Dumbing it down

[Lalwendë]

In examples such as Saruman's death you can see how the subtleties of the original text were lost during the adaptation, how intricately woven the tale in the books is compared to the merely surface level of the tale in the films. To have included the Scouring of the Shire might not have made sense in terms of film narrative and length, in adding another ending to confuse those poor audiences, but the events in the book are necessary to finishing the tale off satisfactorily. They not only show exactly what the Hobbits were getting themselves into bother for, but they show how 'the mighty are fallen'. Instead of Saruman being killed in a showdown of epic proportions, he is brought low and humble and this is not only more satisfying but more subtle and meaningful.

But having now watched the trilogy end to end, it is in Two Towers that the vision of Jackson most goes awry. Fellowship was carefully crafted, and the omissions/alterations are not so noticeable, and RotK benefitted from the movement towards the inevitable conclusion. But I got the distinct impression that the scriptwriting team found Two Towers to be dull in some way and therefore in need of 'rewriting'. Much new material was inserted which did not work very well, and the structure disintegrated somewhat. I was suspicious that the writers wanted a way to include Arwen in the film but could not think of a concrete storyline, and that the producers may have been telling Jackson that they wanted to see more use being made out of the effects. The changes may have ultimately been made less with the audience in mind and more with the banks in mind.