Curse you Peter Jackson!

November 13, 2003

Note: If you’re not a Lord of the Rings fan, you can probably skip this entry.

I just noticed on Slashdot that Peter Jackson has cut Saruman’s scenes from The Return of The King. Not only the confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf at Isengard, but the scouring of the Shire as well. Sigh. To be fair, I’ve enjoyed Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the books, but the films are a far far cry from Tolkien’s masterpiece. But knowing that Jackson has made so many alterations and is going to continue to make those alterations, I’ve tried to not get my hopes up about seeing things as I’ve imagined them portrayed all these years.

Leaving out the scouring of the Shire though… it’s like a quarter of the final book! Were I Mr. Jackson, I would have certainly kept this in and then I would’ve added one final thing that was not in the original books. I suggested this to The One Ring.net shortly after the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, but I never heard back from them. I’m sure they think I’m just another kooky fan (which I am). I was hoping that might my idea might somehow find it’s way to Peter Jackson and then into The Return of the King. But seeing as the Scouring has been cut I guess it won’t be included. The idea was this (spoilers ahead I suppose):

The book ends with the Scouring of the Shire and then Bilbo and Frodo leaving for the Grey Havens to cross the sea many years later. Frodo presents Sam with the Red Book which contains the story we’ve just been told essentially. Sam returns to Bag End to his children and his wife Rosie and says “Well, I’m home.” Here’s where the book ends, but I would continue with Sam placing the Red Book on a table along with some maps. Here the camera would slowly zoom in on the Red Book and then we would see it change with age. The camera then draws back to show the book along with equally aged maps and documents scattered along a desk. The camera would twist and pull away from the desk revealing a gentleman seated at the desk along with a typewriter and a pipe sitting nearby. It’s a study or a library of some sort. We’d never clearly see the gentleman. But a voice would come from somewhere outside of this room calling “Professor?” whereupon the “professor” would acknowledge the caller saying “Just a moment please”, tidy up a bit, and exit the room. And at this point the screen would fade to black and the credits would roll.

I’ve always imagined Tolkien somehow stumbling across this lost history of Middle Earth and retelling it as the Lord of the Rings. Of course it’s not true, but it’s nice to think about sometimes. I think it would be just as fine an ending for The Lord of the Rings as whatever Peter Jackson has in store for us on December 19th.