I just watched "Lord of the Rings" trilogy again and this hit me like a ton of bricks.

[catbyte]

[smirkymonkey]

1. K&R

[ampm]

2. Lord of the rings

It's was written like a movie but it was written for a real event and hidden like a movie by a man who almost didn't get to write it. He read into the future. Bilbo was the first part and even now the story is a now event.

[TrueBlueNV]

3. 🥰

I so needed that quote! I volunteered for Dem texting today. First time ever. I had mostly good responses...few horrible. But it felt so good to feel like I was “holding on to something..”
Beautiful!!

[Alpeduez21]

18. Welcome to DU

Congratulations on becoming part of the system for change. It feels amazing to do that. I've canvassed, been the party presence at polling places(which meant standing there asking people if they want a sample ballot)

[Tommymac]

38. You Rock! Welcome! n/t

[niyad]

46. Welcome to DU.

[Heartstrings]

59. Welcome to du, TrueBlueNV! nt

[Tumbulu]

4. I want to watch the movies- where can they be accessed?

Netflix, amazon? Acorn? Any of these?

[lunatica]

6. Do you have Prime Video?

The Hobbit is also on AMC, included with subscription. I think the whole series is in Prime Video.

[Tumbulu]

7. Yes I do, I will go look. I need something to uplift me !

Thank you!

[Tumbulu]

8. Oh you have to buy or rent on Amazon....

Maybe I should rent it.

Thanks!

[lunatica]

20. If you have Amazon prime you can get tons of their movies free

[Cha]

43. I've been watching tons of Feel-Good Hallmark

movies for a small monthly subscription on amazon prime.

So grateful I found them!

[niyad]

47. Your library might have them as well.

[musicblind]

9. They're currently on HBO Max.

The whole trilogy.

[Tumbulu]

10. Hmm, I don't have that, but thanks!

I don’t have a tv, only internet and WiFi streaming services.

[SouthernLiberal]

11. HBO Max is not on TV

Or on Roku, or Amazon Kindle. It's just a streaming service you can watch on your computer (or Android phone.. maybe Apple, but I don't have one of those) Worth checking out. I get it free because of my cable company. Depending on who provides your internet, you may be able to get the same deal.

[CloudWatcher]

19. We get HBO Max

It's available on Apple TV and we can watch it with our web browsers (Macs). Here's more info: https://thestreamable.com/video-streaming/hbo-max/supported-devices

There appears to be a 7-day free trial.

[Tumbulu]

31. Thanks- I will investigate!

[Hekate]

26. You can purchase the LOTR trilogy on DVD for $12.99 on Amazon; Blue ray costs considerably more

I bought the extended play version on DVD at Costco after the movies were released. Considering the low cost at this point, if you still have a player, it’s an affordable option.

[Amaryllis]

41. BE sure to get the extended version DVDs if you buy them!

[Hekate]

75. When I got them at Costco all those years ago, I surely did

It’s interesting, though, to watch the swing in technology. In the midst of a discussion about how to access LOTR across the spectrum — and pay for the privilege, I think I was the only person to mention buying a cheap DVD at Amazon.

[Blue_true]

36. Likely any movie streaming service, including Apple's.

Amazon now owns the rights to the book, after paying the Author’s estate something like $150 million, I don’t know how that impacts movie rights.

[blugbox]

39. HBO Max has them all

Also, if you happen to have an unlimited data plan from AT&T, you also get HBO Max at no cost.

[Star-Thrower]

78. Your local

library should have it.

[0rganism]

5. "all you have to decide"

[Fritz Walter]

25. 'There are other forces at work in this world besides the will of evil.'

I tear up at this scene and many others in the LOTR trilogy, because they resonate so well in our current circumstances.

Watching these movies helps me keep perspective these days. Am I the only one who perceives MAGAts as orcs?

JRR Tolkien was a genius, IMHO!

[Efilroft Sul]

30. I've also called them Orcs, Fritz.

They were once decent beings, but they were captured by a darker power and became twisted and perverted.

