Beautiful, but still a sorely missed opportunity

Rating: 6/10 (17 December 2001)

I saw this film on sunday morning in a pre-screening organised for regular customers of a big department store. Don't ask me why, my mother has a card for the place and we got tickets.
The film was directed by New Zealand director, Peter Jackson, who previously made Braindead, Bad Taste and Heavenly Creatures.
The first impression of the film is that Jackson did a good job visually, but in his enthousiasm and personal interpretation screwed up the story. Anyone who has not read the book will probably be overwhelmed by this fantasy film and the amazing special effects in it. To one who knows the book, the film will be a missed opportunity to bring the story and especially the character development in Tolkien's work to the big screen.
I will elaborate somewhat on all of these points. Visually, the film is overwhelming. From the cute homeliness of the Shire to the architecturals of Lothlorien to the tower of Orthanc in Isengard. From the hobbit 'look' to the Uruk-Hai, from Sauron's burning lidless eye to Galadriel's temptation, it looks stunning and the computer generated effects merge with the acting like few films have done before.
The problem is mainly that the visual stuff receives too much attention. Jackson's roots in horror (even 'funny horror') are pretty obvious in this film. This is most evident in Bilbo's flash of rage when he cannot have the ring back in Rivendell. Very textbook horror film stuff. In the book, the mountain troll in the chamber of Mazarbul receives a wound in the foot and makes his exit after two lines. In the film, the Company fights it for five long minutes. The Watcher at the Hollin Gate does not come out of the water in the book. Silliest of all, the Balrog of Moria is a typical huge horned demon in the film and its arrival is announced in a very pompous fashion.
The leads to the film's main flaws. First of all are the plot changes. Some of these are done in the interest of film length, such as cutting out the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil and most of the chase through the shire. The expanded role of Arwen is politically correcting but not of great consequence. Other things seriously screw up the story:
In the film, Saruman is enslaved by Sauron and the whole process of the transformation of Isengard to a mimic of the Dark Tower and the creation of the Uruk Hai is broadly displayed. In the book, Saruman is out for power of his own and just mentioning that Saruman mixed the vile race of orcs with those of man is evidence enough that he is up to no good. Nor is there a telekinetic battle in the book in which Saruman captures Gandalf. Jackson appears to want one single evil in charge and does not use the corrupting temptations of power by itself. Herein a human dimension of the book is lost.
Reversely, in the film Isildur is tempted by the promise of power when he takes the ring, thereby causing the Numenoreans to fall from grace. In the book, the ring is much more subtle and Isildur keeps it as a token for his fallen brother and father. In the film this results in Boromir blatantly coveting the ring even at the council of Elrond and portraying him like a fool when he does not know Aragorn. Worst of all, Aragorn is changed into part fighting machine (fighting off the five Nazgul at Weathertop singlehandedly) and part angelic Messiah (not being tempted by the ring and sending Frodo off to Mordor alone with a sorrowful smile).
The third case is that in the film Saruman and Gandalf know of the Balrog of Moria, which is not in the book, nor does Gimli in the book invite them to Uncle Balin's mines. In the book, Gimli came to Rivendell to get word of Balin's mission to recapture Moria. The final thing to mention here is that in the film, the interplay between Gimli and Galadriel is entirely discarded, while in the book this contributes greatly to the friendship between Gimli and Legolas. All in all it makes the group hug at the end when they set after Pippin and Merry come out of thin air.
The end result, to which other factors contribute is that many of the subtleties in the book are utterly lost. The One Ring actively talks to everyone and gets on people much more blatantly than in the book. Galadriel is portrayed like the Elven witch that rumour in the outside world would have her be. The Elves and Dwarves bicker openly at the first opportunity, rather than mistrusting each other because they are unfamiliar with each other.
The saddest thing is that most of this could have been fixed easily. Galadriel could have had three more sentences at the Mirror, and all would be explained and within the storyline of the book. At least some attention could have been paid to the motivations of the characters, particularly for Frodo, Sam and Aragorn, but for all of the Fellowship to some degree. Kindness, doubt and grief at the many losses are a major part of the book but the film has just made no time for it.
Instead, Jackson chose an action heavy film, thereby degrading a great book of fiction to an ordinary fantasy novel. The focus is on the visual horrors they encounter and the characters are propelled by some inbuilt fate or else by Elrond's mission decree. While I have seen worse, the source material has so much more debt that I cannot but call this film a sorely missed opportunity to bring Tolkien's book to life.