The Scouring of the Shire

[Celebthôl]

I believe that i know why they are leaving out the scouring of the Shire, because in the film, the Uruk-hai are very powerful and scary and well like monsters, in the book they are like men in the film they are more like orcs, so why would they run away from 4 small hobbits with swords?! and they would probibly kill far to many hobbits for the directors to show *banter banter banter*

just my theory

hurl abuse however you like!

Thôl

[Eledhwen]

Saruman's army of thugs in the Shire are precisely that - thugs of the race of men, and not Uruk-Hai. Tolkien leaves it to our imaginations to wonder who the "squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow" in the Prancing Pony was, though certainly he was in Saruman's employ. However, Saruman's Uruk-hai were thoroughly defeated, thanks to Treebeard and Co, and Eomer's Eored; and what remained of "the creatures of Sauron, orc and troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran higher and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope."

In the Scouring of the Shire, although 70 'ruffians' lay dead, 19 Hobbits were also killed - the finest hour for the ordinary folk of The Shire. I think you're right that, cinematically, it would not be good so near the end of the trilogy, to show these deaths. I think the Scouring was left out of the film because it sidelines the main Hobbit protagonist, Frodo, and is peripheral to the main storyline as the Ring is no longer involved. Saruman is a minor Antagonist in the story - Sauron is already defeated. Filmically, the action ends on the Fields of Cormallen.

I would just like to say, thôl, that you will probably learn more and faster than many others, because you are prepared to stick your neck out and pose your questions. Don't be daunted by reply posts which begin "What are you talking about?" etc. and then tears your argument to shreds with very little constructive criticism - someone who needs to use such aggression is already on rubber legs.

[Celebthôl]

thank you very much for your support Eledhwen, i apprectiate it much, thank you also for the answer which i found most helpful.

Thôl

[Legolas_lover12]

um celeb told me to come post here so here i am. LOL. i was kinda confused by that long post but i think i got it. ok, i came, i saw, i'm leaving now. :D

*waves*

[olorin]

How do you know they are leaving out the scouring of the shire? I noticed that a lot of the things which led up to it in the books were missing e.g. Sam looking into the mirror and Sam being given that box, but Frodo hasn't been given his phial either and I thought maybe they would put those bits in later.

[Niniel]

Frodo did get his phial! Look closely...
But PJ said himself that the Scouring of the Shire was going to be left out, so we can be pretty sure of it, IMO.

[Thorin]

Originally posted by olorin
How do you know they are leaving out the scouring of the shire? I noticed that a lot of the things which led up to it in the books were missing e.g. Sam looking into the mirror and Sam being given that box, but Frodo hasn't been given his phial either and I thought maybe they would put those bits in later.

The gift giving scenes were part of the Extended Edition of FotR. However, even in these scenes, Sam only gets his elven rope, he does not get his garden box of seeds. It was known even before the first movie came out that the SOS would not be in RoTK. It would be anticlimactic to the crowning of the king and the marriage of A and A.

I'm sure that they will have the trip to the Grey Havens, however. In some pictures you see Sam with Elanor, so my guess is that there will be narration on the future to wrap things up.

Cinematically, you will not miss the Scouring of the Shire...As a Tolkien fan, however, that will be one you'd really like to see.

[Eledhwen]

from Thorin: Cinematically, you will not miss the Scouring of the Shire...As a Tolkien fan, however, that will be one you'd really like to see.I quite agree! I wouldn't mind a bit if PJ called the Hobbits and Christopher Lee back to NZ to stick a few more scenes at the end of the RotK extended DVD, but he won't. They could even do the Tom Bombadil bit at the same time - dirt cheap! only a willow tree for the special effects to do ...oh, and a Barrow wight's hand!. In fact, they could come here to Wiltshire to do that bit - we've got loads of barrows dotted around, already made. How about it, PJ?

[morello13]

I always assumed that thew ruffians were form Dunland. I dont remember what the men of Dunland are called in the book, but you know that messed up deformed creautreslower than the wild men.

[Ariana Undomiel]

I don't know that they are for sure leaving out the scouring of the shire. Does anyone have some difinitive information about that?

