Books to film: The Fellowship of the Ring

If you’ve been Puttin’ the Blog in Balrog this summer, and taking part in the group read of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you may have been brave enough to take part in the live-tweeted movie drinkalongs organized by SJ.

Film poster for The Lord of the Rings: The Fel...
Film poster for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (film) – Copyright 2001, New Line Cinema (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every Friday, whoever uses the hashtag #PtBiB can join in for an hour of snark (and drinking).  This past Friday marked the third week, so the group is done with Peter Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring.

It’s often said by readers, “The book is always better.” But is it? Are some works of literature impossible to translate to such a visual medium as film?  Or do they just need some tweaking to let their stories run free on the silver screen?

I wrote this piece some years ago; my opinion still stands, though I’m interested to hear what readers and fans of Tolkien have to say, since I’m well aware opinion is divided on what Jackson did with Tolkien’s work.