{"id":72359,"date":"2013-06-03T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=72359"},"modified":"2013-06-03T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T15:21:10","slug":"what-would-the-professor-have-thought-of-peter-jacksons-version-of-the-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2013\/06\/03\/72359-what-would-the-professor-have-thought-of-peter-jacksons-version-of-the-lord-of-the-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"What would the Professor have thought of Peter Jackson\u2019s version of ‘The Lord of the Rings’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JRRIt\u2019s a question many of us have asked, but none of us can answer: What would J.R.R. Tolkien have thought of Peter Jackson\u2019s version of The Lord of the Rings<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019ve read a lot and thought a lot about Tolkien and his invented world, and I\u2019ve engaged in a lot of debates about the quality and accuracy of the movies, I feel entitled to say things like, \u201cWell, there are parts he would have loved and parts he would have hated.\u201d\u00a0 But that\u2019s not Tolkien talking. That\u2019s me. The author died long before The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em> was released in 2001, so I\u2019ll never know how he might have reacted to the Jackson films, and neither will anyone else.<\/p>\n

The nearest we can come to Tolkien\u2019s assessment might be that of his son, Christopher Tolkien, who did not give the Jackson movies a positive review.\u00a0 \u201cThey eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,\u201d Christopher told the French newspaper Le Monde<\/em> in July 2012.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a good chance Christopher\u2019s father would have agreed with his son\u2019s (rather unfair, in my opinion) assessment. It\u2019s well known that, of Tolkien\u2019s four children, Christopher was the one most drawn to his father\u2019s creation.\u00a0 \u201cAs strange as it may seem, I grew up in the world he created,\u201d Christopher (who is 88) told Le Monde<\/em>. \u201cFor me, the cities of\u00a0The Silmarillion\u00a0<\/em>are more real than\u00a0Babylon.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a boy, Christopher, \u201chuddled for warmth by the study stove, would listen motionless while his father told him\u201d tales from his imaginary world, Humphrey Carpenter wrote in his biography of Tolkien. In his teens and twenties, Christopher was \u201cdeeply involved with the writing of \u2018The Lord of the Rings\u2019. He had read the first chapters in manuscript, and had drawn maps and made fair copies of the text for his father,\u201d Carpenter wrote in The Inklings<\/em>.\u00a0 When Christopher eventually joined the Inklings (the informal literary group that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), \u201cit grew to be the custom that he, rather than his father, should read aloud any new chapters of The Lord of the Rings<\/em> to the company, for it was generally agreed that he made a better job of it than did Tolkien himself,\u201d Carpenter wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher
Christopher Tolkien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Christopher, clearly, knows The Lord of the Rings<\/em> and his father\u2019s thoughts about it more intimately than anyone else alive. With that in mind, it may be safe to assume Tolkien’s view would have aligned with Christopher’s, and he\u00a0would therefore\u00a0have hated the Jackson movies.<\/p>\n

Then again, father and son don\u2019t seem to have shared the same opinion about whether or not the book should be turned into a movie \u2013 any movie \u2013 at all. Christopher seems to think that The Lord of the Rings<\/em> is so layered and complex that no film version could do it justice.\u00a0 \u201cMy own position is that The Lord Of The Rings<\/em> is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form,\u201d Christopher stated in December 2001, just before the first Jackson movie hit theaters.<\/p>\n

Tolkien himself, however, was quite willing to see his book turned into film \u2013 under the right circumstances. In fact, he sold the movie rights for The Lord of the Rings<\/em> (along with The Hobbit<\/em>) to United Artists in 1969, according to Le Monde<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Tolkien was first approached about a Lord of the Rings<\/em> movie in 1957, when three American businessmen proposed an animated version, according to Carpenter\u2019s biography. \u201cI should welcome the idea of an animated motion picture, with all the risk of vulgarization; and that quite apart from the glint of money, though on the brink of retirement that is not an unpleasant possibility,\u201d Tolkien wrote one of his publishers that year. (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien<\/em>, Letter No. 198)<\/p>\n

In regards to selling the film rights, Tolkien and his publishers came up with a \u201ccash or kudos\u201d policy, according to Carpenter. Tolkien put it this way: \u201cEither very profitable terms indeed; or absolute author\u2019s veto on objectionable features or alterations.\u201d (Letter No. 202)<\/p>\n

\"tolkienThe 1957 proposal included some \u201creally astonishingly good pictures (Rackham rather than Disney) and some remarkable colour photographs. They have apparently toured America shooting mountain and desert scenes that seem to fit the story,\u201d Tolkien wrote (202).\u00a0 But the synopsis of the proposed film they gave him was \u201con a lower level. In fact bad,\u201d Tolkien wrote (202). Carpenter summarized the problems: \u201cA number of names were consistently mis-spelt (Boromir was rendered \u2018Borimor\u2019), virtually all walking was dispensed with in the story and the Company of the Ring were transported everywhere on the backs of eagles, and the elvish waybread lembas was described as a \u2018food concentrate\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolkien\u2019s overall problem with the script was that it was \u201ca compression with resultant over-crowding and confusion, blurring of climaxes, and general degradation: a pull-back towards more conventional \u2018fairy-stories\u2019. People gallop about on Eagles at the least provocation; Lorien becomes a fairy-castle with \u2018delicate minarets\u2019, and all that sort of thing.\u201d (Letter No. 201)\u00a0 But as bad as it was, he was still willing to \u201cplay ball, if they are open to advice.\u201d (201)<\/p>\n

