A Long Expected Party -- The Movie - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

***Mister Underhill*** · 09-08-2000, 01:37 PM

Alright all you armchair quarterbacks who think that Peter Jackson should be tossed into the Cracks of Doom for his mistreatment of the good Prof's work, this is your chance to show how you might have done it better! For those who are reading through LOTR along with the thread "A Long Expected Party" in the Books section, I thought it might be fun to discuss how each chapter might fit into the movie adaptations.

So. You are the screenwriter who must adapt the books. How will you do it? What stays and what goes in each chapter?

It's easy to see at a glance that the writers are already faced with a major challenge. The crucial Gandalf-Bilbo scene in Chapter One presupposes a knowledge of The Hobbit, something that many moviegoers won't have. How do we overcome this? And we obviously can't start the movie off with a twenty-minute party sequence -- we have to cram the whole Fellowship into a two to three hour movie.

I would say that the Gandalf-Bilbo scene is the one scene that we absolutely must have. We also need to set up Hobbits and the Shire, so we must have at least a condensed version of the party. But we won't have a chance to get to some much needed exposition about the Ring's history until we reach the Council of Elrond. This is a tough one.

This sounds like a clumsy solution, and I'm jumping ahead, but perhaps the movie might open near the Council -- maybe even at the fight at the Ford to start off with some action, and then during the Council, we can flash back, not only to the ring's history, but to the early chapters of the book, until we are caught up on all we need to know.

Another solution, one I like better and that might be more in keeping with the Prof's tone, would be to start off with some voice-over narration that could help us get out some exposition quickly. Our narrator might be Bilbo, looking back from after the War of the Ring and telling us the story. As a self-appointed chronicler, he seems a logical choice, and since he's removed for the most part from the events of the story, he could be our narrator when we need to get over tough spots through all three movies.

What's the first image? Maybe it's Gandalf trundling over a hill with a cartload of fireworks on his way to Bag End. Or -- even more appropriate -- a tight shot of the One Ring itself. Pull back, we're in Bilbo's hole in Bag End... Bilbo contemplates the ring, then pockets it... Jump in.

09-08-2000, 01:37 PM	#1
*Mister Underhill* Dread Horseman Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Behind you! Posts: 2,743	A Long Expected Party -- The Movie Alright all you armchair quarterbacks who think that Peter Jackson should be tossed into the Cracks of Doom for his mistreatment of the good Prof's work, this is your chance to show how you might have done it better! For those who are reading through LOTR along with the thread "A Long Expected Party" in the Books section, I thought it might be fun to discuss how each chapter might fit into the movie adaptations. So. You are the screenwriter who must adapt the books. How will you do it? What stays and what goes in each chapter? It's easy to see at a glance that the writers are already faced with a major challenge. The crucial Gandalf-Bilbo scene in Chapter One presupposes a knowledge of The Hobbit, something that many moviegoers won't have. How do we overcome this? And we obviously can't start the movie off with a twenty-minute party sequence -- we have to cram the whole Fellowship into a two to three hour movie. I would say that the Gandalf-Bilbo scene is the one scene that we absolutely must have. We also need to set up Hobbits and the Shire, so we must have at least a condensed version of the party. But we won't have a chance to get to some much needed exposition about the Ring's history until we reach the Council of Elrond. This is a tough one. This sounds like a clumsy solution, and I'm jumping ahead, but perhaps the movie might open near the Council -- maybe even at the fight at the Ford to start off with some action, and then during the Council, we can flash back, not only to the ring's history, but to the early chapters of the book, until we are caught up on all we need to know. Another solution, one I like better and that might be more in keeping with the Prof's tone, would be to start off with some voice-over narration that could help us get out some exposition quickly. Our narrator might be Bilbo, looking back from after the War of the Ring and telling us the story. As a self-appointed chronicler, he seems a logical choice, and since he's removed for the most part from the events of the story, he could be our narrator when we need to get over tough spots through all three movies. What's the first image? Maybe it's Gandalf trundling over a hill with a cartload of fireworks on his way to Bag End. Or -- even more appropriate -- a tight shot of the One Ring itself. Pull back, we're in Bilbo's hole in Bag End... Bilbo contemplates the ring, then pockets it... Jump in.