[davem]

Originally Posted by Sir Kohran

I find it frankly astonishing that you criticise Jackson so often for changing things, and then criticise him when he depicts what Tolkien wrote.

Yes, he depicted in graphic detail the violence. Shame the moral vision, the philosophy, & the beauty of the books went by the wayside.

I get the same memories from both the books and the movies.

Well, its also possible to read the books as action adventure novels.

So? TTT and ROTK are darker movies with a lot more fighting and death, as are their book counterparts.

The point I was making was that the LotR movies were aimed at a younger audience & so the violence had to be toned down.

No it wasn't; look at the IMDb page - it's a 15.

I concede. I didn't check. That clearly means you're right about everything you've said. I feel totally humilated by your devastating point there. I'll just nip off & shoot meself....

No one laughed when I saw it. I also think it's in bad taste to laugh at a soldier's death regardless of whether you agreed with the changes from the books.

That's a silly point. We're talking about the 'death' of an actor in a movie that had become a complete joke by that point.

So what do you interpret that as? The horror of war? No, it's Tolkien using the severing of limbs as some 'light relief' for Pippin, hence the affectionate sounding 'Good old Merry!'

Its an expression of relief, of pride in his friend. Its not reducing death to slapstick in order to get a laugh.