What's a Hobbit to do?

[rogerdr]

The recent bit of trouble that Peter Jackson has had with actors' guilds in trying to recruit for his new version of The Hobbit, which has already run into much trouble (Tolkien's heirs haven't yet okayed it, for one), leaves me ambivalent about its fate. While I'd like to see another awesome spectacle on the big screen set in Middle-earth, I can

Comments

[darkluna]

This, so much.

I do enjoy the movies, mostly, I admit, because they're very pretty. But I do tend to think of them as being only loosely based on the books. Gimli and Faramir, in particular, I have to think of as characters who happen to have the same names as the book versions, and do some of the same things, but are not the same characters at all. The reduction of Gimli to comic relief is one thing that really pisses me off; and I don't think I'll ever stop being annoyed about the omission of Faramir's I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway, and the general character assassination practiced on him. I understand the rationale of the movies, and not wanting to undercut the effort they'd put into building up the Ring's allure, but I don't agree with that choice at all.

[rogerdr]

Really, I shouldn't care so much, since it gets kids reading, but Jackson has said numerous times how much of a fan he was. After watching the movies again and reading practically everything Tolkien wrote in that particular world, I can't see the movies as a labor of love. As you say, what he did to Gimli was insulting; I'd say the same thing about making Sam so cruel toward Gollum. Most of the character changes aren't so stark, though, and owe more to what I identified with a frustration at Tolkien's own lack of characterization. That would indeed be a failing if he had meant to build the story on its characters, but Tolkien was all about the traditional romantic tale (in the epic sense rather than the emotional) and concentrated upon the themes of overarching fate and duty. It's one thing to wish the characters were more three dimensional, but forcing them into it is rewriting the story