The Lord of the Rings

Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

[The beginning of The Lord of the Rings clearly states, "The Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy. It consists of six books divided into three parts..." Why then, does my title have Trilogy in it? Because I am commenting on the movies, which is a three part 'trilogy'.
Being larger than life, I cannot dedicate this post to anyone; not Tolkien, not even Peter Jackson.]

It has been a fairly long time since I last read The Lord Of The Rings. About 17 months in fact. And that too I was unable to complete it then. Since that time however, I have watched the extended versions of the movie twice, each time feeling that I should read the book again. I just watched the movie trilogy and thought I'd bring out a few things I noticed between the books and the movie.

The character of Aragorn.
In my opinion, Aragorn is the most complex character in the book as well as in the movie. While Aragorn's past could not be depicted in the movies, for those who have read the book along with certain appendices would draw a highly different view of him as compared to his depiction in the movies. In the Fellowship of the Ring, from the time they reach Rivendell, he is depicted as an unsure character, one who is ashamed of his blood inheritance to Isildur. In a number of occasions, Arwen has to be a source of reassurance to him. In the Two Towers, his character is somewhat mellow, neither too unsure of himself, nor too imposing. This transitional depiction in my opinion, is the closest to the true Aragorn from the books. In the third movie, he takes up his inheritance. So much so as to the point of claiming strategic command even above Gandalf. This is quite a complete transformation from the character in the first movie; and should be considered a wee bit odd, for such a change to occur in less than a year, to one who is as old as eighty seven (according to Aragorn in Two Towers movie).

The character of Pippin.
Peregrin Took, better known as Pippin, is blatantly made out to be a comic fool. It is most, well comic, the way he says, "So where are we going?" after the Fellowship has been formed.

Actors.
The LOTR movie trilogy spanned the years I'd guess 2001 to 2005. During this time, there was a fair intersection of characters between this movie and other fantasy-style movies. A connection I had known, but only this time tried to expand in my memory.
Gandalf and Magnito from XMen
Saruman and Count Dooku from Star Wars
Legolas and William Turner from POTC
In some sense, one should greatly commend the way Hollywood makes costumes for fantasy movies. I was able to recognize the above three pairs only by matching their distinct and unforgettable voices. Gandalf's wizened accent, Saruman's powerful voice, and Legolas' unique voice.
Other connections which one could recognize by face, due to the uniqueness of the actor's features include
Elrond and the Matrix agent
Frodo and some teen scifi movie whose name I forget character
Boromir and National Treasure villain (I think)
Before joining college, I never really bothered about actors, who they were, and all that. I only enjoyed the role they played and was done with it. I suppose that might be a reason why I did not make any great connections earlier on.

The same old kids.
I might have been seeing things, but I am quite sure that the children actors have been repeated at completely different points of time in the movies. Not that it makes a difference, but it was quite cool to just make that slight observation. The kids I'm talking of first appear as the hobbit children when Bilbo is telling his story of the trolls to them on his birthday. Their next appearance is at Helm's Deep, when their mothers are sheltering them from the evil sounds of battle. And the third time was when Captain Faramir was riding out from Minas Tirith for the second time and they were throwing flowers onto his path.

