<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR><I>Pandora:</I> ...Jackson simply didn't care enough about the [book] characters.... The added material likewise shows that Jackson was not very interested in the book: the terrible side-trip to Osgiliath was probably the low point of the second film, unless it was Aragorn's "death" which was also added.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>The massacre of the character of Tolkien's Faramir and the trip to Osgiliath are cases of PJ thinking the addition of more drama would enhance the story. So it is clearly his decision that the book was inferior in those points. With which decision we mostly all disagree. <P>The proof is not in the box office. Porn sells, but that does not make it 'right.'<P>What justification for another "resurrection," though? Not only is it untrue to the text and spirit of the book, but what movie purpose could it serve? Does he think audiences need a second resurrection to make the first (Gandalf's) more believable? <I>Man on the street interview:</I> "Well, personally, I was undecided about going to see LotR-TTT, until friends told me two of the main characters died and came back. Now I can't wait!"<P>(I am hoping some of you teen--or teen-at-heart--girls can enlighten me on this. Does Viggo become more of a heartthrob to women due to the PJ-induced sympathy factor? If so, do you realize you are being manipulated? )<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Do you think Jackson added this crap material because he prefered the original? Of course not! He added it in because he thought it was better, and if that's what he thinks is better he must have a very low opinion of the original.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I agree, except that he may not have a low opinion of the original, just a higher opinion of his own 'adjustments.' Anyway, regardless of what he might have said in his justifications, PJ has added so much extra-book material, he certainly didn't do it to cut down the size of the material, or to make storytelling 'compromises.'<P>I think the movies are good--or great. But I don't think they are enhanced one bit by these major character and storyline departures from Tolkien. <P>On the other hand, it could have been worse: the movies might have flopped, and there likely would have been two results. No one would touch the LotR as movie material for years or decades down the road, possibly never. And people would have blamed Tolkien. Both unforgivable.
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For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying. -Gandalf, The Two Towers
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