Post #4: Adapting Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings is a tough book to turn into a movie, but they did and did a pretty good job of it. I personally agree with some and disagree with others of the changes the director made. No doubt they had to be done, but it still takes some of the thunder away from the original work. If I were to adapt the book into a movie it might have turned out differently. So far there have been a ton of essential scenes but I will pick the main three that must be kept in the movie. First, the scene with Gandalf and Frodo in Bilbo's house when they are talking about the ring and then Gandalf catches Sam right outside of the window is a very important scene. We first understand the ring and its power and we also see how the adventure came together. The second scene of importance is Bilbo's disappearance. His last laugh as he believes it is important because it is a passing of the torch from Bilbo to Frodo. Frodo inherits all of his things and is destined to be the next to go on an adventure. The last scene, which they cut from the movie, was the Tom Bombadil scenes. It must be 50 pages in the book and yet it is totally missing from the film. It's important because the hobbits get into a lot of trouble and learn alot in the process. I would exclude two parts of what I've read so far as well. The time between when Frodo talks with Gandalf and when he actually leaves on his quest is extremely boring and long, therefore it would be a horrible addition to the movie. Nothing of importance really occurs during this time as well so there is more reason to delete it. The second scene I would remove is the Elf party scene where the hobbits run into a gorup of elves and spend the night with them. The information they learn could be told to them later on and it's just another stopping point in the grand scheme of the journey.