Re-reading the book after watching the film

[IronParrot]

Now, we've had a lot of threads around here about how people felt about the book if they only read it for the first time after seeing the film. We've also had countless discussions within those who were familiar with the book before watching the film regarding how faithful it was or wasn't.

Before The Fellowship of the Ring was released in theatres, I'd read The Lord of the Rings from beginning to end perhaps five times, every time in successively increasing detail. Several weeks ago I finally read the whole thing cover-to-cover for the first time since I watched the film, and I noticed many, many things.

What surprised me the most was that although, even as a staunch defender of the film, I knew there were a lot of things that were different... it wasn't the differences that stuck out, it was the similarities.

What absolutely floored me, in effect, was just how faithful to the book the film was. (And keep in mind that at this point, I'd only watched the first film, and not even the Extended Edition at that.)

The visuals were obviously taken care of to a great extent, in terms of "creating" the sets of Middle-Earth on screen. Having watched the film in fact highlighted visual details that I'd never really retained before. About this matter, there is little debate.

What impressed me the most, though, was the dialogue. The writing of the film was far closer to the book than I'd ever imagined. Even the opening lines of Galadriel's narration are grafted from something Treebeard says in ROTK, something I'd never noticed before. The experience of having watched the film just highlighted how elegant Tolkien's writing originally was, and how quotable it yet becomes when one hears it spoken in context.

In fact, reading the whole thing over again made me appreciate the film even more.

Those of you who haven't tried this yet, I recommend that you do so immediately.