The National Geographical documentary on Lord of the Rings

[Knight of Gondor]

Greetings. Suilannad. (You Elvish experts out there, I THINK that’s right)<P>Well, I finally got the Lord of the Rings extended edition gift set about a week or so ago. The platinum rig, with all the bells and whistles! The Argonath bookends, booklets; and the National Geographic Special on the Lord of the Rings movie. <P>I’d heard a fair amount about this documentary before I saw it—mainly reviews on Amazon.com. Everyone said it was gross, and had all sorts of gross distortions about Tolkien’s life (or merely voids in his past, such as never mentioning the fact that he was a Christian), and saying that Frodo’s quest was comparable to some conservationist hiking across African jungle to prove a point, and to save the rain forest from being cut down.<P>Well, as it turns out, most of this is right. The only reason you would want to buy this (And preferably you’d buy the DVD) is for some film footage, and snippets from some cast interviews, which could very well be included in the behind-the-scenes stuff on the movie DVDs. At one point, they show a film clip of the Fellowship beginning to kick some orc-rear in Moria, and right after the cave-troll takes a whack at Sam, we cut to images of tanks, and railroads, and industrial machinery, as the narrator talks of Tolkien’s experiences with war, and how industrial progress was portrayed in the novels as the Dark Lord Sauron. There are several other times where the documentary infers this. <P>Towards the end, they discuss the language that Tolkien based Elvish upon, the language of the Kalevanas, and National Geographic just can’t help veering 180 degrees away from Lord of the Rings to discuss the failing culture there, a failed attempt to compare the peoples of then to the peoples of Middle-Earth.<P>So, overall, I’d say that this isn’t worth buying, unless it’s included in a package like the extended edition gift set. <P>To their credit, on the DVD, there’s some extra material regarding the Inklings, the writers’ group Tolkien was a member of. It mentions Tolkien’s CHRISTIANITY, and his friendship with C.S. Lewis. Here you can find some valuable information about the two, and the group itself. Otherwise, save a buck, buy a TTT ticket.<P>What are ya’ll’s thoughts?