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

[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.

[Aethelwine]

Very nice topic!

Oh, and please, I beg your forgiveness for the off-topic-ness of the below, but I just had to get it out!

Elves in background were like dragqueens, mostly (with blond hair and black eyebrows)

So, I’m a drag queen, because my hair is naturally blond, but my eyebrows are dark? Why thank you…

Oh, and mollecon, you must not forget that Tolkien wrote LOTR to be a myth, so the style he wrote in was to reflect that fact.

Forgive the off-topic-ness!

Cheers mates!

Aethelwine.

[The Saucepan Man]

Oh, and mollecon, you must not forget that Tolkien wrote LOTR to be a myth, so the style he wrote in was to reflect that fact.

Yes, and New Line/Jackson made the films to appeal to modern film-going audiences, so the style in which they made them reflects that fact.

[Lalaith]

Film is a very dominant medium, compared to the tentative nature of literary imagination. So I agree that the movie characters can easily trample on our own previous book-inspired imaginings.
One change I find slightly disturbing is my view of Merry. I can't put my finger on it, but I found film-Merry slightly seedy, somehow, and not noble enough. It annoyed me, but now he's in my mind as Merry. I want my book-Merry back!

[Vanya]

[QUOTE=Aethelwine
So, I’m a drag queen, because my hair is naturally blond, but my eyebrows are dark? Why thank you…
Aethelwine.[/QUOTE]


I apologize, I ment no offense, but this just didn't look natural to me, even if it is to you. Forgive me once again.

[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.

[Essex]

Laliath, re your point about Merry

I can't put my finger on it, but I found film-Merry slightly seedy, somehow, and not noble enough.

I stated earlier in the post that I have issues with the Merry character. I said he was too 'street wise'. To add to this, I believe we do not see the innocence of his character in the film as we get in the books. Like you, I can't really put my finger on it, it's just not quite right.

Lobelia, re

I think that there's a lot more fighting between Aragorn and Boromir in the film than the book.

I'll try to fish out some quotes from the books to explain my point that there was a fair bit of infighting between A and B in the book, as much as in the film.

[The Only Real Estel]

I can't put my finger on it, but I found film-Merry slightly seedy, somehow, and not noble enough.

I found Pippin slightly-no-greatly more stupid & less smart than he was in the books, a victim of the comic-relief character change, obviously.

The only character in the movies that might've changed my view of one in the books would be Boromir. Sean Bean just played him so well, it really helped me figure is character out a little better (I'm sure that's been said before, but I've not the time to look through all the posts ).

[The_Hand]

I agree with the Pippin thing. I read RotK just before I saw the movie and I really hated that he didn't get as much screen-time as I wanted him to. In the book he is shown to be very... well much smarter. And he talks more wisely and such. In the movie he's is just for laughs, but luckily he is brave.

Boromir: I really didn't think they got him right in the movie, but when I saw the extra sceens in extended edition I thought differently. He shows more understanding of Frodo's burden and what kind of person he was before he went just a little mad about the ring.

I hated the changed made to Faramir.