[Knight of Gondor]

At the risk of entering a pointless debate, obviously I agree with and support the article, and would like to provide a "defense" if you will for the objections raised.

The Fellowship wasn't forcing Sauron to do anything. In fact, if Sauron had had his way, he would have forced his ideas onto everyone else. The Fellowhip was ultimately attempting to save anything right at all.

In a sense, that's true. But at the same time, Sauron had his idea to dominate Middle-Earth. That was "his version" if you will of Right and Wrong. The Fellowship (elves, dwarves, men, hobbits, ents) had another version, the version wherein they stay alive and free. Therefore, they fought for their "version" of right and wrong. And of course, ultimately won...

To a certain degree, I agree with her, but the book has Christian themes. It was even stated so by Tolkien himself.

Glad you see it that way, Saraphim! By the way, I like your signature adaptation.

My own understanding of the good vs evil struggle in the book LotR is that while there is one way of being evil, there are many ways of being good.

I don't read you. There is not one way of doing evil. You can kill an elf, or merely steal his bread. Both are evil. You can either help an elf, or give him a loaf of bread. Both are good.

I think the author of this article is being disingenuous when she quotes some of the actors, particularly Mortensen. I don't think Mortensen was talking about embracing the differences of the Orcs in a trendy moral relativist way, but rather that LotR portrays different races (elves, dwarves, hobbits, men) wanting different things out of life, and doesn't cast moral aspersions on these differences.

I think her main point is that this is the ONLY theme that it appears our favorite actors are able to glean -- which is sad.

One quote in particular I'd sure love to know the context of, and that is Andy Serkis' one-liner, but I couldn't find a reference to anything more than a 'sound bite.'

I agree that it would be nice to know the context, but I'm confused as to what sort of context would change the meaning of the quote that he would ban all religions?

The author seems to equate the concept of organized religion to basic moral themes as expressed in LOTR. Personally, I think this is more a reflection of the author's personal relationship with her own religion and basic beliefs and may not reflect the macrocosmic perceived 'outer face' of Christianity (and other organized religions for that matter) as understood by those she quotes.

I tend to agree the article reflects her own personal faith, a faith I share. Yet the idea that Tolkien shared this faith as well is not an unfounded statement, and documented proof suggests that Tolkien intended for many of those religious themes to prevail in his works. For more, I suggest checking out some of the books (such as the one by Ralph Wood...I forget the book's name) that expound on spiritual themes in LotR.

It is, however, an interesting article! Thanks for sharing, Knight of Gondor!

You are welcome!

She portrays the actors and producors as bumbling nincompoops (I don't think I've ever spelled that before.) and I'm pretty sure that they're not. With the exception of Orlando Bloom. I don't mean to insult his intellegence, but he is perhaps the least, um, shall I say, enlightened person in the group, and the author does the whole cast a hinderance when she puts his opinion first.

I would just tend to think that, with the exception of Christopher Lee and John Rhys-Davis, few of the numerous people involved in putting these films together had a true appreciation for the inherent themes in the books -- whether religious, or merely philosophical, intellectual, literary, etc.