If you could add a scene to the LOTR or take out a scene would?

[Narsil]

Fellowship of the Ring: I rather liked it "as is". Was it perfect? No. But I think it went over fairly well. As much as seeing Tom Bombadil included would've been I can see why it was left out. The (re)forging of Anduril should've been included. Aragorn should've had his sword when the Fellowship set out from Rivendell.

Let's see, where do I begin? The Two Towers...

I would've cut out the Warg scene, although that wasn't the worst of it. Aragorn falling off the cliff and the unending dream sequences with Arwen....Gone. Except for the scene from the Appendices where you see the death of Aragorn and the effect is has on Arwen. That was quite nice.

I know it was done in the EE version, but I would've included the Huorns right off in the TE.

MOST OF ALL: I would've added Shelob to the end of TTT and wrapped up Saruman's fate as well (The Voice of Saruman, instead of sticking both those in ROTK. That would've meant shortening Helm's Deep a bit but I don't think that would've hurt things any. I didn't hate the Elves being there but I didn't love it either. Haldir didn't have to die.

MY version of TTT would've ended with The Voice of Saruman and then Shelob. Perfect wrap up followed by a great cliffhanger. It would've left the audience both cheering and pulling their hair out.

That whole bit with Faramir the Bully dragging Frodo the Psychopath to Osgiliath..Gone. Sam's speech. I would've cut that one in half somehow. The reason PJ didn't "have time" for a lot of stuff is because he spent too much damn time making things up!

The Return of the King...This includes sections of the EE DVD.

If they couldn't do the Paths of the Dead properly, it shouldn't have been done at all. That whole comic routine with Gimli, the cascade of skulls..gone, gone. Goodbye, good riddance.

IMO the forging of Anduril should've been done in FOTR so there wouldn't have been a need for Elrond to appear out of nowhere and that bizarre silliness about Arwen's fate being tied to the ring.

The Palantir should've been handled better. It should've been shown how it affected Denethor. I HATED the scene where Aragorn looks into it and sees Arwen. GET THAT OUT OF THERE!

I would've had Eowyn's identity kept a secret until she battled the Nazgul Lord.

Gandalf meeting the Nazgul Lord and being smacked down. TAKE THAT OUTTA THERE! Good call to not have it in the TE.

Same with Aragorn slicing and dicing The Messenger. Bad move.

Frodo telling Sam to go home. Get OUTTA HERE!

I would've loved to see the Scouring of the Shire. Would've been perfect for the EE instead of all the other junk they threw in that was better off left out. I don't think PJ realized the significance of the SOTS.

BTW, I liked the part where everyone bowed down to the Hobbits.

 

[Maiden_of Harad]

I would have added the encounter with the Barrow-wight. His incantation was one of my favorite moments in LOTR, and the incident shows Frodo's emerging courage.
I would have been delighted to see Eomer's coronation, and Firamir and Eowyn's wedding as well.

 

[Eledhwen]

The films pretty much failed to deliver on the courage of Hobbits as a race. I have learned, over the years, to view them without reference to the books - as a separate entity - or I would sit there irritated, instead of marvelling at the beautiful depiction of Middle-earth. I thought they'd failed to make the Elves beautiful enough; but then I saw Twilight and realised that superhuman beauty is simply beyond the skills of makeup artists and would need CGI.

I think they should have bitten the bullet and put in Bombadil. Bombadil is comical, solving everything with a song; but a song with that sort of power is called an enchantment; and Tom Bombadil held great power very lightly. And I would have loved to see the Old Man Willow scene in its proper place, and the exorcising of the Barrow Wight, thus supplying Merry with a sword woven about with spells for the bane of Mordor that would have set the scene up properly for the death of the Witch King of Angmar (a bit of CGI into the back of his leg as the knife went in).

 

[Starbrow]

I would take out most of the Paths of the Dead from TTT. The cascading skulls make me cringe. I also don't like the part where Arwen is dying because of the ring. That part is totally unnecessary. I would have liked to have seen more of Lothlorien.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Fellowship of the Ring: I rather liked it "as is". Was it perfect? No. But I think it went over fairly well. As much as seeing Tom Bombadil included would've been I can see why it was left out. The (re)forging of Anduril should've been included. Aragorn should've had his sword when the Fellowship set out from Rivendell.

Let's see, where do I begin? The Two Towers...

I would've cut out the Warg scene, although that wasn't the worst of it. Aragorn falling off the cliff and the unending dream sequences with Arwen....Gone. Except for the scene from the Appendices where you see the death of Aragorn and the effect is has on Arwen. That was quite nice.

I know it was done in the EE version, but I would've included the Huorns right off in the TE.

