Kaonashi Ga Suki

Picture this: You’re a devoted reader of the Lord of the Rings books. You’ve read them countless times over the years. You’ve collected them all, including the more obscure ones that were never made into movies. Your posts on Tolkien fansites are in Elvish- Sindarin Elvish, thankyouverymuch. Now you’re sitting in the theatre halfway through (meaning about 1 ½ hours) The Two Towers when you realize with great horror, that something is seriously wrong with the scene unfolding before you:

Faramir, Captain of Gondor, tries to take the One Ring from Frodo. Furthermore, he takes Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath.

Nowhere in the book do these events occur.

“That never happened in the book!” you scream inwardly. “That completely changes Faramir’s character! What the bloody f@!# was Peter Jackson thinking?!??!?!”

What, indeed, what Peter Jackson thinking when he did this? What was Wolfgang Petersen thinking when he took out the gods and goddesses when he directed Troy? What was Sam Raimi thinking when he had the Green Goblin kidnap Mary Jane instead of Gwen Stacy (not to mention letting her survive the fall) in Spider-Man?

Several reasons lie behind the madness that seems to befall these directors and writers when converting a book (or comic book) into celluloid form. One of the simplest explanations is time and length of the movie. Each of the LOTR movies already pass the 3 hour mark, and not counting the DVD Extended Editions. Can you imagine how long each movie would be if Jackson was faithful to the book to a T? We’d turn into bats as our eyes lose the ability to endure sunlight if we ever spend that long in a movie theater.

A second reason is appeal to the general public. Raimi didn’t direct the two Spider-Man movies just for web-heads. He wants everyone to watch them, including those who have never picked up a comic book in their entire lives. My grandpa, who knew next to nothing about Spider-Man, watched the sequel a few weeks ago out of curiosity. He liked it so much that he actually rented the first movie to see how the story began. Consequently, if Bryan Singer wanted to properly tell the story of the X-Men in his movies, he would have to intricately describe the background of EACH AND EVERY CHARACTER in the movie. Considering there were about 10 different X-Men in the movie, not to mention the future X-Men (the kids in the school), the average moviegoer could and would never sit for this.

A third reason is for artistic purposes. Petersen had mentioned that he wanted to tell the story of the Trojan war from a more realistic, historical viewpoint. Thus Zeus and his comrades had to go.

Another reason is that the change serves as a plot device. Jackson chose to alter Faramir’s character because he wanted to show that, like his older brother Boromir (and all other men who had come in contact with the Ring), Faramir was tempted by it. However, unlike his brother, he was able to fight the temptation. Jackson wanted to show the change in Faramir; perhaps Jackson meant to show that there is still strength in men to withstand power, greed, and corruption. I dunno.

Script writers and directors walk a fine line in appeasing the loyal literary fans and the general movie crowd. If they’re not faithful to the book, they’re ripped apart by the book fans, but if they stick too close to the book they’re criticized by others as just copying the book page by page with no imagination. So let’s give them a break and appreciate the book and the movie separately.

Faramir, Lord of the Rings, Frodo, The One Ring, Peter Jackson, Boromir, Sam Raimi, Spider-Man, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, X-Men, book, movie, BryanSinger, WolfgangPetersen, Troy,