Lord of the Rings

One film that I wish we could have seen in this class was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It's completely understandable why we didn't see it, it's a long movie. But the story is so interesting and the depth of world building in the story is so wonderful to experience. There is so much to analyze and deconstruct that I wonder what we would have focused on in the class. Some of my ideas for that include depictions of creationism in fairytales, how religious subtext influences plot and characterization, and maybe even how religious subtext translates over from book to film. This film series has always interested me because one complaint of people who don't like films is that they don't do a good job of capturing Tolkien's mood or the full implementation of the Christian subtext in the novels.

To me, the Lord of the Rings is one of the most immersive, believable, well-told stories I have ever heard/watched/read. I love the pace of the first film, the look of Middle Earth and the Shire, and the incredible blending of filmmaking techniques that Peter Jackson uses while filming. These techniques include using practical and digital effects with an emphasis on the practical, using crane shots while doing on-location filming, and a great use of point of view shots to put the audience in the character's shoes, even for a few seconds. The casting of this film is also magnificent. Each actor embodies their character's looks and has a deep understanding of their characters' intentions and motivations. Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of the ranger/future king Aragorn is absolutely fantastic and his introduction in the movie is done with what I think is the best shot in film history.

If this film were used in class I would be interested to delve into how the Christian subtexts flows through the film, with the emphasis on how the characters reflect Christian characteristics, the portrayal of sinful deeds, the depiction of what makes good/evil in Middle Earth, and what characters portray which Biblical figures. I may put emphasis on the characters Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn, but I think it would also be interesting to understand how Sam and Arwen reflect these Christian traits as well.