Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Purists? - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
To be honest, I can't really tell. The story moves so quickly that it feels like no time has passed at all, but when I see Bilbo in Rivendell, I think the full 17 years have elapsed. We just didn't get any sub-titles saying, "17 years later". Peter may or may not have intended at some point to say, "Several months later", but in the end he elected to leave it up to the audience to decide how much time passes.
Nonetheless, when Frodo awakens in Rivendell, Ganalf tells him it's October 24. Check your book, purists. That is the date Frodo awakens in Rivendell. On the other hand, a lot of the history was altered, and I don't see why. In fact, a number of specific aspects of Sauron's character have been radically altered. I can't see why.
Is that good? I have no idea. I won't say it's bad. But it's a departure from Tolkien. Nonetheless, they did try to keep Sauron in the background, which is what a lot of fans wanted. I think they kept him in the background too much. Well, that was bound to be one of those, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" things. Sauron's role in the movie doesn't break the story, and he does come across (in my humble opinion) as something better than a typical sword-and-sorcery dark-lord knockoff villain.
On the other hand, some of the grandeur of Tolkien's Dunedain has been lost. But it has been argued by many people that if they were to stop and deliver a history and culture lesson at every point where Tolkien does so, the movie would never get past Bree (Bombadil is big into history, for example).
But I think Aragorn was short-changed. Viggo Mortensen does a wonderful job of playing the character, but, damnitall, he needed more screen time. Strider comes on weak and almost empty early in the story, and he gradually gains the reader's (and Hobbits') respect. The movie just throws him into the situation and baddabing baddabam! Strider is Aragorn, the long-lost heir of Isildur.
Of course, short of releasing six three-hour movies, I'm not sure they could have done much about the Strider-to-Aragorn transition without cutting out the rest of the movie. But once again the writers were clever and they altered Strider's storyline, deferring some key moments until the second or possibly third movie. Hardcore purists will scream, but if the rest of us ignore them, they will quickly become irrelevant.
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