MOST OF ALL: I would've added Shelob to the end of TTT and wrapped up Saruman's fate as well (The Voice of Saruman, instead of sticking both those in ROTK. That would've meant shortening Helm's Deep a bit but I don't think that would've hurt things any. I didn't hate the Elves being there but I didn't love it either. Haldir didn't have to die.

MY version of TTT would've ended with The Voice of Saruman and then Shelob. Perfect wrap up followed by a great cliffhanger. It would've left the audience both cheering and pulling their hair out.

That whole bit with Faramir the Bully dragging Frodo the Psychopath to Osgiliath..Gone. Sam's speech. I would've cut that one in half somehow. The reason PJ didn't "have time" for a lot of stuff is because he spent too much damn time making things up!

The Return of the King...This includes sections of the EE DVD.

If they couldn't do the Paths of the Dead properly, it shouldn't have been done at all. That whole comic routine with Gimli, the cascade of skulls..gone, gone. Goodbye, good riddance.

IMO the forging of Anduril should've been done in FOTR so there wouldn't have been a need for Elrond to appear out of nowhere and that bizarre silliness about Arwen's fate being tied to the ring.

The Palantir should've been handled better. It should've been shown how it affected Denethor. I HATED the scene where Aragorn looks into it and sees Arwen. GET THAT OUT OF THERE!

I would've had Eowyn's identity kept a secret until she battled the Nazgul Lord.

Gandalf meeting the Nazgul Lord and being smacked down. TAKE THAT OUTTA THERE! Good call to not have it in the TE.

Same with Aragorn slicing and dicing The Messenger. Bad move.

Frodo telling Sam to go home. Get OUTTA HERE!

I would've loved to see the Scouring of the Shire. Would've been perfect for the EE instead of all the other junk they threw in that was better off left out. I don't think PJ realized the significance of the SOTS.

BTW, I liked the part where everyone bowed down to the Hobbits.

This is pretty much how I feel, but i'll list all my stuff here anyways:

• Add Tom Bombadil
• Add the Barrow-wight scene
• Move Old Man Willow to the Old Forest outside the Shire, not Treebeard's hangout
• Don't kill Haldir
• Forge Anduril in FOTR and have Aragorn carrying/using the hilt until the quest began as it was in the books (in the commentary I think I remember PJ saying he thought it'd look silly having Aragorn carry a broken sword around)
• Take out half the love scenes between Aragorn and Arwen
• Take out falling over the cliff
• Fix the Pilantri scenes and show that Denethor went nuts because of it
• Scourging of the Shire was needed

 

[Bucky]

LOL...

You said A scene. ;*)

So....

"Go Home to Sam" from the original releases is the greatest infamnia.

From the EE's, Gandalf versus the Witch-king.

Add?

Well, I guess Sauron having his body & not being a Lighthouse. :*confused:

Oh... Take out one of the 6 endings in ROTK that took 21 minutes...

My friend who hates fantasy/Sc fi but induldged me by going was incensed!

It was hilarious when he got up to leave as the boat sailed into the sun.

...Only to cut to Sam walking up to Bagend. :*D

...I was just waiting all movie for THAT. ;*)

 

[Halasían]

While watching the LOTR didn't you wish you could have seen a particular scene? I know I did. If you could have added a scene to the LOTR would you? What scene would you have added, or would you take out a scene?

'Scene"???? I've re-written the whole screenplay. You want to stretch some characters ... say Arwen, just have her ride with her brothers. No need for the comical snaring of Aragorn or stealing Elronds and Gandalfs moment at the fords... Wait... you would have to cast the sons of Elrond.. and the Dunedain Rangers..... yeah... re-written.

 

[Persephone]

'Scene"???? I've re-written the whole screenplay. You want to stretch some characters ... say Arwen, just have her ride with her brothers. No need for the comical snaring of Aragorn or stealing Elronds and Gandalfs moment at the fords... Wait... you would have to cast the sons of Elrond.. and the Dunedain Rangers..... yeah... re-written.

Same here ... I would actually remove the whole Arwen-Aragorn love story arc - not necessary. Put Glorfindel back into the mix.

Tom Bombandil and Goldberry scenes! I want to see how they both look.

The end of ROTK - the Shire bit - I want that in.

 

[Barliman]

I would that the movies had never been made.
I have too many other books to read.

Every time I try to watch any part of the movies i feel like I want to scream, "My eyes!" and flee the room. I do go read the corresponding scene in the book (when there is one) as a form of disenfectant. The problem is that I then get swept up in the story and end up reading it all again. So other books get put aside.
I've probably read it, or the majority of it, 15-20 times just since the movies came out.
I'm glad for the Kindle edition on my phone in case I'm every inadvertently exposed to the movies when away from home.

I haven't been able to force myself to watch the whole movies since the one time I saw them when released.

