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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy's Biggest Mistake

BY: Richard Love
Words: 752

I would never say that Peter Jackson should not have made The Lord of the Rings trio of movies but the biggest mistake by far was not making the fourth. Not making The Hobbit while they had all of the actors, locations, sets and props was a huge mistake. Do not get me wrong. I am not blaming Peter Jackson. It was probably a hard enough sell to convince the powers that be to do the trilogy no matter how popular the stories are in print. Still, every time I watch one of the films, I find myself saying, "If only they had made The Hobbit!"

New Zealand was an excellent choice for location. There is widespread agreement that the Middle Earth we experienced in the film was an entirely believable realm. The wide variety of terrain in the country made it ideal. The landscapes, even when not enhanced, were often breathtaking.

There were however, as always seems to be the case with movies, certain liberties taken that departed from the books. The uninitiated would not know but they did not escape the notice of true Tolkein mavens and detracted somewhat from the films. One of the most notable instances of departure was when, in the movie, it was Arwen who carried the wounded Frodo to Rivendell. In the book, it was Frodo himself that forded the river on a white horse belonging to an elf named Glorfindel. He then fell unconscious after seeing the ringwraiths washed downstream. In the movie it was Arwen who summoned the waters that washed the ringwraiths away but, in the book, Gandalf tells Frodo that it was Elrond. Another example was the impressive army of elven archers who arrived to help in the battle for Helms Deep. In the book, Legolas was the only elf that fought in that battle. Strider fought through most of the films using his ranger sword. Actually, the shards of Narsil were re-forged into the sword Anduril, which was then given to Aragorn before the fellowship left Rivendell. Most of the events in the dwarven mines of Moria followed the book. The hordes of orcs streaming down the vertical walls like swarms of ants were a bit of a stretch but the collapsing stone bridge was more reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. It seems that such scenes have become obligatory in movies these days. The actual encounter between Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dum held true to the book. The scene that I found most objectionable was the battle in the fields of Pelinor when Legolas surfs down the trunk of an elephant-like Mumakil. I was totally engrossed until that jarred me back into reality.

The trilogy also succumbed to the modern practice of selling movie-related items. Replicas of the swords, helmets and shields used by the characters in the movie are one example. We added this licensed line to our new internet business http://thekeeneredge.com/ and, upon investigation, found some interesting things. Returning to the books, we found that there is no reference to any Sword of Arwen called Hadhafang. We know that Eowyn uses a sword but there is no description of it. Most of the swords being sold were created just for the movie. Narsil and Anduril do exist in the books as do Glamdring and Sting. Their replica designs come very close to their Tolkein descriptions.

Am I being too picky? Probably! All in all, the trilogy is great! As long as the movies were, I still found myself wishing there were more. Can the deviations from the books be forgiven? Certainly! The trilogy was an accomplishment of epic dimensions and deserved to win an academy award. But still, at the end of the day, I find myself saying, "If only they had made The Hobbit!"