It’s Arwen that spirits Frodo away from the Ringwraiths in the movie instead being helped by some Elf that was so generic I have forgotten his name. Any movie that uses Liv Tyler so effectively is impressive indeed.
The elf's name was
Glorfindel, and he is rumored to be the same Glorfindel that died killing a balrog at the fall of Goldolin in the prior age.
(what can I say? i'm a tolkien geek. Sigh.)
It seems they took inspiration from TFOTR because they barely get any horses before they lose them in Bree. Surely there were other opportunities in Middle Earth to find horses? They’d have to abandon them at the Misty Mountains, but at least they wouldn’t be walking for days and days and allow the Ringwraiths to nearly finish the quest before it began.
I'm not sure hobbits used horses, typically, did they? So they could only get them from men?
The center point of the novel and movie is the trip through the Mines of Moria and the climatic battle at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The line in the movie that became a meme online ("You shall not pass!") is actually different in the novel ("You cannot pass."). Interesting to see how the form of the Balrog is depicted onscreen as the book is kind of vague. Go read the debates on whether the Balrog has wings or not at some LOTR forums to see how people love to pick over every detail of these stories.
I disliked the movie balrog, I felt like it was overproduced and I was watching a video game. One thing I had loved about Tolkien was the spiritual symbolism inherent in the books; unlike Lewis, however, who incorporated his faith directly and rather clumsily into his writing (well, blatantly), Tolkien simply was informed by his. So his Istari were rather like angels cloaked in flesh, with inherent power in their BEING... same thing with the Balrogs which were essentially dark angels. Although Tolkien muddies the notion a bit by having special words of power that can be used (like the spell of closing Gandalf casts on the door), essentially their magic was not AD&D magic where wizards cast spells they learn; like the elves, it is magic inherent in their very being. The battle of Gandalf and Durin's Bane is almost like a primal battle between the core nature of two beings, like throwing fire at water and seeing what comes out the victor. Olorin (AKA gandalf), by his wording, forbids the balrog to pass; it's less like a spell from Gandalf and more like telling the balrog it is bound there by its past and its nature and also by Gandalf's nature itself -- and it cannot actually leave or make its way past.
Anyway, the whole Moria sequence, from the lurker in the lake onward to them fleeing into daylight at the far end, is my favorite sequence in the entire trilogy, except for maybe Shelob's Lair. It has wonderful pacing, an ominous build, gollum following them at a distance, and the chamber of mazarbul is inspired, with the horror of the whole butchered diary they find -- the middle earth version of the "discovered tape footage" so popular in today's cinema. "Drums. Drums in the deep. They are coming. We cannot get away. They are coming." I mean, just creepy as hell.
One of the bigger changes to the story by the movies was the character Aragorn. In the novel he’s a bit one-dimensional, a stoic, quiet leader. The only time he seems to doubt his actions is whether to lead the fellowship to Minas Tirith (the white city Boromir hails from) or on to Mordor after the "death" of Gandalf. Surprisingly, the movie has Aragorn much more decisive to NOT lead them to the white city, despite the fact he is filled with doubt about whether to claim his heritage as the king of the men of Middle Earth. In the books, he never shirked from this destiny, just waited for the right time (Why? Why not before the threat of Sauron? I don’t know.).
Your description is accurate, and despite it being a major change in a character, I actually felt like this one was appropriate. In the book, aragorn was more part of a plot device -- this faceless character with no real life but just to become the future king and reinstallation of the lineage of old men of legend. The movie gave Aragorn a face and heart and an actual plot of his own to invest in. he was far more sympathetic, and didn't really have his character tarnished.
The end of the movie, Boromir’s death and battle with the orcs, actually takes place at the beginning of the novel The Two Towers, but Jackson and the writers moved it to the end of the first movie. I again think this was a good idea, as you truly get a sense the fellowship is broken and Sam and Frodo are on their own. Also the downfall and then heroic redemption of Boromir gives the ending some real emotional weight I feel gets a bit wasted at the beginning of TTT.
I agree with your thoughts here; it was another change I found welcome. Tolkien had some wonderful dramatic sections in his writing (like moria) but other places really dropped the ball.. and killing off Boromir at the beginning of the Two Towers really was a dramatic waste. I think this was a great move on Jackson's part as well.
The first movie is easily my favorite of the three, and the only one I can watch nowadays.
Hmm, I seem to think the movies did a better job at telling the story of the quest to destroy the One Ring better than the actual books. I did not expect that. Let’s hear what you think.
I don't really think that. Like I said, I can't even watch movies 2 & 3. So the ring only gets as far as the falls of Rauros for me, in the movies.
I think that much of the Two Towers book sucks, though, in terms of the ALG trio half (lots of boring boring dead space... and oh yes, "we're running, we're running this way now, yes, this way, we're running, running, running... and running some more, oh keep running). However, the passage of the ring south toward Mordor is fine. But we'll save that for the TT discussion.
[MENTION=5871]Southern Kross[/MENTION]: I don't remember how the landscape looked in movies 2 & 3. But for the first movie, I was very impressed... I think it was all quite perfect and fit with my imagination for the story, with all that terrain that was covered -- Hobbiton, Bree, Weathertop, whatever bits of Rivendell was real, and the rivers and forests at movie's end. NZ seemed to be a perfect choice.