63 What is known about the current _Lord of the Rings_ movies?
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This article is from the Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ, by Steuard Jensen sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu with numerous contributions by others.
63 What is known about the current _Lord of the Rings_ movies?
By this point, virtually everyone with any interest in Peter
Jackson's _Lord of the Rings_ movie trilogy is already quite familiar
with them. They were filmed simultaneously in New Zealand, and the
third and final installment is scheduled to come out on December 17,
2003. The DVD/video release of _The Two Towers_ is in late August, but
many fans will choose to wait to buy the extended cut of the film in
November.
Detailed information on the movies is inappropriate for a general
FAQ, but there are many websites dedicated to the project. One good
place to start is
http://www.theonering.net/movie/faq/
Tolkien fans' opinions on the movies vary enormously. Most (but
certainly not all) of those on the Tolkien newsgroups who have seen the
films seem to have enjoyed the experience, but most found at least some
aspects of them quite disappointing, too. (The second movie deviated
from the books more than the first one did, and generated
correspondingly more frustration.) This is obviously a matter of
personal taste, so it is important to be polite to those whose reaction
was different than yours. In the end, Peter Jackson's own words are as
good a description as any: "Sure, it's not really THE LORD OF THE RINGS
... but it could still be a pretty damn cool movie."
[A few "spoilers" from the first movie, as examples:] Changes made
in translating from the book to the screen range from cosmetic (there
is no tent over Bilbo's Party Tree) to drastic (everything from "A
Conspiracy Unmasked" through "Fog on the Barrow Downs" has been cut) to
distorted (Aragorn singlehandedly fights off all five Nazgul at
Weathertop by fending them off with a sword and lighting them on fire).
Some people are seriously upset by all of these changes, some people
aren't bothered by any of them, and most people fall somewhere in
between.
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