I agree. I was not happy with the Jacksonized LOTR. I understand leaving out some material, unless one is going to do the Russian “War and Peace” marathon, with every scene and every line. However, leaving out the author’s material and substituting the director’s original composition is unacceptable.
I didn’t get ten seconds into the “Hobbit” trailer before I started spitting, “That’s not in the text! He didn’t say that! His beard is the wrong color!” Our homeschool group has a “Hobbit Reading Club” going this summer and fall, but we may not be able to attend the movie when it comes out, because we have several young boys who are even worse cranks about the text than I am ;-). Maybe we can take duct tape to keep us all quiet ...
I disliked some of the structural changes to the LotR movies back when they first came out. Recently I’ve been learning how to design stories that people want to read or watch and I’ve realized that some of the changes were necessary to put the movies into something closer to the three-act structure that we subconsciously expect. Cutting out Bombadil, for instance, was vital to making sure the moment of fateful decision appeared at the proper time. Structuring the Two Towers to end after the Battle of Helm’s Deep allowed for a proper Act Three complete with low point and final victory.
That doesn’t mean he should be allowed to get the color of beards wrong, of course! But if you (that’s the general you, not you personally Tax-Chick) want to see a version that more closely follows the story yet is truly... awful as a story, the Ralph Bakshi animated version is instructional.
I think I will require duct tape as well. I may even write “Remove at your own risk” on it. :-)