Fellowship of the Ring Book Vs Movie.

As I said in my review for The Fellowship of the Ring review, I would write a comparison between the book and the movie about some of the biggest differences. For a future post, I would like you to comment or e-mail me some changes in The Fellowship of the Ring that you want me to write about next.

*Warning: There will be spoilers for both book and movie.*

Disclaimer: I am not an expert and this is my opinion.

Aragorn's Sword Andúril/Narsil

In the book Aragorn had the broken hilt of Andúril/Narsil when the Hobbits arrived in Bree and then the sword was re-forged before the Fellowship left Rivendell. However, in the movie the broken sword was on display at Rivendell and Elron later re-forges the sword during The Return of the King and gives it to Aragorn. I am not entirely sure why this was changed. I see no real reason to change it from the book.

Songs and Poems

Although the songs and poems were well written and work well in the book, I cannot stand the over use of songs during movies, especially serious ones like The Lord of the Rings. There is no way that most of the songs could have actually worked in the film without bogging it down.

Shorter Time Span

The book takes place over many years after Bilbo's birthday and Frodo stays at Rivendell around 6 months. In the movie, it appears to only take a year or two from the beginning of their journey to the end. Before reading the book, I have always wondered how everyone at the Council of Elrond arrived so quickly without modern transportation, but the book does give a better perspective of time. However, the time gap does not really affect the story and would have only slowed the plot and making Frodo younger was a better decision, because Elijah Wood was casted in the role. 

Tom Bombadil

"Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!" Tom Bombadil's part of the book was completely removed from the movie. Probably because of the lighthearted feel of those chapters and that the songs and poems in general were removed from the film. While, I found the chapters in the book very enjoyable, it really would not have worked in the movie very well. Only in the extended edition could it have worked at all.

Awren

As I have read from many fans, they were very unhappy with the addition of Awren in a more prominent role. She barely had one line of dialogue in the entire book, if that much. Awren was mostly there to ad a love interest for Aragorn. If I am not mistaken, this story arc is more based on the appendices by Tolkien. Although, I am not the biggest fan of this addition, it works in the movie and did not seem out of place in the story. Her race to take Frodo to Rivendell was an excellent action set piece and having an intelligent horse might have been a little outlandish for the audience to believe so early in the film.

Merry, Pippin and The Hobbits

Another change that was noticeable was how the Hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin, were portrayed as being a little more native and incompetent at times. Although Merry and Pippin added much needed humor to the films, similar to C3PO and R2-D2 in the Star Wars Trilogy. Many of the funniest scenes involve Merry and Pippin, like the scene "Second Breakfast", which I often quote to this day. On a side note, I wish that Pippin fooling the Orc into thinking that he had the Ring in "The Two Tower" would have been included in the movie.

Ending

The ending of The Fellowship of the Ring is a little different in that it uses the first chapter of The Two Towers rather than the actual end of The Fellowship of the Ring book. However, the film really needed to end with the death of Boromir to give it true closure and the Lord of the Rings was originally intended to be one large book, therefore it did not make a difference.

There were many more changes from the book to the movie. For my next post about The Fellowship of the Ring Book vs. Movie, I would like you to comment or send me an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com about what you want me to write about in my next post. If possible I will write and post the answers to the questions within the next two week.

If you want to contact us or have any question please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

Posted in: book review,Lord of the Rings,review,The Lord of the Ring