A comparison of Lord of the Rings ... Book vs. Movie (Part 1)

This is the first in a series of the "And More" stuff, a comparison of Lord of the Rings ... book vs. movie.

I remember reading Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit quite a few times when I was growing up. It wasn't until the mid-90's when I heard they were going to be made into movies that I really started getting into the books again. I now read the books probably once ever two years now and almost always will watch the movies when I finish the book.

About a month ago I was trying to figure out what book I wanted to read next. I had just finished a really long book series earlier this year (Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series) and was really hesitant to pick up another series for awhile. I read a few other books after that and then decided to pick up The Hobbit and give it a read. I had absolutely no desire at the time to go into the Rings series, but what can I say, I got sucked into to Tolkien's little world called Middle Earth.

As of right now, I'm about 2/3 done with "Fellowship of the Ring" and have been thinking about doing a book vs. movie comparison for about a week, this is when I finished "Book One" of Fellowship. Since then I have gone a bit past that, but this blog is just concerning the first part of Book 1 of the actual 6 book series.

(For those that don't know, the 3 Lord of the rings books are actually split into 2 books each).

Fellowship of the Ring - Book One

Bilbo and Frodo's Party:

If you have never read the book, you have NO idea that the party is actually for both Frodo and Bilbo, and that they share the same birthday. Of course, it's Bilbo everybody is there to see. The film however does contain some of the great parts of the book (Gandalf's Firework's, etc) although Merry and Pippen do not set off the dragon firework in the book.

There is also more to Bilbo's speech in the book than the movie, but this doesn't really effect a whole lot IMO.

I think the scene between Bilbo and Gandalf (where Gandalf is giving up the ring) is MUCH more dynamic in the movie rather than the book, although much more is explained in the book (obviously). The fact that Bilbo hasn't really told anybody just how he got the ring in the first place (although this is revealed in The Hobbit) is interesting. And I wonder how they are going to address this in the movie version of The Hobbit.

Both the book and movie do this scene justice, one is not any better than the other. I'm going to say the movie adapted this part pretty well.

"A Shadow of the Past" - Or Gandalf finds out about "The Ring":

This is the first part that the movie REALLY separates from the book. In the movie, you have NO idea that it's approximately 14 years between the time Bilbo leaves Frodo the ring and Gandalf comes back to reveal to Frodo that this is the "One Ring". IMO, this wouldn't have worked so well for the movie as it did in the book, and I think the producers did a good job of portraying some kind of "urgency" when it comes to the big reveal. There really are no big "plot points" left out of the movie from the book.

Advantage Movie

"Three's Company" - Or Frodo Leaves "Bag End"

Another BIG departure from the book. In the movie, when Gandalf Reveals to Frodo that the ring is the "One Ring" he instantly heads off to avoid the black-riders with Samwise. In the book, Gandalf tells Frodo about the ring on April 12th and Frodo, Sam and Pippin don't leave until September 23rd. Not really a "sense of urgency" to get this thing out of the shire.

This is an instance of something that works great for print, but would be rather boring for a movie. The movie does a really awesome job of again portraying a sense of Urgency to the situation without leaving out any key plot points that is crucial to the rest of the story.

Advantage Movie

I think that's enough for tonight ... next time ... Frodo moves into another house (kind of) and one of the BIGGEST tragedies of a character that was completely left out of the movie. Some BIG-TIME "Advantage Book" segments coming up.

Jeff Buckley - Grace

There are albums that touch me in such a deeply personal way that I try and convince everybody that they must hear it. Jeff Buckley's Grace is one of those albums.

Through this blog, I not only hope to expose you to some good music, give you my opinion, but also share with you a little about me and how music is such a part of my life.

As for the "and More" part ... not sure what that's going to be yet. Just an indication that some entries could have nothing to do with music. Just reserving myself the right to write about a movie, a book, an experience or even a Disneyland Fireworks show that brings out emotions in me.

So with that introduction out of the way, how about we get to the album.

For those of you familiar with the album, you may be wondering why I'm talking about an album that is 15 years old. Well admittedly, I only heard the album for the first time about 3 months ago.

It was one of those albums that I heard so much about through the years, from friends, magazine articles and even books, but never got around to getting. It wasn't until my 2nd read-through of Neil Peart's (drummer/lyricist for Rush) book "Traveling Music", about music that influenced his life that I finally decided to check the album out for myself.

Part of me feels cheated that I missed out on 15 years of hearing this absolute masterpiece (that has a rock-solid place in my top 10 albums EVER). But another part of me feels that I may not have "gotten it" 15 years ago. I'm not sure I would have heard the magic of the album, the raw emotion, the sadness, the love that Jeff put into it. I was in a VERY different place at the age of "just" 19 than I am at the age of 34 (duh).

At 19 I hadn't felt the joy of being a husband or father, the heartache of losing a loved one far too young or most of the trials and tribulations that come with simply living life.

At 34 I have enjoyed 14 years of being married to an amazing woman, had the joy of my two amazing kids, felt the unimaginable pain of losing a beloved niece and father in-law when they were far too young and of course, all of the other things that life throws at you for good or ill.

To be able to re-discover something for the first time, 15 years after it was made, and have it feel so current and bring out such emotion in me is a rare thing indeed.

From the opening track to the final note on Forget Her, there is not one weak song on this album. From original tracks to covers such as Lilac Wine, Corpus Christi Carol and the most amazing rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" ever.

Grace is one of a few albums that literally gives me chills when I'm listening to it, and more than once. And not that you could ever re-create anything so amazing, but I'd LOVE to hear Adam Lambert do a cover of the title song "Grace" as he's probably one of VERY few people who could hit the high notes and make them sound good.

To say that I recommend this album is probably over-stating the obvious. I realize most music that I listen to is probably not for everybody, but this is one that I really hope everybody tries out at least once.

Next time: Bowling for Soup's "Sorry for Partyin'". A very recent discovery for me thanks to some friends who won't shut up about them. (you know who you are).