Compa_Mighty
Tol Eressea
I had this idea of the Movie Style! discussion for each chapter of the book. The purpose if the series would be to discuss how a particular chapter could be translated into film, what are its problems, what are its trengths, what should be cut, and what should be lengthened. Great, and I know... why am I starting with Chapter VII?
Well, actually, I had this idea while reading that chapter. It just struck me as too long, and not quite helpful to move the story along.
In this chapter, we meet Beorn, a man that could be helpful to introduce us to the spooky idea of Mirkwood, and then as one of the (many and potentially confusing) support warriors that arrive to the Battle of the Five Armies.
He is expendable, though. I am not saying I want him to be, and Guillermo seems to want to keep him, but how could this long chapter be treated.
In Chapter 7, Bilbo wakes in the eagles' nests, everyone is flown to the Carrock, they look for Beorn, walk through his flower plain (huge bumblebees included), take a long time to get introduced, they make a recount of everything that had happened so far in the story, they stay several days in Beorn's house without anything really interesting happening, and they travel to the gates of Mirkwood. (In a nutshell)
What I suggest, or what I think will happen. Thee scene will be shortened. They will not take so long to introduce themselves, perhaps getting everyone in one single group, rather than by pairs. They should not sleep at Beorn's longer than a night. Perhaps they arrive, eat something, sleep and leave at sunrise of the following day. We eliminate the need of Beorn going to check if Gandalf's story was true, for example.
Oh! And the waiting animals! Most of you know my stance towards the anthropomorphization of animals in The Hobbit. The image of ponies serving breakfast to the dwarves is not a great one. What could be done in this case?
If the scene is short as I suggest we could only see one short meal on screen, served by Beorn himself, thus eliminating the need for his animals to do so.
In short, I believe this chapter is too long and could be cut altogether, however, in the best interest of Beorn, it should be considerably shortened.
I would still want to see the flower fields kept for the production of honey, though.
Well, actually, I had this idea while reading that chapter. It just struck me as too long, and not quite helpful to move the story along.
In this chapter, we meet Beorn, a man that could be helpful to introduce us to the spooky idea of Mirkwood, and then as one of the (many and potentially confusing) support warriors that arrive to the Battle of the Five Armies.
He is expendable, though. I am not saying I want him to be, and Guillermo seems to want to keep him, but how could this long chapter be treated.
In Chapter 7, Bilbo wakes in the eagles' nests, everyone is flown to the Carrock, they look for Beorn, walk through his flower plain (huge bumblebees included), take a long time to get introduced, they make a recount of everything that had happened so far in the story, they stay several days in Beorn's house without anything really interesting happening, and they travel to the gates of Mirkwood. (In a nutshell)
What I suggest, or what I think will happen. Thee scene will be shortened. They will not take so long to introduce themselves, perhaps getting everyone in one single group, rather than by pairs. They should not sleep at Beorn's longer than a night. Perhaps they arrive, eat something, sleep and leave at sunrise of the following day. We eliminate the need of Beorn going to check if Gandalf's story was true, for example.
Oh! And the waiting animals! Most of you know my stance towards the anthropomorphization of animals in The Hobbit. The image of ponies serving breakfast to the dwarves is not a great one. What could be done in this case?
If the scene is short as I suggest we could only see one short meal on screen, served by Beorn himself, thus eliminating the need for his animals to do so.
In short, I believe this chapter is too long and could be cut altogether, however, in the best interest of Beorn, it should be considerably shortened.
I would still want to see the flower fields kept for the production of honey, though.
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