On Bombadil and the Extra Nazgul Scenes
Chad G.

I, for one, am able to see what Jackson is going for during the first part of the movie during the hobbits' flight to Rivendell.  During my reading of the book, the most exciting thing for me was their pursuit by the Nazgul.   The problem for me, which made the books a little boring at first, was that their encounters with the Nazgul were too few and far between.  I'd find myself getting anxious for the next encounter, because it is these encounters that provide the chief momentum of the story at this point in the novels.  Most of the other things that featured in this part of the story I felt distracted too much from the suspense I felt.

This would be considerably more noticable during a movie.  By cutting characters such as Bombadil from the story, and including longer and more Nazgul scenes, Jackson will be upping the pace a little, so that the suspense will be better maintained.

After all, the first half of the "The Fellowship of the Ring" is supposed to be just that: suspenseful.  If Bombadil's light-hearted antics pop up for a good twenty minutes or so in the middle of this in the movie, it will stand out like a sore thumb, much moreso than in the novel, and a great deal of the suspense that had been built up earlier on will be lost, rather than maintained.

There are certain methods that work on the screen.