 February
2003
This month's review:
The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers
Can God Be Found in The Lord of the Rings?
Frodo Baggins, an unassuming hobbit from the Shire (a small
Middle-Earth country bearing a remarkable resemblance to England),
has been given a daunting task: He is to travel to the Land of
Mordor, the seat of wickedness, to destroy an all-powerful ring of
power by throwing it into the volcanic crucible where it was made.
If he doesn’t succeed, Sauron (the Dark Lord who made the ring ages
ago but lost it) will triumph, and the world will succumb to evil.
Accompanied only by Sam Gamgee, his faithful servant and friend,
Frodo is more than willing to fulfill his quest. However, the ring
has a mind of its own. It wants to get back to its maker and will
ultimately corrupt anyone who has it. The farther Frodo goes on the
journey, the more he is tempted to use the ring and to fall under
its power. Meanwhile, the forces of good (represented by Gandalf, a
good wizard; Aragorn, a man; Legolas, an elf; Gimli, a dwarf; and
Merry and Pippin, two other hobbits) battle the forces of evil
(represented by Saruman, an evil wizard; orcs (goblins); and the
Dark Lord himself.
This is the basic story line of The Lord of the Rings,
J.R.R. Tolkien’s monumental trilogy which has been called the most
popular book of the twentieth century. A year ago the first film
installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, made its
debut to much critical acclaim, and now The Two Towers,
installment number 2, has been released. The middle item in a
trilogy is often the least powerful, but to my mind The Two
Towers is even better than The Fellowship of the Ring.
It has excellent acting, gorgeous scenery, a reverence for the power
of language, and a magnificent sweep that holds the viewer’s
attention for the full three hours. That’s not all, though.
Tolkien, a Roman Catholic who was instrumental in C.S. Lewis’s
journey to faith, did not set out to write an explicitly Christian
novel. Nonetheless, in Finding God in the Lord of the Rings,
Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware show how the book is unmistakably Christian
in its underlying worldview. Frodo and Sam are willing to make a
tremendous sacrifice without any hope of reward or even continued
life. Good is to be upheld at all costs. Evil is not to be tolerated
or compromised with. In one of the film’s most touching moments, Sam
says to Frodo, now depressed and under the power of the ring, “There
is good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it is worth fighting for.”
Amen.
So why should anyone who hasn’t read the book or doesn’t care
for fantasy go and see this movie? Why is LOTR so popular with
Christians and non-Christians alike? I believe the reason is
that we all yearn for the God-shaped vacuum within us to be filled.
As scripture tells us, God has written his law on our hearts, and we
long for a moral universe in which good triumphs and evil is
vanquished. That’s what we find in The Lord of the Rings.
There’s one other point, too. Which is better, to read the book
first and then see the picture, or vice versa? When books are made
into movies, the movie more often than not is inferior, but not this
time. Here’s a case where you can see the film and then enjoy the
book even more.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 3 ¾
stars
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Index of movie
reviews...
(2003 reviews through present)
Jay Maurer, a member of West Side Presbyterian Church, is
a long-term movie buff and former college teacher of The Film as
Literature. He has written movie reviews for The Good News
(West Side newsletter) since 2002.
If you have comments or questions
about the movie (or play) reviews, please contact Jay at
dramachap@msn.com.
Ratings are expressed in
increments of ¼ star.
A rating of 2 ½ stars or higher is meant to be a recommendation.
1 star: poor
2 stars: minimally satisfactory
3 stars: quite good
4 stars: superb
Criteria for determining the ratings:
- Reflection, either explicit or implicit, of Christian values,
including suitability of language and lack of gratuitous violence
- Quality of the acting
- Originality
- Unity of the entire picture
- Substance, or in the words of C.S. Lewis, weight
Other Christian movie review Web sites:
Plugged In Online
ChristianityTodayMovies.com
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