Origin of the Rings

Starring:Sean Buckley
Studio: Platinum Disc
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Don't waste your money
What a piece of garbage.
Inferior product
one ring to rule, the web!
I liked it, what can I say?

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Origin of the Rings
Starring: J.R.R. Tolkien
Director: Sean Buckley
Manufacturer: Trinity Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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J.R.R. Tolkien - Master of the Rings

ASIN: B00005RG6D
Release Date: 2001-10-30

Amazon.com

Despite its obvious attempt to capitalize on Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, this "unauthorized tribute" to Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien offers an adequate primer on the life and works of history's most beloved fantasy author. Tolkien biographer Michael Coren lends academic credibility, along with fantasy artists, lesser-known film critics, and other nominal "experts" who comment on Tolkien's vast influence. The majority of this material is well-documented and informative, and Tolkien neophytes will find it interesting. Then, as fast as you can say "snake oil," this video betrays its greedy motivations, showing bogus "behind the scenes" video of an anonymous production (i.e., not the Jackson film), and jumping on the Fellowship bandwagon with cheesy reenactments, parallels to Star Trek fandom, and innocuous speculation about the Jackson film's then-unseen merits. Interviews with Tolkien family members are not included as promised, so viewers are advised to ignore everything but the legitimate factual material. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Don't waste your money.......2004-04-28

This video spends more time showing people designing costumes for an unidentified production of LOTR than time on Tolkien himself. The most ludicrous thing is the portion discussing the paintings of the Brothers Hildebrandt while showing totally unrelated artwork. The people who put this video together should have, at least, identified the artwork while acknowledging that they had no permission to show the actual Hildebrandt paintings. Instead it gives a false impression that the artwork being shown was by the Hildebrandts. Also the dramatic recreations featuring a man who looked nothing like Tolkien were not labeled as recreations and may be misconstrued by people with less knowledge of Tolkien. Almost a total waste.

What a piece of garbage........2004-02-27

This waste of time pretending to be a documentary is one of the worst things I've ever sat through. It looks like it was made over a weekend by a bunch of teenaged sci-fi dweebs who borrowed their dad's video camera. It was obviously churned out to cash in on the Peter Jackson movie.

The back cover is totally misleading. "This exciting documentary features ... interviews with members of Tolkien's family and a host of other experts!" WRONG!!! I didn't see any members of Tolkien's family being interviewed, and the "host of other experts" consists of the following - a nobody who wrote a Tolkien biography I've never heard of, a very boring University professor, a stereotypical comic-collector-nerdy-boy, and some wannabe fantasy artist who nobody has heard of. Oh, and a writer who writes bad fantasy-for-kids, who claims that Tolkien influenced her in the way she develops characters and plot. Duh ... don't you mean influenced you in every aspect of everything you have ever written?

The way these 'experts' gush over their claim that if it weren't for the book's acceptance in the USA Tolkien wouldn't be popular at all, and would have disappeared into obscurity is quite sickening. Don't these 'experts' know how popular Lord Of The Rings was in the late 1950's & early 1960's all over the English-speaking world, long before it ever went on sale in the US?

The 'experts' describe how the Brother's Hildebrandt made Tolkien popular, all the while paintings that are not by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt are shown behind the voice-over. I assume our intrepid teenage dweebs making rubbish couldn't afford to pay Greg and Tim anything to show their paintings. So we get gushings about Hildebrandt art while watching generic fantasy art by who-knows-who!

The worst part is the last 20 mins or so, in which we watch a pack of self-indulgent kids let loose in a special effects facility making really idiotic, amateur, Tolkien-esque video shots - not even a video, just a few shots of them walking around, firing arrows etc. This was so annoying and horrible that I eventually skipped through it.

If you really want to know about Tolkien and how he wrote his books, read Humphrey Carpenter's brilliant biography. Give this piece of rubbish a very wide berth.

The final sentence on the back cover blurb ... "This is unlike anything you've seen on Earth!" How true that is, and its the like of which I never want to see again.

Inferior product.......2003-05-31

This is a pretty amateur production. It appears to have been made in Toronto, using only local sources. One academic is credited as "Professor of English, U of T," and a couple of film reviewers (speculating uselessly about the then-unreleased Peter Jackson films) are described as being from "The Star." Presumably Toronto natives will know who these people are.

The other interviewees seem to be scraped together from whoever happened to be available for cheap. The biographer interviewed is not Humphrey Carpenter, but some unknown. In addition, the filmmakers act as if THE SILMARILLION never existed, and seem to feel that the Brothers Hildebrandt were the first artists to depict Tolkien scenes and characters, completely ignoring Tim Kirk and other early Tolkien artists. And the extensive section showing amateur filmmakers trying to put together their own film of Lord of the Rings is irrelevant and self-serving.

The biographical material on Tolkien is valid, but nothing appears here that's not in any standard Tolkien documentary or in Carpenter's book. They supplement a few historical photos with some footage of actors pretending to be Tolkien and not doing a very good job of it.

On the whole, this video could only be of interest to someone who has only made initial contact with the world of Tolkien; but anyone who has read or seen more should avoid this one.

one ring to rule, the web!.......2002-12-20

This is the best of the greatest movies I've ever seen in my life, exspecially because I think Frodo, Legolas, and Strider are very, very, very, very, very, very hot and VERY, VERY good lookin'! I just can't wait 'till the Two Towers comes to Rushville, so I can see more of Frodo, Legolas, and Strider!!!if I could give this movie more stars I would give it over a ZILLION. PLEASE WRITE ME BACK!
THIS IS DEFFINENTLY THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!!
Im your #1 fan...BYE-BYE

I liked it, what can I say?.......2002-10-11

With all the hype around the films it's neat to see the impact that Tolkien's books have had on the world. I think that's what makes this documentary most interesting. I read the other amazon review commenting on the fake portrayal of characters. Not sure if I agree since Tolkien left so much of his fictional work to the imagination of his readers, they made an interpretation, just like Peter Jackson did. I don't think either is right personally but that's the beauty of imagination. Anyways the Doc has some cool stuff in it, I think they could have made it a little shorter since some of the interviews are more interesting than others. I think it's worth a look.

Average customer rating:

Origin of the Rings
Director: Sean Buckley
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00008G8NB
Release Date: 2002-04-30

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