Did your View of the Characters change after seeing the films?

[Gothmog]

To start with, I can´t agree with you about Boromir beeing a bad guy. I´ve always thought of him as a victim of the evil powers of the ring and its master. He didn´t want to hurt Frodo or take the ring, but he´s just a human and couldn´t resist its powers. I pity him more than think he´s a bastard. Of course I´m not saying that you´re wrong, it´s only my opinion...

There are two characters that I´m really disappointed of in the movies: Gimli and Faramir. Gimli is like a dwarf on a cirkus, always to short, can´t ride a horse without falling of and making rude noices in front of Eowyn . Thats not how I pictured him before I saw the movies (well, I´m not picturing him like that afterwards either).

I might have the wrong impression (it´s been over a year since I last read the books), but as far as I remember, Faramir believed the hobbits quite quick, and I know that he didn´t drag them all the way to Osgiliath. He seems more proud, less friendly and helping in the movie. I don´t think Faramir is the sort of man that wants to keep the ring for himself, or his father.

Well that´s my opinion...Even if I´m not too happy with some of the characters, I think that the movies are GREAT. PJ has succeeded in making the greatest adventure ever to a real good movie-triology...Good work!!!

[bilbo_baggins]

I enjoyed both the movie and the book. I believe you're right in thinking that the movie changed some things about the book, and vice versa.

When I read the book, I always pictured (now this can get weird) Aragorn more as a symbol of the letter "A", and Gandalf as a "G", and Gimli as a short "G", Legolas as "L", so forth. Kinda weird, but I never really put a face to the names, I just sort of imagine the names walking around as 3-d figures.

The movie changed that, in that it placed faces over the names, and it morphed some of the dramatic scenes for me. I don't dislike either one, but it has a strange clash.

Nice topic, by the way

[Failivrin]

i tried to read the book aged about 9 but i got scared around the Barrow Downs so i stopped.

When i heard there had been a movie made i decided that i shouldprobably read the books before seeing the film. However, before reading the books i read the short picture guide to FOTR and the first i ever knew about Aragorn was the picture of him in that book. Therefore i have never visualised Aragorn as anything but Viggo's portrayl of him, although the accent is obviously better in my head.

The film changed my vew of Pippin in that it made me like him less; PJ portrayed him as stupid and kind of the clown of the first film, which really annoyed me. i find Pippin very funny in the book, but not in that was; in a more gentle way. So it has changed my view of Pippin.

I categorically refuse to acknowledge much of the film-version of Faramir. when i watch David Wenham i hear his voice but i see book Faramir and i see the bok storyline too.

[ArathorofBarahir]

Mine didn't change. After I saw the trilogy my views of each character was the same as it was when I finished reading the books.

[Lobelia]

Oh, my, Essex, what a mishmash of voices!

Peter Woodthorpe's Gollum always made me think of Fagin, so I prefer Andy Serkis's and it's him I hear, now, as I read. John Hurt was not bad at all as Aragorn, but Robert Stephens has such a beautiful voice, I am still hearing him, though Viggo was wonderful. BBC Elrond had a melodious Welsh accent, which suits Tolkien's Elves, but I think Hugo Weaving has taken over in my head. The trouble is, the dignified Elves of LOTR are so very different from the ones in THE HOBBIT, who dance around singing silly songs and talking about finishing off all the cake, you have to do an adjustment between books let alone the film!

If you want to hear yet another Treebeard, get hold of AT DAWN IN RIVENDELL and listen to Christopher Lee ... He sounds like Stephen Thorne (BBC Treebeard) but even better - and he can sing.

So now I'm hearing *him* rumbling, "Hroom hoom" when I read the book and singing to the tunes from AT DAWN...

Sorry - I know the topic was the films. But "contamination" can come from anyh interpretation.

[Essex]

At Dawn in Rivendell? Another adaptation to listen to. cool.

regarding Boromir.

I believe that Jackson got his character correct in a number of ways. When reading the books again after seing fotr and tt on the movie screen, I seem to have a new insight into Boromir's character when reading the books. Yes, he was a great leader of men, we can see this. But what I also now get from the books now is his almost childish nature in the way he thinks everything he says is right, and will not listen to any other arguments, no matter how well put.

Another new thing I've seen, which is staggering the amount of times I've read the book, is the animosity we can see at times between Aragorn and Boromir. I believe they really didn't get on in the books. This is also picked up by Jackson in the EE where we have Aragorn's angry retort to boromir that he wouldn't go near MT with the Ring. A number of times we can see the infighting going on between the two of them in the book.

Cheers to jackson for bringing out another 'level' to the FOTR for me.

[mollecon]

Actually, I thought (some of) the characters in PJ's movies were more interesting than the ones Tolkien himself describes! That's got nothing to do with Tolkien being a bad writer (I love the books, have read them many times!), but a lot to do with the particular style and tradition Tolkien is writing 'on'. PJ and his co-writers probably realised that if these persons were gonna live on the screen, and have an appeal to an audience that didn't know the books - they had to make them more 'modern', and less mythological, in terms of their psychology/personality. For instance, in the books it seems reasonable enough that you have a person coming out of nowhere who's totally immune to the Ring's power - that wouldn't have worked in the movies (I'm referring to Faramir, of course ). I also like the Aragorn in the movies - the one in the books is rather two-dimensional.

I guess it is true that some of the other characters in some way payed a penalty for this change. Both Gimli & Legolas are to an extend 'non-characters' - comic relief yes, but not much beyond that. But if you look in the books, they aren't really much more developed there.

[Lobelia]

Originally Posted by Essex

At Dawn in Rivendell? Another adaptation to listen to. cool.


Another new thing I've seen, which is staggering the amount of times I've read the book, is the animosity we can see at times between Aragorn and Boromir. I believe they really didn't get on in the books. This is also picked up by Jackson in the EE where we have Aragorn's angry retort to boromir that he wouldn't go near MT with the Ring. A number of times we can see the infighting going on between the two of them in the book.

Cheers to jackson for bringing out another 'level' to the FOTR for me.

I think that there's a lot more fighting between Aragorn and Boromir in the film than the book. True, Boromir is constantly going on about how they really should head for MT and he'll go alone if he has to, but, apart from the Council of Elrond scene, in which he is very rude and Aragorn keeps his temper, they do seem to co-operate well. On the other hand, before I saw the film, I wasn't all that interested in Boromir. He was the guy who pounced on Frodo and regretted it and then paid with his life. He was dead by the beginning of TTT. On with the quest! But after the film, I had another look at the character and realised he had more depth than, say, Legolas, who didn't do a whole lot to show his personality apart from the occasional comment about his Elvish abilities, with a grin - you didn't even know what he looked like! So the film made me re-read the book with different eyes. It said, for example, that the hobbits had liked Boromir and his kindness, but you *saw* that in the film, most notably in the scene where he was teaching them how to use the sword and lay there laughing when they knocked him over. And in the extended version, in Lothlorien, where he urged Frodo not to take on more burdens, the Ring being heavy enough. Neither scene was in the book, but they made me read the scenes that were there more carefully.