- Ariana

[Leto]

It is for sure, just listen to the director's commentary on the EE. PJ himself says it was decided not to put it in the script early on. Their only reference to it, (which isn't even really a reference to it), was in Frodo's vision in the mirror of Galadriel. That's the closest we are going to get. Of course that vision was one of Hobbits enslaved, things burning, and orcs killing people, not the events in the book. Their 'homage' was showing Sandyman's mill, and Hobbiton with all the trees chopped down, grey and dreary.

[Celebthôl]

errr he didnt

[Phee]

Sam only got the rope in the EE, he didn't get any dirt or seeds.

I would have loved to see the Scouring, but at the same time I can understand how it might be an anti-climactic end to the movie. The film would probably go on for about another 45 minutes after the Ring is destroyed, and that is meant to be the real climax, so the Scouring wouldn't really work.

I do wonder if when the hobbits go home (that is assuming we see them go home) and we see The Shire again, if it'll be in some state of disrepair? And the epilogue could say something about how The Shire had been invaded. That'd be a nice touch, just to show that they weren't immune to all the evil going on elsewhere in ME.

[Mablung]

well my DVD player started over heating at that scene and I missed a good deal of it my apologies.

[ssgrif]

I know that the Scouring of the Shire is not in the ROTK, which is a huge shame. I was kind of hoping that even though PJ has clearly stated that its not in the film, that actually it would be in the Extended Edition DVD or something.

Seeing the clip where Frodo see's the Scouring in the mirror with Galadriel still makes me think that PJ will come through for the Tolkien fans.

[Legolas_lover12]

yah, we can only hope :D

[Asha'man]

I actually thought the SOS was kind of an afterthought in the book. It seemed anticlimactic, and added-on, like JRRT had thought of it later and said, "By Eru, I should really put a little more action in. How about the Shire gets ravaged at the end?"

Is that just me?

Ash

[T'Vog]

Well, all I'm wondering is without the SoS, where does Saruman's end come in? They just put it where they run into him on the way back to the Shire?

[Legolas_lover12]

well i think he is going to die in TTT ...

[Rúmil]

I think the book would fall apart without the SOS: it's therre you really see what the heroes have become, how they've changed, 'grown' etc.

Moreover, it gives you extention on a very important moral theme: how victors never enjoy their victory / there is no such thing as victory in this world / you always have to make a sacrifice to achieve victory, the victim of the sacrifice often being the very thing you wanted to secure by victory / victory is good because it is victory (against evil), not so much for what it brings after.

Of course, cinematically for a non-Tolkien movie-goer it wouldn't work; but I think it's bad that PJ won't event put it on the EE DVD.

[Leto]

He can't put in on a EE DVD, even if he wanted to...it was never filmed, never even scripted. Never intended to be in the movie. So the point is moot. And what was showed in Galadriel's mirror was NOT the scouring of the shire, but a depiction of what things would be like if the quest failed and Sauron ruled the world. The scouring of the shire, even at its worst, was not as dark as those brief images. I am not so confident that PJ will come through for the Tolkien fans, if that is all he understood about the scouring of the shire. It seems he is a little shady on the details of the events in the book. He's got the 'when' and 'where', for the most part, and the 'who.' But the 'what' and the 'why' part seems lost. *lol*

[Winch]

I predict the SOS will be part of the prologue to The Silmarillion. Call me crazy but I think eventually when the money has started to dry up from the trilogy and probably The Hobit, they will look for yet another sequal to get rich from. It may take 20 years but these block busters never seem to end ala Star Trek Nemesis.
When's the next Rocky coming out?

[Wynston]

I agree with Rumil 100%. That's why it was one of my favorite chapters in the book. I'm disappointed that it won't be in the movie, but I can understand why it wasn't put in. (kind of like Tom Bombadil)

[Calimehtar]

And it brings what someone said, true-- that no country was safe from evil, even the Shire. Someone said that in FOTR.... maybe Aragorn or Gandalf. I think the Scouring of the Shire should be in there. If not, some could think, well there was no danger at all for the Shire.

They could at least:

When the hobbits are coming back close to hobbiton, there is a big gate blocking the road and a notive that has rules. And they wont be let in between dusk and dawn and all that. And the gatekeeper tells them why. You could just say that the Shire isn't as safe as it was a year ago.