holds as much weight as Jackson's own movie picture guides and Monopoly game sets, though others might not be so liberal with issues of canonicity.

At any rate I would not be completely disappointed if this Mr Tolkien was chosen to write the adaptation for Dead Alive or King Kong, though I think it needless to say that Professor Jackson ought to hire another author to adapt The Hobbit should he choose to pen and direct it, lest the trolls be made to speak and the elves made to sing like children.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I was shocked by the ending. If there is one slight weakness in Jackson's work it is that the story is not wrapped up quickly enough. Tolkien, rather inexplicably, makes things worse. For those of you unfamiliar with Tolkien's version he chooses to introduce a very large section at the end of his book called 'The Scouring of the Shire'. In this he invents some convoluted nonsense about trouble in the Shire, even after Sauron was defeated. What's up with that!!!

That's not the best bit though. Get this: Saruman is the one causing the trouble! Remember Saruman? That guy killed at Isengard before the battle on the Pelennor? He's right there in the Shire! LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!

Other than that, J's version is pretty decent. It's probably worth a read.

[The Saucepan Man]

To my mind, Tolkien's greatest failure is to omit any reference to Legolas as the hot Elf dude that he really is. He doesn't even describe Orl - er - I mean Legolas' hair colour! What's that all about!!??

And at one point, I think it's the bit about the big burning demon dude with the wings, he has Legolas wailing "Ai! Ai!" like a little girlie. Most uncool. This is not the amazingly good-looking guy with the never-ending supply of arrows and the cool stunts that we see in the films. I mean, why on earth did Tolkien leave out the shield-surfing and the Oliphaunt climbing? They were some of the best bits of the film. Instead Tolkien has him singing about some stream or chick or something and droning on about the nature of time and such stuff, rather than explaining some of the finer points of the plot. If I hadn't seen the films before I read this sub-standard adaptation, I would have, like, totally missed that the bit before the gates of the bad guy's land was supposed to be a diversion.

It's such a shame that Tolkien missed the point of Legolas' character completely ...

Having seen Jackson's masterwork--a stunning, staggering trilogy of epic proportions--I can only shake my head at the folly of this Tolkien fellow in trying to claim ownership of the idea for the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien seems to think that he can invent new characters and gloss over others at will--where, as many of you cried, is that sexy blond elf-prince? surely not the singing, hair-color-unknown pansy that accompanies the fellowship and squeals like a little girl at the sight of a wingless Balrog! I can only hope that Tolkien recognises his astounding folly in setting himself against PJ before he makes a complete and utter chump of himself.
Rumormongering, I have heard that PJ's idea for the name of that sexy blond elf came from a phrase said elf said often to admirers: "Let go, lass!" shortened to "Leggo, lass!" until it became "Legolas!" This Tolkien fellow's names could use such brilliant sources of inspiration. I mean, "Gamling"! Honestly! The man seems to think he's invented new languages or something!

People have to understand the vast differences of PJ's and Tolkien's media of choice: the movie and the book. Movies don't have nearly the complexity of books--there go the many more minor characters of the book, the many subplots that Tolkien was able to explore in depth. Movies need to introduce distinct main characters that the audience can quickly grasp and identify (that blond sexy elf; that old guy in a hat; the guy with the round shield and a chip on his shoulder; et cetera). The pacing must be relatively quick to get through the whole book (there go even more subplots, along with various favorite scenes, some of which make it into the extended edition). Books, on the other hand, have much more space to them (especially books for an adult audience; until relatively recently, young adult books were pretty much capped at about 220 pages; thanks to Harry Potter and others, that cap has been blown off and authors have much more freedom). Books, by their very nature, don't really have 'previews' that readers can look at (especially with new authors; where would you put a preview? in someone else's book?); they draw their target audience in a much different way than movies do. A person might flip through a book for a taster, or rely on previous works by the author, or read the reviews of the book (movie watchers can do this, too, of course). The worlds are vastly different.

In the writer/producer commentary for LotR, PJ explains why he cut some scenes and put others in different order than they were in the book (Shelob's Lair, for example, is in Book IV (tTT) but appears in RotK because, chronologically, that is when it happens). The huge change in Faramir's character was written because if he just ferried Frodo and Sam straight into Mordor, Shelob's lair would be in tTT, leaving pretty much nothing for RotK but Sam and Frodo trekking across the Plains of Gorgoroth (which would likely bore most audiences to tears).

While I don't particularly like some of PJ's decisions, I can at least try to understand why he made them.

[MatthewM]

lolol

[The Might]

This Tolkien fellow doesn't really seem to be a good writer anyway. In fact, he isn't even able to make up a good ending for some of his stories, so he decided to call them the Unfinished Tales. Nothing compared to PJ's completed grand master-piece. And the worst thing of them all I hard of...NO ELVES AT HELM'S DEEP! Who does this guy think he is to get rid of such beautifully made deus-ex-machina, of such a tragic and touching story of immortals fighting side by side with mortals.
And Gimli...he's not even half as funny as he is in the movies, the jokes in the book are no fun.