[Glenethor]

Yeah, that is a whole big kettle of rancid fishes.<P>When the movie first came out, someone at theonering.net posted a link of a review by some ostensibly independent organization. When I looked at the review, it was written by some Christian fundamentalists, who attempted to use statistical analysis to give quantitative validity to their review. LoTR was panned for:<P>Smoking;<BR>Violence (it cites one beheading, but there are actually two, both committed by Aragorn);<BR>And the notion that because Gandalf was a Wizard, the central theme of the movie was <I>the use of Evil to destroy Evil</I>, since Wizards are considered necromancers, etc., by certain people. This is all a smear campaign predicated on <I>ideological</I> grounds.<P>I cannot stess strongly enough that people need to think for themselves and trust their own judgements, rather than allowing others to define their thoughts for them. Don't for a moment accept the notion that because one is an 'authority' or even merely a couple of years older than you that their <I>opinions</I> are any more valid than yours.<P>My best friend's opinion of Tolkien? <I>'He's verbose.'</I> He doesn't have the depth of imagination to 'get' something like LoTR, Dune, or anything that. I tend to sneer at what kinds of books he reads, and he tends to sneer at what I read. We've known each other since kindergarten, and our tastes in literature is not really an impediment in our friendship.