One conclusion that may reasonably be drawn from the movie's 'adaptation' is that the screenwriters think the decision to go to war cannot be the result of careful deliberation. (In this respect, filming the Council of Elrond is much more difficult because there the viewer needs that information.) But I don't see why the movie couldn't have filmed the Entmoot as it did and then stayed true to the Ents' choice as they make it in the book. Now, one might claim that three-day meetings between talking, walking trees do not make for good movies. As a result of this discovery, Treebeard goes into a rage and summons the other Ents to war. When they come to the edge, they discover that Saruman has destroyed much of the forest, including many trees under Treebeard's care.

The hobbits then decide, reluctantly, to return home and ask Treebeard to carry them to the edge of the forest. In the movie, as many readers know, the Ents decide at the Entmoot to not go to war. This is in accord with the teaching of Aristotle he says in the Nicomachean Ethics that 'one ought to be quick to do what has been deliberated, but to deliberate slowly' (1142b). But, says Treebeard, 'deciding what to do does not take Ents so long as going over all the facts and events that they have to make up their minds about.' In the book, after deliberating for three days, the Ents decide to go to war. As Treebeard says, 'we are not hasty folk.' But the meeting takes such a long time because Treebeard wants to acquaint the other Ents with the facts concerning Saruman. The Entmoot (a council meeting for Ents) at which the Ents decide to go to war takes a long time: at least a couple of days. The Ents, one of Tolkien's most original creations, are characterized in the book as being, above all, not hasty.

I'd like to suggest another: the cause of the Ents' going to war. Matt at Mere Orthodoxy discusses one point on which Peter Jackson's movie version of The Lord of the Rings seems to miss an important point of Tolkien's book.

The ents are going to war