I know what happened to Sauron after The Ring was destroyed.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I told you not to look at these old movie threads!

 

[Ithilethiel]

I know, I know SES but forgive us our sins...

I admit my first time through the movie trilogy (I waited to watch it thus) was most painful my tongue being restrained behind my teeth by only the mustering of the strongest vestiges of civility I could get hold of. But oh, when I got outside the theater...

Putting that to one side I agree with Halasían of the total re-write opinion but if we must endure the movies as made until someone better schooled in Tolkien comes along, if ever, I agree the loss of TB, Goldberry, Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wights with all resulting insights, courage building, question answering, etc. is the most egregious of all.

As far as the scraping goes, exit the overly dramatic Arwen-Aragorn romance to get the ladies' vote and the untenable use of Arwen in Elrond and Glorfindel's stead. Add Glorfindel back to his proper role. You did say which two, three, four scenes/things I would change didn't you?

 

[Lady Legolas]

I would take out Sam go home. When first saw ROTK my jaw drooped. I was surprised they would have Frodo do that. I thought that wasn't true Frodo and Sam's friendship. I even get mad to this day when I watch this part of the movie. The rest of the the additions they did in the movies I can accept.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

You're right there -- Frodo would never have given such an "order", and Sam would never have followed it.

As for missing scenes, I'm happy they were left out. At least PJ realized he was incapable of rendering Tom Bombadil effectively; would that were the case with the rest of the movies.

Perhaps I'm overharsh.

Welcome back to the forum, Lady Legolas! Another veteran member returns! Guess there have been some changes since you were last here.

 

[Lady Legolas]

Yes lots of changes. I will get used to it. Thanks for the welcome back Southerner. It is great to meet you. It is good to be back!!

I agree with your last statement, I don't think PJ and crew could effectively do Tom Bombadil either. But I make peace with some of the things that they left out. I would have liked to see The Scouring of the Shire. I don't like how they didn't give Saruman a good ending in the movies. I guess that would be the part I would like to see as far as them leaving anything out.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Certainly the full story-arc of the hero, even an ultimately tragic hero like Frodo, must feature his return, to renew his society. The movies shifted this element to Aragorn's parallel story; but then the de-emphasis of the "hobbit-centric" perspective of the book was noticed early.

As for Saruman, we think of the tragic scene in book, but consider the probable reality: PJ indulging his worst instincts, with a Sarumanic equivalent of Denethor the Flaming Torch. Not something I would want to see.

 

[Lady Legolas]

Yeah So true. Either way I still don't like how Saruman's ending was done. They could have done something else with it.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Agreed. It smacked of "Nuts -- how do we tie up that loose end without spending any time or effort on it? Ah, just shoot him".

If they were going to do that, I'd have preferred this:

 

[Lady Legolas]

LOL Yeah I would have laughed if they came up with that one.

 

[Olorgando]

Delete:
- Frodo telling Sam to „go home” (§$%&ß@€µ#§$%&ß@€µ#§$%&ß@€µ#§$%&ß@€µ#§$%&ß@€µ#!!!!!)
- Merry and Pippin having to “trick” the “dumb” Ents into attacking Isengard
- The whole Faramir taking Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath and Nazgûl there
- The whole Warg attack on the Rohirrim and Aragorn falling over a cliff etc.
- Gandalf the White vs. Witch-king at Minas Tirith (GtW would have made hamburger patties of the W-k at this point)
- The army from the Paths of the Dead at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (this could be a tough one).
- (most likely many others)

KEEP!!!
- Legolas’s misdirected arrow (by Gimli’s nudge) “hitting” PJ in his cameo on that Corsair ship at Pelargir, and PJ doing his Joe Cocker imitation! (EE?)

 

[Þráinn Þórhallsson]

This is pretty much how I feel, but i'll list all my stuff here anyways:

• Add Tom Bombadil
• Add the Barrow-wight scene
• Move Old Man Willow to the Old Forest outside the Shire, not Treebeard's hangout
• Don't kill Haldir
• Forge Anduril in FOTR and have Aragorn carrying/using the hilt until the quest began as it was in the books (in the commentary I think I remember PJ saying he thought it'd look silly having Aragorn carry a broken sword around)
• Take out half the love scenes between Aragorn and Arwen
• Take out falling over the cliff
• Fix the Pilantri scenes and show that Denethor went nuts because of it
• Scourging of the Shire was needed

The removing of Denethor's deterioration do to the power of Sauron through the Palantir is one of those changes that always stays with me. It does not make the story that much worse in my opinion but it was such a big deal in the book that it just seems strange to leave it out. It would be like leaving out Sauron from the Beren and Lúthien story. What is even stranger is that the very abridged version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King by Rankin Bass still included that plot point unlike Peter.