Because we are osgiliating the ALINTTTFOTR, here's one scene that I usually fast forward. There are a couple more but I'll get to them later.
This one is relatively innocuous but it still makes me ask why PJ chose to alter and amend the book.
The Watcher in the water ... always a must-miss
Book version:
“The stone vanished with a soft slap; but at the same instant there was a swish and a bubble. Great rippling rings formed on the surface where the stone had fallen, and they moved slowly towards the foot of the cliff.
“Why did you do that Boromir?†said Frod. “ I haTE this place, too, and I am afraid. I don’t know what of, not of wolves, or the dark behind the doors, but of something else. I am afraid of the pool. Don’t disturb it!â€
<snip>
He strode forward and set his foot on the lowest step. But at that moment several things happened.
Frodo felt something seize him by the ankle, and he fell with a cry. <snip> The others swung around and saw the waters of the lake seething as if a host of snakes were swimming up from the southern end.
Out of the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end had hold of Frodo’s foot, and was dragging him into the water. Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.
The arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out for help. Twenty other arms came rippling out. The dark water boiled and there was a hideous stench.
“Into the gateway! Up the stairs! Quick!†shouted Gandalf ….<snip> Gandalf had just begun to climb, when the groping tentacles writhed across the narrow shore and fingered the cliff wall and the doors.
<snip> Many coiling arms seized the doors on either side, and with horrible strength swung them round.
With a shattering echo they slammed, and all light was lost. A noise of rending and crashing came dully through the ponderous stone. ….
Why is this good? For a start because there's the sense of increasing peril.
It is Sam, always alert to any danger to Frodo, always protective, who cuts a the single tentacle grasping Frodo's foot. We see very little of the monster, only the tentacles that come terrifyingly up from the boiling water, groping and writhing, searching for its victim.
Now contrast the scene as written (easy to visualise, at least for me it is)
with the scene PJ gave us ...
>>>>>> The four hobbits are backing toward the door. Something stirs in the water behind them>
Boromir: Now get out of here, get out!
<The whole company starts for the door. Suddenly, Frodo is grabbed from behind and pulled off his feet by the Watcher in the water>
Sam Merry and Pippin: Frodo!
Sam: Strider! <hacks at tentacle> Get off him!
<The watcher releases Frodo for a split-second, and feigns to disappear under the water. Suddenly many tentacles come boiling out of the water its slaps the other hobbits aside and grab Frodo around the leg. He is pulled out over the water and into the air>
Frodo: aah!
Merry: Aragorn!
<Legolas shoots one of the tentacles holding Frodo. Boromir and Aragorn rush to the water with their swords, and attack the Watcher. It flings Frodo wildly in the air. Aragorn slices the main tentacle holding Frodo’s leg. Frodo falls, and Boromir catches him. Aragorn and Boromir retreat towards the shore>
Gandalf: Into the Mines!
Boromir: Legolas! Aim for his eye! Come on!
<Legolas shoots an arrow straight into the Watcher’s eye. It pulls back and as the Fellowship race into Moria, it reaches out and slams the gates shut. Slabs of rocks drop and the roof of the passageway collapses. Total darkness falls.>>>>>>>
I'm sorry WITW defenders, but to my mind, this is plebian filmaking 101.
Grade B 1950's monster movie making at about the same level as all of those repellent giant insectiles terrifying the population and taking over New York before being blown to smithereens by the army.
Maybe it's PJ's homage to 2000 leagues under the sea, but it's so obvious, unsubtle and in-your-face; there's no mounting tension and it's vulgar.
Vulgar in the sense of an over-use of dramatic action moments. There's Frodo suspended and wailing sloooowly being lowered into the gaping jaws of the crature from the black lagoon ( a film I like btw ), Aragorn hacking away, Frodo falling into Boromir's arms (again! ) and Legolas (again!) administering the final coup-de-grace with a well placed arrow.
I really think that if PJ had adapted a version of the original story with it's ever increasing sense of growing evil ... the Watcher seems to be targeting Frodo? or is it? Leaving it to Sam to do the hacking and slashing at one single tentacle. Not showing the monster in such yawn-inspiring detail and the fellowship barely escaping as the tentacles clutch across the shore for them and making it clear that it is the Watcher who slams shuts the doors. I know that this is what happens but I don't think the film makes this at all clear. It could have been so much more effective if PJ hadn't indulged his juvenile fascination with monster movies.
At least I think so.
And then there's the wizard duel and the cave troll. But I'll save those for later.