Well balanced and true to the story

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2003)

Surely it must have been a Herculean feat on the part of Peter Jackson to transfer the words on paper to images on screen. I have read and re-read the books several times and i can only compliment mr. Jackson on a wonderful piece of cinema history. Having done what most people thought impossible and done so with elan. Anyone who has read the books will know that it was inevitable that certain parts and/or characters had to be left out or at least see their part diminished. There is just too much in the books to be able to get that onto the big screen and not end up with 3 films that last at least 4 hours each. Another difficult aspect ,specially in our modern society, is the lack of strong female characters in the books. Even though i had my initial misgivings about the "new" Arwen,I have to admit that it did certainly not take anything away from the story line as written by Tolkien. Comments about why not all the battles made it onto the screen or why certain parts have been left out are valid only to the point that they illustrate how immense the story lines are in the books. The balance between the frenzy of the battle scenes and the more sedate but no less tense efforts of Frodo and Sam to destroy the ring is just right. The emotions that the books describe could so easily have come across on screen as too sweet or very schmaltzy but Jackson manages to find that difficult middle ground of sincerity that so many films seem fall short of. I would be lying if i said i would not have loved to see the part where the hobbits return to the shire only to find Saruman has taken over and they stage a revolt to drive him out. Rumor has it that this might be on the extended dvd (and i am not even getting paid for advertising LOL). But all in all i have to say a huge "thank you" to all the people involved in the making of the 3 films, the ones in front of the cameras, the ones behind them and everyone else who managed so admirably to recreate the images the books conjure up the mind of the readers.