National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

Starring:National Geographic
Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
Product Type: DVD

Description

How do ordinary people find the strength within themselves to change the course of the future? What inspires a reluctant hero to become a courageous leader? Profound questions like these are the basis of The Return of the King. History has known many great leaders, and now, National Geographic delves beyond the film to provide a historical context for Aragorn's struggles. Through exclusive film footage and powerful interviews, surprising connections come to life between our world and The Lord of the Rings, helping us to better understand both.

Customer Reviews:

Not bad at all.......2004-12-08

I gave this DVD 5 stars. Why? On the Australian (Region 4) version of the ROTK DVD (The "Theatrical" version), it comes as a free bonus product on the 2nd (and bonus DVD). So, on my copy it cost me nothing! You can't complain when this DVD won't cost you a cent. At no cost at all, you can forgive the flaws and just enjoy it for what it is. It is actually a resonable view on its own when you pay nothing to watch it!

Based on Jackson not Tolkien!.......2004-07-09

Let me start by saying that I loved the movies. But this commentary uses supposed Tolkien experts that have never read the books! In the movie Aragorn is a reluctant hero. In the actual novel Aragorn has been preparing his entire life to claim, not reclaim, the throne of Gondor. That is a huge discrepancy between the movies and the novel. I am surprised that the "experts" did not notice.

National Geographic slipped on this one.......2004-04-18

Where the original National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring was quite decent, providing an analogy of the creation of Middle Earth, and what personal events Tolkien probably inserted into his masterpiece, this one is the complete opposite.

While the concept basically is the same (interviews with the cast, experts, etc), the underlying theme is extremely poor. Basically the makers of this documentary start comparing characters in Lord of the Rings to real historical figures.

Wormtongue poisoned Theoden's mind with lies; Rasputin did the same. So Wormtongue might have been based on Rasputin. Aragorn dwelled in the wilderness for years, only to return and claim his throne. Theodore Roosevelt lost his wife and mother, and retreated to a ranch in Dakota; the wild. See the connection?

Characters in the Lord of the Rings most likely have not been based on any real persons. And if they were, I'm quite sure Professor Tolkien would have mentioned it somewhere. While even linking world events to Lord of the Rings was speculative, this is just stretching it.

Very poor.

Horrible Gradeschool Essay.......2004-03-23

"How LOTR is like real life". Each segment attempts to explain why some historical figure is like a character in the movie, or vise versa. Terrible, bad - a middle school student could write a better script than this crap. Not even worth a rental.

Alternately amusing and bemusing.......2004-03-09

Well, I bought this DVD to see a particular movie clip, and I saw the clip. As to the rest, I think I would rephrase the sentence: National Geographic struggles to provide Aragorn a historical context beyond the movie. While there are lots of interesting tidbits about certain very well-known historical figures, they all seem to have been dragged in (kicking and screaming?) from other documentaries. Certainly none of them had anything to do with Tolkien or the actual historical sources that inspired him!

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