Ch-ch-changes

These are what make purists reach for their one-volume edition of LOTR to throw at the screen.  This is my take on the most important ones that JWB (Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens) made.

• Changes that strengthen the movie.  The excision of Tom Bombadil leads the list, since I have always had a problem with the versifying . . . just what is he, anyway, besides a creature based on a Dutch doll the Tolkien children had, and a means of linking the more childlike world of The Hobbit with the darker tone of LOTR?  Unfortunately, though, no Tom means no Barrow Wight.
• Some will take this as heresy, but the elimination of the Scouring of the Shire never bothered me that much.  People complain of an overlong denouement as it is. 
• Elves at Helm's Deep.  The JWB commentary track for TT is hilarious on this point, as each of the writers blames the other for this plot shift.  I have no problem with it, since without it, it appears the Elves are bugging out of Middle Earth, when in the books, much is made of the Elves of Lorien and Rivendell fighting in the North--if you read the Appendices.  You have to show events in movies, not just talk about them, a maxim that leads to the magnificent montage of the lighting of the beacons between Minas Tirith and Edoras.
• Thus also the Paths of the Dead.  Tolkien tells how frightened all of the characters are traveling through these caves, but you can't have actors telling each other how scared they are on the screen.  And anyway, Pete had to get some zombies in this movie.  The hill of skulls, though, was a bit much.
• However, the use of the Army of the Dead as a kind of green scrubbing bubbles to clean up Minas Tirith after the Rohirrim and Gondorians had displayed real heroism of the kind Tolkien loved was a major weakness.
• The exorcism of Theoden by Gandalf.  Again, making concrete what is implicit in the text.  Grima complains that Gandalf still has his staff, but all he does with it in the book is to cause some distant thunder.  Theoden then acts like he's taken a particularly large dose of Geritol, but he doesn't undergo the rejuvenation process depicted in the movie.  (Theoden's cinematic character arc--"I'm not a good leader either"-- is also confusing and unnecessary.)
• Super Arwen.  Her importance in the novels was only realized until Tolkien got to the end, so  JWB were forced to come up with a strong woman before Eowyn made her appearance.  Arwen playing Glorfindel's role in FOTR is no big deal, and fan pressure actually stopped JWB from committing real mischief in implementing their plan of AAHD (Arwen at Helms Deep), some of which was filmed, but not included.
• Gimli as comic relief.  No problems for me: I think JWB were always on guard against the Holy Grail syndrome--that an epic can become a parody of itself.  Humor helps prevent that--but the dwarf-tossing jokes could have been tossed themselves.
• What they got wrong.  All the changes to characters that had to do with a character arc.  Aragorn--too afraid to be king?  In the books, he does doubt that he can make the right decisions after Merry and Pippin are abducted and Frodo goes with Sam; no need for all the added hand-wringing angst about inheriting Isildur's weakness, as well as the sigh just after he is crowned.  Frodo too is wimpified; in the book he tells the assembled Ringwraiths to go back to Mordor at the Fords of the Bruinen, for instance.

The most grievous wound is to Faramir.  Once the confrontation with Shelob was replaced as the ending of Frodo's storyline in TT, then Faramir had to become a danger--Faramir, who for many readers is a special character.  The Ithilien Rangers become bullies too, working over Gollum like a band of rogue cops with a junkie.   As Filmamir, Faramir becomes the whiny younger son, who has to prove to Daddy that he's strong too.  This leads to the unbelievable moment where Filmamir changes his mind and lets Frodo go on to Mordor after Frodo's offering the Ring to a Nazgul!  I've tried to figure out JWB's justification for Filmamir's change of mind, and I'm still lost.  At least Faramir becomes himself in the last film, where much of his and Denethor's dialogue comes right out of the book.

But still, all in all, the good in these movies far outweighs the bad, and for anyone who thinks that Jackson's adaptation was so terrible, then just remember the names Ralph Bakshii and Rankin & Bass, and think of Glenn Yarborough warbling, "Frodo, of the Nine Fingers..." and then remember that JWB's cinematic version of the Field of Cormallen ("Praise them with great praise" in the novel) is an actual improvement on the text: "My friends--you kneel to no one."  Sniff.  ("You want my hankie, doc?")