Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMisfortuneTeller
Leaving aside for the moment the subject of non-essential characters, Professor Tolkien himself elegantly summarized the essential story of The Hobbit with two Third Age calendar entries in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings....
In other words, little Bilbo Baggins found the Ring -- or the Ring found him. Then Bilbo returned with the Ring to the Shire -- or the Ring escaped from underneath the Misty Mountains. Everything else that happened in Middle-earth during that one year concerned the geopolitical machinations of Wizards vs Sauron, a.k.a., the Necromancer. As Gandalf said to Bilbo at the end of The Hobbit...
Yes, The Hobbit tells the linear tale of the "little fellow" and one could leave it that -- as the children's magic adventure narrative originally published in 1937. But Professor Tolkien did not leave it at that, and instead revisited and rewrote key parts of The Hobbit so that it would fit appropriately into the story of "the wide world" as well....
In short, Peter Jackson has a wealth of genuine Tolkien material to exploit if he wishes to do so. Everything will hinge on whether he brings Tolkien's world to life -- both microcosm and macrocosm -- or falls willing victim to hackneyed Hollywood cliches, latest-and-greatest computer graphics gimicks, and fanboy slaughter extravaganzas to give Orlando Bloom something to do in a story that doesn't need him.
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I was going to write a rather long, ultimately tedious, diatribe in response to your well-researched post, TMT, with circles and arrows and a paragraph description on the back of each illustration, but to paraphrase the good professor for my warped agenda, "Keep it simple, keep it safe."
When you state that Tolkien "revisited and rewrote key parts of
The Hobbit so that it would fit appropriately into the story [
LotR]", that is, of course, true. Here is an excellent site that does a side-by-side analysis of the actual emendations:
http://www.ringgame.net/riddles.html
It is of note that the majority of edits deal solely with a single chapter, "Riddles in the Dark", and revolve around one character, Gollum. When Tolkien set about to rewrite The Hobbit in 1960, he eventually abandoned the project, as any wholesale revision would ultimately eliminate the humor and inherent enchanting nature of the story. Therefore, we have a few, short summarizations of other events that happened during Bilbo's adventure, and a chapter in
Unfinished Tales ("The Quest of Erebor") which is under copyright by Christopher Tolkien and cannot be used in the film.
Therein lies my abhorrence for grafting the "White Council" sequences to
The Hobbit. A skeletal summation of other events does not a canonical plot make, particularly when referring to the sub-par fan-fictionalizations of Peter Jackson. Based on
The Marring of the Ring films, there is ample justification for my loathing this addition. Simply put, when Peter Jackson strayed from Tolkien's original intent and plot, the movies suffered. I could offer up a litany of such character assassinations, ****-poor dialogue and film sequences for special effect's sake, but that dead horse has been flogged beyond a bloody pulp and has been analyzed down to an equine cellular level.
Is there an opportunity to exploit brief summaries for larger aggrandizements? Certainly, the vampire has been invited into the room, and a word-wraith such as Jackson has evidently had this in mind all along. But it will be fan-fiction. And based on PJ's previous fan-fiction, he certainly will not be selected for a Middle-earth Fanfiction Award (MEFA).
You, yourself, have bemoaned the mere mention of that Xenarwenish character, Itaril. One can already picture the shield-surfing contest between her and Orlandolas.
