Cry 'Havoc!' and Let Slip the Wargs of Fandom! - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
If I were to emphasize Arwen's role in the primary story, I might indeed do something similar. That is, in compressing actions or even characteristics, I'd look for literary characters whose attributes and functions are similar. While the literary Arwen never faces down the Nazgul, she does provide some wise counsel and healing. She also motivates Aragorn to aspire to great heights.
Tolkien's Arwen is a mover and a shaker in the backstory. Peter simply chose to make her a mover and a shaker in the mainstory. I believe that some of the experimentation with Arwen failed during filming. Liv Tyler reportedly hid behind Viggo, for example, as several Orcs charged at them. Of course, we could always see something like that in the third movie. I suppose it's too early to write it off. But I feel certain that no such scene will be included.
On the other hand, there is an interesting scene between Arwen and Elrond in "The Two Towers". People were asking why that scene is necessary. I couldn't help but answer the question silently: It's necessary because there can be no appendix to the movies. Everything which Tolkien revealed in the appendices must either be cut or somehow included in the primary action of the films. The Elrond-Arwen scene offers a way of slipping an appendix moment into the middle of the movie. I felt it was a rather clever method of being extra informative.
Unfortunately, all this compression has one undesirable side effect. It tends to diminish the scope of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth. It seems like, if he cannot make reference to someone or something, even obliquely, then his canon is trimmed. Hence, we hear nothing about the Kings of Arnor. They don't seem to have ever existed (after Elendil and Isildur).
Hence, we lose the Beornings and Woodmen, the Men of Dale and the Long Lake, and all the Dwarves of the Ered Luin because they cannot be smoothly included in the movie action. Do these peoples and places exist in Peter Jackson's Middle-earth? He seems to be careful not to exclude them on the maps, but neither does he go out of his way to tell the audience they are there.
The compression serves to tell the story of a great war in a place called Middle-earth, but it's not necessarily the same story that Tolkien told us. That is, we all know the "Battle of the Bulge" movie isn't entirely faithful to real history, but it does get the point across. The same is true of "The Longest Day".
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