We all know it - it's (almost) always like that; when a book is taken to the big screen, rarely do they are loyal to the original work. One of the clearest examples is, of course, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Tolkien die-hard fans have always felt that the movies are far from being as rich a story as the books were. Nevertheless, the movies came out as amazing representations on the original works of Tolkien.
So without further ado, I present you: things that happened on the books, but not on the movies.
The Hobbit - the ages of the dwarves
On the movies, Peter Jackson presented us with many apparently young and strong dwarves (and some quite handsome too!), with Balin being the oldest one. However, on the books Thorin is actually the oldest one with Balin coming as second. Fíli and Kíli remain as the youngest, whereas the remaining dwarves are somewhat the same age.
Merry and Pipping after drinking Ent draughts
In the books, after the two hobbits drink from the ent draughts, they became noticeably tall - even taller than Badobras "Bullroarer" Took, who had the record of being the tallest hobbit (four feet and five inches). However, in the movies, there's no noticeable difference in height between Merry and Pippin and they fellow hobbit companions, Sam and Frodo.
The death of Saruman and the Scouring of the Shire
In the Return of the King movie extended edition, Saruman is shown to be killed by his servant Grima at the top of his tower, Orthanc, and then falling to be impaled on a wheel. In the books however, Saruman is given forgiveness by the Ents, only to continue is evil deeds by corrupting the Shire. He was in turn stopped by the returning Hobbits (Sam, Frodo, Merry and Pippin) and finally stabbed by his servant Grima.
Saruman expelled from the Shire
The eye of Sauron
In the books, the eye of Sauron is a metaphor to represent Sauron's evil presence, since Sauron do have a physical body. In the movies however, Sauron's physical form is actually the big eyeball we see atop Barad- dûr, as Sauron does not have a physical body other than the Eye.
The army of the Dead
The army of the dead is represented as an immensely powerful force on the Return of the King movie, but they are actually nowhere near as powerful on the books (where they are known as the Dead Men of Dunharrow). In fact, they can't even physically harm others - their true weapon is the fear they inflict upon their enemies.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Part II.
Interesting insight into the differences between the books and the sequence of films. To be fair, films never can live up to the expectations of the enthusiastic reader. Nevertheless, The Lord of the Rings series of films did a pretty good job.
The most noticeable omissions to me were 1) The Scouring of the Shire (mentioned above) and 2) Tom Bombadil (I assume will be mentioned in a future installment :)).
Leaving out Tom Bombadil is understandable but leaving out the Scouring of the Shire was inexcusable to me. It seemed like such an important part of the book.
Yes! It took a lot of the hobbits credit away. It would have been amazing seeing Frodo and company fighting Saruman (Sharkey) all by themselves.
Also, there's a huge omissionn which would require more than one post: The Silmarillion. Although a full and huge story by itself, I just can't imagine a way in which all the totality (even if it were summarized) of this work could be bring into the big screen.
It seems REALLY unlikely but hey, we have to keep dreaming. Who knows? :)