Lord of the Rings movie - All dialogue from the book?

[gogoblender 3,069]

We're just discussing this now at work... half on one side half on the other... was all the dialogue in the movie actually taken verbatim ( or almost) from the book? I just can't see anyone thinking that they could or would even dare to sully sacred canon...or...did they?

 

 

gogo

[lujate 576]

Since they added things that were not in the books, I think it would be safe to say they also fabricated some dialog.

[Silver_fox 397]

The movies lack quite a lot of episodes here and there, they also contain some episodes and storylines that are not from the book. So I'm quite sure that some of the dialogs were changed - after all they had to make the story more or less fluid after cutting down some episodes, and all the new stuff definitely has dialogs that aren't from the book. Some characters are portrayed a bit differently in the movies, so their lines must be different too. Also, there are several really long dialogs in the book, so they just couldn't be put to the movies without changes.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Silver_fox

[essjayehm 58]

Tom Bombadil would like to have a word with Mr. Jackson, methinks.

 

My personal favorite character from the books, and inexplicably absent from the movies.

[wolfie2kX 528]

We're just discussing this now at work... half on one side half on the other... was all the dialogue in the movie actually taken verbatim ( or almost) from the book? I just can't see anyone thinking that they could or would even dare to sully sacred canon...or...did they?

 

 

gogo

 

Good thing a friend of mine isn't on this board to see this question... He's got quite a few...ahem...choice words to describe the movie trilology. And none of them would be very complimentary. His comments would, appear to indicate that much of the movie was utter and complete fabrication, not anywhere within the realm of reality of the original tomes. Let's just say he was anything but pleased with the entire series as most of his commentary on the subject is inappropriate for this forum.

 

He did say, however, that the Ralph Baskhi animated version was actually a lot closer to the books...

[Dragon Brother 619]

We're just discussing this now at work... half on one side half on the other... was all the dialogue in the movie actually taken verbatim ( or almost) from the book? I just can't see anyone thinking that they could or would even dare to sully sacred canon...or...did they?

 

 

gogo

 

Good thing a friend of mine isn't on this board to see this question... He's got quite a few...ahem...choice words to describe the movie trilology. And none of them would be very complimentary. His comments would, appear to indicate that much of the movie was utter and complete fabrication, not anywhere within the realm of reality of the original tomes. Let's just say he was anything but pleased with the entire series as most of his commentary on the subject is inappropriate for this forum.

 

He did say, however, that the Ralph Baskhi animated version was actually a lot closer to the books...

lol...theres always going to be people with strong opinions either way.

 

I feel that most of the dialog wasn't verbatim which made sense due to the changes made in the story as mentioned. However, I think the story in the end remained very true to the books, more so than any other film adaption that springs to mind, the other big adaption, Harry Potter, was a travesty in comparison. And from what I've heard, the extedned editions of each film only add to the faithfulness. Im still to watch them though, waiting for some point where I have the time to watch a few four hour movies...

[masteff 64]

I'd be surprised if the amount of verbatim dialogue was even as high as 5%. I do know parts of Bilbo's speech at his birthday were accurate. But since parts of the tale were reworked (or entirely fabricated), so was the dialogue.

 

I would state that LOTR was truer to the books than, say, Tom Cruise's "War of the Worlds" or Will Smith's "I, Robot"... but that's not saying much.

 

I think of it like a road that runs along side a river. The road may run tight to the bank for stretches and in others the two may be vastly separated. The question is, when you get to the end, how good of an understanding did you gain of the river and its course? In the LOTR, I'd say it's fairly high overall understanding. Unlike w/ Will Smith's "I, Robot" where the river ended in the ocean and the road ended in Saskatoon.

[Katran 0]

Dialog wasnt true to the books. I would say the first movie was good and they tried to make the story flow as much as they could in the first one but the second and third where very bad.

What I really hated was the shear fact that in the movies it all came down to humans when in fact if it was all left to humans Sauron would have won. With this goes the Dialog that they used displacing characters making jokes when there wasnt any room for them.

I will never forget the battle at Helms Deep when the Uruks arrive and start pounding the spears to the ground how Jackson beautifully shows the fear in peoples eyes and they he goes and ruins that with Gimlly making a joke about how he couldnt see what was happening. The movies are full with that form of misplaced dialog which kills a lot of the mood. In a way it compares with the stupid humor that Transformers had. "Totally classified"

[Dragon Brother 619]

I will never forget the battle at Helms Deep when the Uruks arrive and start pounding the spears to the ground how Jackson beautifully shows the fear in peoples eyes and they he goes and ruins that with Gimlly making a joke about how he couldnt see what was happening. The movies are full with that form of misplaced dialog which kills a lot of the mood. In a way it compares with the stupid humor that Transformers had. "Totally classified"

I liked that bit actually...almost as if the tough dwarf was trying to show the puny humans there was nothing to be afraid of...or he just couldn't see...

[lujate 576]

The two travesties that still stick in my mind are:

1. The elves intent to abandon Middle Earth.

2. The relief army the elves sent to Helm's Deep.

[podgie_bear 184]

As fantasy adventure films, LotR are absolutely brilliant. As recreations of Tolkien's masterpiece,......well. They are about as accurate as reading the phone book and thinking that you now know all the people in area!

 

Unfortunately, they are someone's personal interpretation of the story and that means that they are not how anyone else would interpret it or how Tolkien meant it. Enjoy them for what they are, but read the book and form your own interpretation. Over the last 50 years of watching films, I have yet to find one that is faithful to the book that inspired it.

 

BY the way I loved the Legolas character in the films, super action hero that he is and far less 'restrained' than in the book.