Factual differences (possible spoilers, but a bland account in any case).
At the outset, I did not find a single inconsistency within the movies. This is just a slight comparison between certain pivotal (in my opinion) incidents which were modified in the movie.
0) Anduril. This difference deserves a position higher than all other differences. In the movie, Elrond brings Anduril to Aragorn, unlike in the book, where the sword is reforged before they set out from Rivendell.
1) The Council of Elrond. Elrond does not call a council, but all people's representatives come together by fate in the book. Also, in the movie, the choosing of the Fellowship all happens at The Council of Elrond, whereas in the book, only Frodo and Sam are chosen during the Council, the others are sort of debated-with later.
2) The choice of the Mines of Moria. This is quite a one-eighty-degree-turn from the book. In the movie, Gandalf's initial choice was to go through the Gap of Rohan and he changes his mind only when the craybian (birds) come spying over them. In the book, the Gap of Rohan isn't even an option, except to Boromir. Also, in the movie, Gandalf is quite completely against going to Moria. It is the last resort according to him. In the book however, he has to debate with Aragorn about the choice and in fact FAVOURS Moria if my memory serves me right. Well, this kind of caused a slight inconsistency in the movie, as when Celeborn says, "Needlessly did Gandalf go..." and Galadriel replies, "Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life. We do not know his full purpose..." These lines go perfectly for the version in the book, but their repetition in the movie sort of subverts the fact that Gandalf did not at all choose Moria in the movie.
3) The fleeing to Helm's Deep. In the movie, Rohan flees to Helm's Deep as soon as 'the alarm is raised' by those two children who reach Edoras. Further, they are ambushed by Wargs, one result of which is Aragorn's fall off the cliff and his subsequent seeing of the size of Saruman's army. In the book, Theoden and all march out to war while the women and children go to Helm's Deep. Further, it is when they are on their way, that Gandalf and Legolas see the massive size of Saruman's army and Gandalf then tells Theoden to flee to Helm's Deep while he goes 'on urgent business' (Gandalf's businesses are always spoilers, so never mind them). I have poor memory of this, but I doubt that Eomer was away from Helm's Deep during the battle, unlike what was depicted in the movie, where Gandalf had to ride off to call him.
4) Saruman's death. Big difference. Big fat consistent difference.
5) Faramir. As horrid if not more horrid a character depiction as Aragorn's. The wise Numenorean captain of Gondor is made out to be some father's-pride craving son. I may say that Aragorn's depiction is forgiveable, because although they did not depict him as he really was, atleast he was not bad. Faramir's depiction however, is so black in comparison, that I think I would not be going too far to bring out Samwise's statement, "You've shown your quality, sir, the very highest", as an inconsistency. In the movie, Faramir did NOT, show his quality as the very highest.
6) Shelob's lair. I can't be critical of this difference, but it did not exactly remove something from the book. It modified things quite a bit, but added a whole dimension of character. In the movie, Gollum is shown to turn Frodo against Samwise. He cunningly brings in the element of mistrust in Frodo; something that the book does not touch upon at all. This leads to the great difference that Frodo faces Shelob alone in the movie, unlike in the book.
7) The paths of the dead and the palantir. Ah, ah, ah, Peter Jackson saved himself a few actors with this stunt. Where the Dunedain of the north are supposed to ride with Aragorn into the paths of the dead, here we have just the trio of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. While the newsbearer is Elrond in the movie, and the reason is a lacking of numbers, in the book the newsbearers are the Dunedain of the North and the reason is mere haste which is a consequence of Aragorn's looking into the Palantir. In the movie, he looks into the Palantir after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Also, The Dead are freed after they have retaken the ships, unlike in the movie where they take the city and end the battle, and then only are they freed. I missed the reunion of Eomer and Aragorn, but I guess it was made up for in the battle for Helm's Deep when Gandalf and Aragorn reunite.
8) The destroying of the Ring. All I can say is, if they had made the movie the way the book was written, it would have seemed incomplete. On the other hand, since the book gives us a much fuller picture of Gollum, the destruction of the Ring in its manner is more acceptable. This is singularly the most noticeable difference between the book and the movies.

The cry, "The Eagles are Coming!".
This is a cry that is used once in the movies, right at the last battle in the return of the king. I am vaguely lost in terms of its origin in the book, but I am sure that this cry did not occur just once. I have an inkling, that tells me it emanated from The Hobbit, although I have read the hobbit just once/twice and cannot quite remember it. Its more like a process of elimination I guess.

Compared to almost all other fantasy-to-movie adaptations, the Lord of the Rings extended editions is the only one that lives up to the book, by changing things minimally, and otherwise reporting things as they are. As such, it is complete in itself. However, the double edge flipside of this, is that after seeing the movie in which hardly anything is changed, it is hard for one's imagination to remain original while reading the book. I daresay that if I had seen a Harry Potter movie before reading the book, I would have been able to imagine things in the book quite differently, and quite uniquely. By reporting things as they are in the book, the Lord of the Rings trilogy has made the reading one-tracked as well as somewhat unnecessary.

In conclusion, I'd just like to say that Peter Jackson ended it greatly. Out of all the other points in time to end the movie, he chose to end it with the exact same words that ended the book: "Well, I'm back."

PS: I just finished reading the book yesterday, so thought now was THE TIME to post this. Long break, yeah...