Bamboozled By My Book-Based Brain

[Dininziliel]

Well, I think I'm gonna have to turn in my Junior Scholar badge and get a Wannabe button . . . I am so shocked at myself that, for some mildly perverse reason, I have to share it. I think this is a matter of confession being good for the soul . . .

I was reading "Stupid Ring Parody" for mid-evening levity. After about 2 1/2 years, I have finally gotten to "Battle of the Pelnnor Fields." When I reached the part where Merry struggles over to Theoden before he dies, it suddenly struck me that, each of the 7 times I've watched RotK I never once recalled that it was Merry, not Eowyn , who had the last conversation w/Theoden. But wait! There's more! I had to pull out my nearest copy of the book (which, btw, I've read far more than 7 times) to make sure I was not still tripping!

And I prided myself over being able to pick apart all the ways the movie departed from the book. I am going to blame the shock of Gollum's cheesy lembas bread frame-up on addling my brain for all subsequent scenes.

Well, it's just another item to add to my list of "The Book Was Better." The poignancy of Theoden grieving over never seeing Eowyn again while not knowing she lay injured nearby after dispatching the WK would have been better even than Miranda's terrific acting in the movie. [sighs, thinking she had found all the sighs and would not have to discover new sources for sighing]

It's just sad to me that my recollection of both books & movies have become hybridized--I may have to swear off the movies for a year.

Nah.

p.s. I couldn't decide if this was a new thread or not, so I'm offering it as a possibility for others, who, like me, continue to be startled by big plot deviations they've missed during the first 5 or more viewings. (Once or twice doesn't count! ) Am I a victim of dust bunnies in the belfry or hypnotism? [heh]

You know, now that I think about it--I've read umpteen # of movie posts here & one or two other large web sites, and I don't recall anyone else mentioning this, either. Nope, that just couldn't be--I don't think--gee, I'm so cornfused! [shuffles off down darkened hallway scratching head and fades from view]

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I suppose that it could subtly alter your perceptions of the book if, say, you had not read the book for years, or perhaps read the book after the films came out.

I read the book a few months before The Fellowship was released, and also read it again in between each of the 3 films. As a result, I have found it very easy to keep book and movie separate.

I completely agree with you about Theoden's death. Not nearly sad enough. A big disappointment.

[Carlas]

When I saw the first movie, I was only half way through the Fellowship of the Rings since I had only just discovered that the books existed a short time before. Even so, I always find myself refering back to the books to be sure that I am not confusing the books and the movie. Though I am not sure if it is my horrible memory that confuses me, or my almost teenybopperish love of Pippin (which started before I saw the movies!) that distracts me from remembering the other parts of the books and movies.

You only forgot one thing Dininziliel, so don't beat yourself up about it...not all of us at the Downs can be expected to remember all of the books inside and out!

[Knight of Gondor]

I understand your objections. But I think we could take up a whole forum with being upset at the changes between movie and book. There are numerous small-time beefs that people have with the books (try http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=9638). Some of them are good, some of them are for dumb audiences, some for more Hollywood-esque elements (having Eowyn follow and rescue her uncle, and then not see him ere he dies would probably be a Hollywood plot no-no, although I'm not well-versed in Hollywood-ology), and some of them for various other reasons. It was a shame it didn't play out in the movie the way it did in the books, but then again, it was nice to see an "alternate" version if you will, to see Eowyn bid Theoden farewell.

[mollecon]

But the mere fact that some of you actually have to go back to the books to 'recall' speaks volumes about how good Jacksons adaption really is!

And quite frankly, I can't understand all the complaints. A movie & a book doesn't operate in the same manner, and given the limitations that Peter Jackson, after all, had to deal with, I think he did a very good job.

If you wanted the movies to follow the books closely, story wise - you wouldn't have had a movie, you would have gotten a TV-series (with corresponding cheap & cheesy special effects!) in 30 one hour parts...

[The Only Real Estel]

And quite frankly, I can't understand all the complaints. A movie & a book doesn't operate in the same manner, and given the limitations that Peter Jackson, after all, had to deal with, I think he did a very good job.

I don't think anybody really wants a word for word adaption or anything like that. He did do a great job, in some ways, but just because, 'A movie & a book don't operate in the same manner' doesn't mean that he has some sort of imagined invincibility while making the movies. Especially since he said himself that he wanted them to be Tolkien's movies, not his own.

On another note, I won't complain about Thoeden's death scene, but I really liked the part in the books when he & Merry talk, & Theoden tells him that he will never sit with him in Meduseld nor listen to Merry talk of herb lore. I think that would've worked fine in the movie, but it's not a major issue or anything .

[Essex]

Jackson would have had to have spent a fair bit of movie time showing the relationship between Merry and Theoden for the book version farewell to have worked. He could not afford time wise to do this, (or perhaps he wanted more screen time for a female) so he subsituted the scenes building up Merry and Theoden's relationship, and built up Theoden's and Eowyn's instead.

Dininziliel, don't beat yourself up on forgetting certain parts of the story. LOTR is over a thousand pages long, and a human brain cannot possible store all of this information verbatim. You might think that forgetting merry's farewell with theoden is a major part, but there are dozens of others included or removed that might warrant another read of the book to remind our brains of the 'correct' version of events.

Every time I re read lotr I pick up at least a couple of things I haven't noticed before. eg as I recently stated on another post, I have just noticed the real animosity between aragorn and boromir in fotr. And for some reason I always struggle with frodo and sam's journey in Mordor and seem to be 'reminded' of this part of the book every time I read it. (not sure why this is).

[The Only Real Estel]

Jackson would have had to have spent a fair bit of movie time showing the relationship between Merry and Theoden for the book version farewell to have worked. He could not afford time wise to do this, (or perhaps he wanted more screen time for a female) so he subsituted the scenes building up Merry and Theoden's relationship, and built up Theoden's and Eowyn's instead.

Although if pictures don't lie, it appears that Merry offers his service to Theoden at Edoras:


surely Jackson has incorperated some of their relationship in as this is happening (although it'd have to be in the EE, of course). So I think we'll see more of the Merry/King Theoden relationship in the RotK EE, but unfortunatly, I don't think that we'll see the Merry/King Theoden farewell scene because of the Theatrical release of RotK. From what I remember the shots aren't set up correctly to introduce the farewell scene in the EE .

[mollecon]

Yeah - you managed to mention things I didn't even had begun to think about! As I've stated many times, I love the novel - but that doesn't prevent me from loving the movie equally