In both book and movie, Frodo is chased from the Shire. In the book, Frodo finds himself pursued by Black Riders in the chapters, "Three is Company," " A Short Cut to Mushroom" and "A Conspiracy Unmasked."
The difference between book and movie is not only time (17 years in the book between the party and Frodo's departure from the Shire) but one of tone.
In the book, the tone is of creeping, horror-like suspense. In the movie, the tone is horror created by immediate danger (Wll they get caught?!) The latter is effectively done. However, it indicates an overall change between books and film--planning and contemplation from the books often give way, in movies, to impetuousness. Sometimes, the change works. Sometimes, not. I'll return to this issue with the Ents.
Two of the major excisions from Fellowship's opening chapters are Frodo, Sam, and Pippin meeting Gildor on the road plus Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry meeting Bombadil.
Both excisions are wise. Good grief, look what happened when Jackson included the eagles! Everyone started whining about Why couldn't the eagles be used to dispose of the Ring? (I address that issue here.) Introducing Gildor and Bombadil in the first film not only would have thrown off the pacing but would have raised the issue of "well, why not just give the Ring to those folks!?"
Real life is filled with all kinds of off-shoots and weird meetings and distractions and encounters that don't work out. A book can, to a degree capture all those random occurrences. A movie, which is deep in a different way from a book, runs the risk of going totally off-track if it introduces too many variables.
Jackson does do a fine job throwing in hints of the original text, such as Farmer Maggot as well as Pippin and Merry on a "shortcut to...mushrooms." Tom Bombadil is referenced much later in the scenes with Treebeard.
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