In these letters, published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien<\/em>, we get a rare glimpse of Tolkien the (surprisingly shrewd) businessman. The book also gives extracts from Tolkien\u2019s comments on the 1957 film synopsis\u00a0(Letter No. 210). The synopsis itself isn\u2019t included, but Tolkien\u2019s \u201creview\u201d sheds some light on its contents \u2013 and is probably the closest we\u2019ll come to his vision of how The Lord of the Rings<\/em> should be filmed.<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s comments also give an indirect glimpse of what he might have thought of Peter Jackson\u2019s films.\u00a0 Tolkien\u2019s \u201creview\u201d of the 1957 synopsis dwelled on one scene, from The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em>, in particular: the Weathertop confrontation of Aragorn and the four hobbits with the Black Riders.\u00a0 \u201cI have spent some time on this passage,\u201d he wrote, \u201cas an example of what I find too frequent to give me \u2018pleasure or satisfaction\u2019: deliberate alteration of the story, in fact and significance, without any practical or artistic object.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"He gave examples of what displeased him:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cStrider does not \u2018Whip out a sword\u2019 in the book. Naturally not: his sword was broken \u2026 Why then make him do so here, in a contest that was explicitly not fought with weapons?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Black Riders do not scream, but keep a more terrifying silence. Aragorn does not blanch. The riders draw slowly in on foot in darkness, and do not \u2018spur\u2019. There is no fight. Sam does not \u2018sink his blade into the Ringwraith\u2019s thigh\u2019, nor does his thrust save Frodo\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA scene of gloom lit by a small red fire, with the Wraiths slowly approaching as darker shadows \u2013 until the moment when Frodo puts on the Ring, and the King steps forward revealed \u2013 would seem to me far more impressive than yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I could spend a lot of time laying out the similarities and differences of the 1957 and 2001 versions of the Weathertop scene, but you\u2019re probably replaying the Jackson version in your head right now, and you don\u2019t need my help.\u00a0 I will say this: Aragorn is too much the beefcake in Jackson\u2019s version of this scene, swinging his big sword and throwing his flaming torches at the Black Riders, who run away like screaming babies. But I\u2019ll side with Jackson on one point: It was kind of strange for Aragorn to be carrying a broken sword, which he did at that point in the book. Besides being a priceless heirloom, the Sword that was Broken was rather useless in a fight (which Aragorn acknowledged). Why not leave it in Rivendell until it\u2019s ready to be re-forged, and carry a workable sword in the meantime?<\/p>\n

Tolkien also addressed the overuse of the Eagles in the 1957 version: \u201cI feel this to be a wholly unacceptable tampering with the tale,\u201d he wrote. \u201c\u2018Nine Walkers\u2019 and they immediately go up in the air! The intrusion achieves nothing but incredibility, and the staling of the device of the Eagles when at last they are really needed.\u201d\u00a0 At least Jackson didn\u2019t commit that unpardonable sin.<\/p>\n

The 1957 synopsis leaves out a scene that Tolkien considered extremely important, a scene that Jackson left in: \u201cThe disappearance of the temptation of Galadriel is significant. Practically everything having moral import has vanished from the synopsis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HelmsDeep_beauty_001.jpgTolkien was, however,\u00a0OK with cutting out some parts of the book, if necessary. He even suggested cutting out the battle of the Hornburg (Helm\u2019s Deep), \u201cwhich is incidental to the main story; and there would be this additional gain that we are going to have a big battle (of which as much should be made as possible), but battles tend to be too similar; the big one would gain by having no competitor.\u201d\u00a0 (By the \u201cbig one\u201d, the author must have been referring to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Jackson didn\u2019t cut the battle of Helm\u2019s Deep. Oh no. It\u2019s the big set piece of his second movie. Whether or not that diminished the big battle in his third movie is debatable.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the handling of Saruman\u2019s end. The 1957 synopsis cut out the \u201cend of the book, including Saruman\u2019s proper death. In that case I can see no good reason for making him die,\u201d Tolkien wrote. \u201cSaruman would never have committed suicide: to cling to life to its basest dregs is the way of the sort of person he had become.\u201d\u00a0 If Saruman needed to be tidied up, Tolkien wrote, \u201cGandalf should say something to this effect: as Saruman collapses under the excommunication: \u2018Since you will not come out and aid us, here in Orthanc you shall stay till you rot, Saruman. Let the Ents look to it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Seems like Jackson\u2019s shorter version of \u201cThe Return of the King\u201d, the version that ran in theaters (as opposed to the extended edition), handled \u201cSharkey\u2019s End\u201d in a manner Tolkien would have preferred.<\/p>\n

Despite his distaste for the 1957 synopsis, Tolkien was still willing to \u201cplay ball\u201d, as he wrote. So why was that version never made into a movie?<\/p>\n

In his biography, Carpenter gave an explanation: \u201cThere did not seem to be much prospect of kudos in this, and as there was not much cash either, negotiations were not continued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like I said at the beginning, we\u2019ll never know what Tolkien would have thought of the Jackson\u00a0movies;\u00a0but based on what we\u2019ve just read, it\u2019s safe to say he would have preferred them over the 1957 proposal. And not to sound too vulgar, but there probably would have been more cash involved as well…<\/p>\n

===================<\/p>\n

Maedhros is a guest writer and his views do not necessarily reflect those of TheOneRing.net.\u00a0Maedhros<\/em><\/em>\u00a0lives\u00a0in Grand Rapids, MI. He\u2019s\u00a0been hooked on Tolkien since he was 11, when he opened the first page of \u201cThe Two Towers\u201d and read about Aragorn tracking a hobbit; and Boromir\u2019s death scene, of course.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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