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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 542650" data-attributes="member: 4937">What can I say.  You liked it.  I didn't.  You continue to accuse me of doing and thinking things I don't do and think.  If I were adapting the movie, you can bet I would have done alot of changes too.  The notion that I think somehow you can shrink 1000+ pages of prose into under 500 pages of script without making alot of changes is ridiculous.  Do you think I know nothing about the craft of writing?  Nonetheless, since I cannot prove to you it can be done better, and since it will be a good 15-20 years before any dares to follow this thing up with there own interpretation, I guess I have no way of convincing anyone that PJ made a cheap version of the LotR.  Did he blow it?  Well, in one since no, because there are sure to be lots of people (you folks) who love the movie.  That is certainly a fine measure of success.  And, certainly he will recieve many accollades from the critics and his peers.  More power too him.There was a time when Hollywood thought it ridiculous to hire experts in history and art as consultants for making movies.   Who would care?  Who is going to notice.  What would be the point?  Compare the costumes and weapons of say Ben Hur, to those of say Gladiator or indeed PJ's LotR?  Which would you rather have?  There was a time when the lavish detail in props and the attention to detail that we have come to accept as ordinary and essential was scoffed at.   If I had suggested we do what is done now 30 years ago I would have been told I didn't know a thing about making movies.  Then along came Star Wars and Hollywood was convinsed otherwise.   It apparantly takes such things.Today, talk to any screenwriter (and I've talked to several), and you will find that the working ones are pretty much convinsed that when adapting a work to the screen, the last thing you want to do is be faithful.  It is artistic suicide in Hollywood to so much as suggest that you aren't going to put your own spin on the book, you are going to faithfully render the authors vision on the screen.  You would be laughed at.   You'd probably never work again.  I seriously doubt anyone with the humility to make such a suggestion exists in the dog eat dog world of Hollywood.  For this reason and others, generally adaptations of great works are disappointments or else are dismissed as unfilmable.  It is amazing that Peter Jackson managed to sell this project DESPITE the fact that any outsider could have told them that all they had to do was be remotely faithful and they had a billion dollar franchise on there hands.  It is amazing to me that a work with so many departures in character and tone would be hailed as a faithful work, whatever other accolades it recieves.  I do not know whether to be hopeful on those grounds or fearful.   Certainly there is the possibility that between LotR and the Potter's it will now be much easier for a director to sell the notion of a faithful adaptation of other great works of 20th century literature, but I greatly fear that what this means is that we will have 20 years of quasi-adaptations and bastardizations of works and that Hollywood still won't realize or accept that if you respect the works of a good and popular writer - you will make more money than you would have otherwise.   So, the day when I see good movie adaptations of books I've always wanted to see as movies is still probably a long way off.In the mean time, enjoy yourself.</blockquote>

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