Does it seem strange --

[Entlover]

Does it seem strange to anyone else how abruptly Frodo's life was interrupted, turned upside down, by Gandalf's coming in and discovering he had the one ring? First he thinks he's just going to Bree, then he has to go on to Rivendell, then by the end he figures he won't survive the journey. But it happened so fast! And he never objected -- could anybody be that laid back?
I would be saying - hey, I was just minding my own business, take your ring and get out of here. Of course he did try to give it away to everybody he met except Strider . . .

[olsonm]

I think the getting it to Bree part was fairly straight forward. At first he probably thought of it as a mini-adventure of his own, like Bilbo's. And relatively safe one at that. But when the Black Riders showed up he really had no choice but to keep going. And when Gandalf didn't meet him at Bree he again had little choice but to trust Strider (again because of the Black Riders). It all happened so fast.

Once at Rivendell it seemed like he could just go home and leave the Ring to 'better hands'. But the council showed him that there were no 'better hands' and, as Tolkien put it:

Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task. --Letters; 246

Even though he was talking about the Frodo of the book, I think the same applies to the movie-Frodo. He was a heck of a guy, er Hobbit!

[Nurvingiel]

There's another aspect of the book that's nearly impossible to show in the movie - an extensive passage of time. I believe Frodo was about 50 when he set out in his quest - Merry, Pippin and Sam are all younger than him.
Frodo was 33 at Bilbo's party - it was his birthday too, which is also not in the movie.
So I estimate about 17 years passed between Bilbo's party and the beginning of the Quest. I could figure it out exactly ... if only I had ROTK here I could look at the timeline in the appendecies.

[cassiopeia]

There was a 17 year gap between Bilbo's party and Gandalf coming to Hobbiton to tell Frodo about the ring and then it took Frodo 5 months to leave Hobbiton on his adventure, so yes, compared to the book, it does seem that Frodo's life was turned upside down rather quickly. I don't think it would be possible to have this large time difference in the movie - people would be saying 'why did it take Gandalf so long to realise it was the one ring?'

[Millane]

ohhh whinge whinge whinge... frodo HAD to go and have a beer at bree then he HAD to go and meet some cool elves at Rivendell sure after that he did get the rough end of the stick but SO DID SAM!!! Aragorn had as much readon to complain - Had to be King of Gondor, had to marry Arwen ohhh the horror that he endured1
Boromir died but we dont here him complaining...

[Entlover]

Originally posted by Millane
Boromir died but we dont hear him complaining... [/B]

Too true! I love it.

I guess cassiopeia has put her finger on what's been bothering me: while it took Frodo 5 months to get around to leaving the Shire in the book, in the movie it took 10 minutes and he was out the door. I don't think it's humanly (hobbitly?) possible to go through that without time to think it over, and not complain.

But of course in movies you can't hang around and think about things, or it turns into a French extreeemely boring film. Somebody once made an 8 hour movie of a tree growing.

[Nurvingiel]

I love trees! I don't know if I'd watch it for 8 hours, but I could sit down to a tree movie now and then!

[Falagar]

D'uh, who wouldn't like to sit down and watch trees grow!?

[Firekitten2006]

lol! i KNOW that i couldnt watch trees grow!

I'm not sure, but doesnt it take a lot longer in the book for Frodo to seem so "im gonna die"? I thought it wasnt until ROTK it said that Sam noticed a difference in him.

Yeah, in the movie they dont say its also Frodo's Birthday. "Happy Birthday Frodo! Bilbo's gone but you get Bag's End, a ring I cant touch, and oh by the way, I have to go!" then a few years later, "oh hey remember that ring? its evil, i cant take it for you, and oh yeah remember Gollum? well now you have 9 undead un alive guys after ya! but you have to go to bree on your own!" Geez! I dont think I would have gone! I probably would have been like, ok yeah WHATEVER!

[Nurvingiel]

I think Frodo had a decent idea of what he was up against, it's Sam, Merry, and Pippin that I think only realized the danger at Bree. Frodo still got a huge wake-up call from Stider at Bree.