Somebody Else's Nimrod

I had a hard time working myself up to see RotK. The last half of the book devastates me emotionally like no other, and has since I first read it, as a very small child indeed (too young, in fact, to properly understand the distinction between reality and Middle-Earth).

I have mixed feelings about this one. In general, I applaud Peter Jackson's willingness to adapt rather than to take pictures of the book. The majority of his cuts and changes can be easily justified--artistically, and not merely with reference to time constraints. In fact, I think the original theatrical release of FotR is a better, tighter, cleaner film than the extended edition. I understand that with adaptation inevitably comes shifts in focus. Jackson and Tolkien worked in different times with different values; they were educated differently; you simply can't expect them to care about the exact same things in the exact same way.

Right now, though, I am hung up on two differences, one big and one little, that are preventing me from fully embracing the film. The first is that Tolkien was writing about the passing away of a world, and Jackson filmed the passing away of friendships. It is by no means clear to the casual viewer of RotK that Rivendell and Lothlorien were abandoned, that the hobbits would dwindle away into obscurity, that the dwarves, too, would eventually be lost in their sad minor settlements. In a very literal sense, the magic is fading from Middle-Earth, and as a direct result of the destruction of the Ring. What happens to the Fellowship is more than a symbol of that--I would never argue that Tolkien doesn't expect us to care about the parting of Gandalf from the hobbits, or Sam from Frodo--but for Jackson, it is very nearly the whole, and that strikes me as a diminishment of the story.

The second is more minor, yet I feel more violently about it--the cutting down of Eowyn's confrontation with Angmar and the virtual elimination of the end of her story. I did feel that she came off considerably better in RotK than in TT, but still...like many and many a young girl reading the book, I would imagine, I was riveted by her defiance of the Nazgul, and it's an image I've carried with me all my life. I don't understand why Jackson had to shorten it and break it up. I don't mind building up Arwen's role, but in all the extra time found for her, he couldn't spare three minutes for the character actually in the books? And then, why have her story at all if you choose to offer it no resolution? I swear, it's almost enough to make me want to write Eowyn fanfic, even though my block against Tolkien fanfic is as mighty as the Black Gate.