The Lord of the Rings Book vs. Movies

 I am currently rereading The Lord of the Rings. I'm up to the third volume: The Return of the King.

This is my third rereading of the entire trilogy. 

I've also seen the movies multiple times, though it has been a while. When I watched the movies I saw some differences between them and the books. I understood that they are different genres, and so there ahead to be some changes, including some material in the book having to be left out. If they included everything, the movies would have been hours longer that their current running time of about 10 hours in the theaters (and more than 11 in the extended editions.) Adding in all the cut or reduced characters and scenes would have made them rediculously long.

As I read, I am paying attention to some of those changes.

The first big change I had noticed when I first saw the movies was that one of my favorite characters from the The Fellowship of the Ring, Tom Bombadil, was left out entirely. I actually based a character on him in the bedtime stories I told my daughters. While I missed him, from the standpoint of making a movie, I understood why he was left out. He does not play a significant direct role later, and the interlude with him would have added a lot to the movie - including the incident with the deadly willow and the barrow-wights.

On the other hand, leaving out the barrow-wights did leave something unexplained in The Return of the King. Merry acquired his sword in the lair of the barrow-wights, and it was that special sword that enabled him to wound the Black Rider (the Witch King), setting it up for Eowyn's stroke. 

The battle also has a significant change. In the book, the army of the dead helps Aragorn capture the ships. he then frees them, and fills the ships with men who sail with him to join the battle. In the movie they have the army of the dead sweep off the ships and attack the enemy army. Visually with was a great scene, but it was not in the book.

Back in The Felowship of the Ring, Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen is threatened by the evil Nazgul. In the book, he is saved by the elf Glorfindel. In the movie, Arwen saves him. Giving her more screen time, I guess. Personally, I found Liv Tyler's Arwen kind of a weak part of the movies. I actually found myself wishing Aragorn would end up with Eowyn! 

Faramir played a more prominent, heroic role in the books. And Gimli is a much more nuanced, stalwart character in the books; in the movies, he was almost a comic figure. 

I know there are more. When I finish The Return of the King I might have to watch the movies again!