[Child of the 7th Age]

Knight of Gondor,

Since I don't want to cover exactly the same ground that the other posters have, I'll try to focus on different points. Generally, I found the original article you posted disappointing; it seemed to me that Basham strung together a series of random quotes without putting these in any understandable context or offering us an analysis other than a few unproven generalizations regarding the supposed nature of the contemporary film industry. I had read the second article you just put up a number of months ago. I found this one more interesting in that we at least got a more extended look at what the actors and various folk actually said, but still found it deficient.

Now let's look at this situation from a different vantage point. I think we can probably agree that there are many themes that run through Tolkien's writing. Tolkien's religious background and how that influenced the way he wrote his story is certainly central, but this is not his only important theme or idea. Tolkien's knowledge of ancient myths and legends, his expertise as a philologist who understood the derivation of words, his love of inventing new languages, his committment to the good green earth, his sheer joy in telling a good yarn---all these elements and many others run through the Lord of the Rings.

Basham is obviously a committed Christian, likely a committed evangelical, and this is the angle from which she is approaching the movie and, by implication, all of Tolkien's writing. For the moment, I will assume that she has studied and understood many of the explicitly Christian themes that run through the Legendarium. This was the yardstick she was using to measure the actors, writers, etc. who created the movies. Not surprisingly, they all came up short, since their own backgrounds and interests were wholly different than her own.

Now just imagine a different scenario. Imagine that someone like T. A. Shippey with an understanding and love of the northern myths got up and began to ask the movie crew probing questions regarding how these legends relate to the movie. Or perhaps we could have Patrick Curry raising queries about the ecological themes in the movie, Joseph Pierce addressing the explicitly Catholic elements, or Carl Hostetter on the nature of the Elvish tongues. I am saying this tongue in cheek but you get the idea: everyone approaches things from their own particular angle and requires that others do the same.

My guess is that the movie folk would fall flat on their faces in answering such questions, just as they fell flat when trying to articulate the "spiritual" themes in the movie, since this was not their special area of knowledge or interest. And I would also think that Basham would likewise have serious problems with probing questions outside her own special area of interest if they were ever posed to her. The basic point is this: Tolkien can be approached from many, many different angles.

From what I can see, Basham understands and appreciates one of those angles. What she doesn't seem to appreciate is that there is more than one way to look at Mr. Tolkien's writings, and more than one set of skills that can be brought to the table. For example, I may not always agree with what Peter Jackson has done but I will readily admit that he has more experience than I have in dealing with the problems of adapting LotR to the medium of film. Conversely, my own academic background is in medieval history, so hopefully I have a bit of specialised knowledge that he may not have. That doesn't mean one of us is right and the other wrong in our approach. It does mean that I may flounder at certain questions, and he may flounder at others.

This diversity is the heart of the Tolkien community. All the posters on the Downs have different backgrounds and beliefs. The idea is that we're here to learn from each other, and not simply to insist that everyone else see things from the particular viewpoint that we personally endorse. So that is my quarrel with Basham -- she has the perfect right to wish that the Lord of the Rings movie had been more "spiritual" in its approach, but not to disparage the filmakers in that they don't share her particular personal view.

Knight of Gondor -- Believe me, at heart I am very sympathetic to the view that the movie could have done a better job with certain themes. I agree that PJ did a better job depicting evil than he did depicting goodness, and that more attention should have been paid to communicating themes like Frodo's spiritual growth, or how the people of Gondor carried on the ancient traditions of Numenor. But this is an honest difference of opinion; it doesn't mean I have the right to look down my nose at the people who made this movie because they don't measure up to my personal yardstick. And that's what I feel Basham has done.