LotR1-FotR-Seq10

[Essex]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

There I don't agree. By not having Gimli be the butt end of joke through TTT and ROTK, or by not having Frodo send Sam away in ROTK, would surely not be so diminishing to their characters.

Agree re Gimli. If I had to pick one scene I would remove from the movie it would be the EE scene with gimli walking on the bones of the dead and blowing away the ghostly forms in the Paths of the Dead. It makes me cringe every time I see it.

But regarding Frodo sending Sam away. They HAD to split the two up for the following scenes to pan out so well. my reasons behind this: (and I know I'm jumping the gun by a good 6 months or so here!)

1/ we need the focus of the hunt by shelob to be one person - ie to make a decent 'chase' scene to work.....
2/ we would not have the SUSPENSE of Frodo being stalked and attacked by shelob before she strikes, if we followed the book version. This worked SO well in the film, and Suspense is one area where the viewable format (ie the film) works better over the written form for me.
3/ and therefore we would not have the surprise return of the 'hero' Sam to save the day.

I think these scenes work really well - different yes to the film, but I can forgive them for making this plot diversion (I won't call it a plot 'change' as we end up in the same position after 10 mins or so.....)