In your opinion, which one of the movies followed the book the closet

[Gil Galad]

Mine would have to be ROTK, except at Aragorn's crowning and they laft out the scouring of the shire.<P>Whats your alls opinion?<p>[ 8:27 PM January 19, 2004: Message edited by: Gil Galad ]

[HCIsland]

Of course scenes were deleted from all movies, so I'm judging it more on what was there. I think the biggest change in King was Frodo sending Sam away. <P>In Fellowship, the departure from Bag End was very much accelerated, Merry's and Pippin's joining is completely different, Arwen instead of Glorfindel and a major increase in the involvement of the Cave Troll in Moria.<P>Of course in Towers we have Osgiliath, Elves at Helm's Deep and the Warg attack, all pretty major events.<P>So my vote goes to King being the closest to the books.<P>H.C.

[Lord of Angmar]

My vote definitely has to go to <I>The Fellowship of the Ring</I>. It seemed to me to take the least liberties with the text (particularly with the dialogue) of the three films, and, unlike the second and third, really had no changes (aside from, erm, Arwen) that were made simply for the sake of change (i.e. warg rider attack in <I>The Two Towers</I>, Elrond giving Aragorn Anduril in <I>Return of the King</I>, etc.). Also, the sets in <I>Fellowship</I> were the most like I imagined them (although the Hornburg, Minas Tirith and Mount Doom were all very close to how I imagined them). The Shire, Moria, Lothlorien and Bree were all just as I had pictured them when reading the books. For me, the mood and aura of the first was more close to the book, and the plot (in my opinion) was the least changed in the first installment of the film trilogy.<P>-Angmar

[Lathriel]

On first thought my mind jumped to TTT but on second thought my vote will go to ROTK though I think the EE is still needed.<BR>However one change that almost made ROTK go in second place was Arwen's connection to the ring. It still confuses me.

[Beanamir of Gondor]

I am an absolute firm believer in the fact that FOTR was the movie that stuck best to the book [and Elusive Spirit, don't even start about You Only Like It Cause Boromir Was In It]. About the only huge happening PJ totally left out was Tom Bombadil and [how's this for irony] the Barrowdowns. In TTT, Eomer wasn't at Helm's Deep, Grima came to Isengard before the flood, and Faramir was a jerk in the non-EE. ROTK was great, but they left out the scouring of the Shire [as mentioned], Eowyn and Faramir's wedding, Eomer's crowning as king, and the Houses of Healing. Oh yes, and all of those special adorable parts with Merry and Theoden.<BR>Oh but I must admit, FOTR definitely and totally forgot about Glorfindel. And there was too much Arwen.

[Cibbwin]

I agree, Fellowship was closest to book. HOWEVER, TTT extended is the one movie that leaves nothing out. It takes plenty of liberties, and changes many things, but I cannot think of one thing left out.

[Meela]

Fellowship. It captured the spirit quite nicely, and since we seem to be going by 'changes' here, it was the one that had the most minor changes.

[Gorwingel]

Fellowship of the Ring. Because it captured the true spirit of Tolkien better than the other films. The story was more true to the book, and the changes that were made seemed to be changes that had to be made to make the story run more smoothly. Some of the other changes in the other films seemed unecessary and I will never understand why they decided to do what they did (like Faramir).<P>Another thing is that in Fellowship it seemed like the story was more important (like the book). In the other films the battles seemed to overshadow it.<P>Also in the EE, the additions to the FOTR DVD didn't seem necessary. They were fun, but not exactly necessary. In the TTT EE, the changes did seem necessary. FOTR was a more complete film overall.

[zb]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> (FOTR) seemed to me to take the least liberties with the text <I>(particularly with the dialogue)</I> (my italics)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>My immediate impression of FotR the first time I saw it was that the dialogue was a crazy mishmash of chapter titles and random bits of narrative from all over the place, and the only dialogue which was written by JRRT as dialogue had been transposed from one scene to another.<P>Though I don't s'pose any of the other movies were much better, so I guess your 'least liberties' idea holds... <P>I also thought the overall pacing of FotR was significantly changed by PJ&co, which gave it quite a different feel to the book, regardless of which events were (not) included.<P>That said, I'm not sure any one movie was closer than any of the others to the books. They all suffer from major worldview shifts, if nothing else. (though that's a whole new topic...)

[Gil-Galad]

of course RoTk, sicnei read the book about like 8 tiems before the movie came out, i was expecting more, and hello Gil Galad, whoever you are, may be an evil tiwn.. or something... well if i say anymore i'm gonna have to kill you all

[Gil Galad]

lets just say we're both evil Gil Galad 1, i blow stuff up!!!! (with fireworks of course<BR> )

[Firefoot]

I think that TTT was probably the closest to the book. The only major changes I can think of are the attack of the Wargs and the elves at Helm's Deep (stupid elves, go away). Then there were some more minor things (no less annoying but not as important) such as the addition of Arwen where she is not needed and Faramir's personality change. I think there were probably less changes than in FotR or RotK, especially since they put the end of book TTT into movie RotK.

[Kaiserin]

My vote goes to FOTR.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I think that TTT was probably the closest to the book. <BR> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Forgive me, but my opinion is that TTT was the one that suffered the most alterations.<BR>All of the movies had several major differnces from the books, but I'd say that FOTR was the one that kept its integrity the most. It is always a given fact that whenever a book is interpreted into a film, parts have to be discarded, some characters eliminated or even merged with others. The alterations made in FOTR were understandable and to a point acceptable - e.g., most of the deleted parts had no offensive effect on the plot. The alterations in TTT were the most upsetting - there were big changes in the plot and a major character. ROTK is more consistent with the books than TTT, but in my opinion not as faithful as FOTR.<p>[ 12:40 AM January 22, 2004: Message edited by: Kaiserin ]

[Moonmaid]

I won't even start with the changes they made to TTT...<P>I really can't decide between FOTR and ROTK because they both had one or two major scenes scrapped (Tom and Scouring). But although i like ROTK more at the moment, I feel that FORT was more Tolkienish, somehow the feeling was more true to the book. Can't say why, because in my opinion ROTK didn't stray far from Tolkien.