Terry Kennedy, the college's head librarian talked about Tolkien's life, amazing the crowd with such happy things as when Tolkien went to his childhood sweetheart after 9 years of not seeing each other, while she was engaged, and got her to break the engagement to marry him, and such sad things as how his mother died while the family visited England and his mother died when he was 12 years old.

Next, Jessie Myers discussed Tolkien's writings, starting off with a little bit about the linguistics contained therein (though not as much as I would have liked!) and some of the history. He dove into the mind of Tolkien and was amazed at the authenticity and accuracy of the clothes and buildings in the movie, and looked forward to the next one. Jessie also pointed out how Boromir's death/funeral was historically similar to Anglo-Saxon deaths in that they place the body in a boat and set it on fire (though they did not set Boromir's body on fire).

Before the movie, Chris Marchand spoke on why he loved Lord of the Rings. His first point was, "Finally a short person gets to be the hero," though he contemplated that Frodo doesn't have the characteristics that a hero usually does, in our minds. Chris reflected that each person in the Fellowship has an inward and outward journey (which really made me think), and he touched on the instance where Gandalf asks Frodo who he is to deal out judgement. Overall, a lot of points to make you sit there and ponder.

After all that, we started the movie. We watched the DVD expanded version of The Fellowship of the Ring (though I only stayed for the first half due to other committments). It was a wonderful movie and jotted down some of the differences between it and the VHS movie that I noticed:
-In the scene where Isildur's attacked, he puts on the ring, runs into the river, but the ring leaves him so that the attackers can see him and so he is shot. The movie just shows him lying in the river with arrows after being jumped.
-The story starts in Bagend with Bilbo writing his book (the movie never actually shows Bilbo writing his book), shows more of the Shire Hobbits, and more shots of Sam in the garden (in the VHS version, you don't really know Sam until the journey begins), as well as the Hobbits setting up for Bilbo's party.
-More scenery added, quite beautiful.
-Bilbo's voice is added, narrating during the shots of him writing his book.
-There is a conversation between Gandalf and Frodo about Bilbo while they ride in the cart, whereas the VHS version just has a summary of their conversation together, making the cart ride seem shorter.
-Seems to me when Gandalf bangs his head on the rafter in Bilbo's house he makes a different sound than in the VHS version... in this case, I prefer the VHS version because the "Ooh!" he makes is more comical :)
-At the party, Bilbo sneaks away from the Sackville Bagginses and has a bonding moment with Frodo. This is not in the VHS version at all.
-There is some gossip and Sam is teased about liking Rosie, but this doesn't happen in the other version.
-When Frodo and Sam flee the Shire, they see an elf party leaving Middle Earth forever. This is in the book, but it wasn't in the VHS version. Seeing it in the DVD version made me happy, because Sam is fascinated by elves in the book, yet they made no reference to that in the VHS version.
-The street scene and inn scene in Bree are more elaborate. Not that it was important stuff, but there were simply more shots of them to give more of an atmosphere.
-When Frodo is stabbed by the Nazgul blade, the rest of the Hobbits are very worried (well, more than in the VHS version anyway).
-Meeting of Boromir and Aragorn in the sword room is more extensive and they have a longer conversation.
-When the ring is placed in front of the gathering, Boromir gives a longer speech than in the VHS version. Not that he has more to say :P
-During the gathering, Gandalf speaks in the Dark Tongue of Mordor. Elrond gets upset because this language has never been uttered within the sacred confines of Rivendell. This is not in the VHS version, so I was pleased to finally hear the language of Mordor spoken.

Those were all the differences I noticed in the first half of the movie. If anyone wants to compare the second half, be my guest, but this review & comparison will not be up on the webpage much longer (it will probably stay up until I return to college from Christmas break).

Hope you all enjoy the second LOTR movie!!!
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