They live for inflicting pain and suffering on those not like them.

And they are ruled by a big, fat Goblin.

[niyad]

48. Many here have called them orcs. .or death eaters.

[Hekate]

73. Hmmm. Death Eaters works for me.

Yes

[niyad]

76. Works for me, as well. I think I will return to calling them death eaters. Shorter than what I

usually call gem, and can be spoken in public.

[Upthevibe]

12. catbyte....

Wow......I've never read or seen that. I never saw any LOTR movies or read the books.

What you posted is so profound I'm going to write it down. Thank you....

[Blue_true]

37. You should stream the trilogy. Like life, it has low and high points, with

a lot of inspirational moments seeded in. I loved that movie series a lot more than I have ever liked Star Wars stuff.

[blugbox]

40. Make it a point to one day read the books or see the movies.

Even if the fantasy genre isn't your thing, they are just great stories of good overcoming seemingly unstoppable evil. Very reassuring in dark days like we are currently living.

[LisaM]

53. You are better off reading the books.

This quote is not in the books (though there is something similar). I tried to watch the movies, but in my opinion, they missed the mark - they became all about special effects and more like action movies, whereas is the books, they describe more accurately the plodding hardships of trying to regain control over larger forces.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

64. One of the things I really liked about the movies was the way Middle Earth looked.

Moria, Hobbiton, Bag End, Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, the Barad Dur, they all looked right. Edoras looked even better than I had imagined it in my mind's eye. The only place I think they got wrong was Rivendell, which is well to the north and in the mountains. Jackson's Rivendell would be impossible to heat in the winter.

In the books, I had always found the Battle of Helm's Deep confusing. After I saw the films, I understood it.

[LisaM]

65. I thought they got Orthanc wrong.

And Rivendell was not how I thought it would be, either. But actually, I hated the movies so much I stopped watching them. I read the whole set of books twice a year, though. Just about time to start my winter read!

[GoneOffShore]

72. Love the books, but really liked the movies as well. Except for The Hobbit - too 'Orc-y' & too long

Though Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Smaug was excellent.

[LisaM]

77. They didn't even have Orcs in "The Hobbit".

They had goblins (though, I know that Orcrist translates to "Goblin Cleaver&quot .

I thought the movies were too jazzed up. The whole point of the books was evil unfolding and people fighting it in homely ways. The battle scenes are few and far between (and I admit I generally skim them), but in the movie, it was thwack thwack thwack all the time!

The whole Scouring of the Shire at the end was one of my very favorite parts, and they didn't do it.

[GoneOffShore]

80. I saw the Hobbit movies several year ago but I thought that they threw Orcs into the mix.

Orcs or goblins, there were too many of them.

[LisaM]

81. Yes, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of them.

I was always curious how they were birthed. Were there lady Orcs back wherever they came from?

[llashram]

13. Hear! Hear!!

just got to keep moving toward something brighter than that blighted fool D.C.

[sarge43]

14. It is not this day.

[bronxiteforever]

15. Love that quote. Hadn't thought of it in awhile

Perfect for now. Thanks 🙏

[Crunchy Frog]

16. I'll probably read the books again soon. I don't watch the movies.

[KatyMan]

27. Same here. First read the books in 9th grade

in 1980, usually read it once a year nowadays, its like comfort food. Truthfully, I'm probably always reading it, I dip into it now and then for fun or when I don't feel like reading whatever books I'm currently reading.
But, the movies. The visuals are great, spot on, but the story is too big for even three movies. The elves are poorly done (to me), and for some reason I absolutely cannot stand Liv Tyler. She completely ruins the movie for me. I'm sure she's a nice person and all, but all that soft focus and whispered dialog grinds my gears. JRRT would be rolling in his grave.
But for people enjoy them, more power to ya, I hope you have many enjoyable watchings in the future!

[Crunchy Frog]

35. I read it for the first time in '80 or '81, close to graduating HS.

I've always wished that they could have done it as a long running TV series, like Game of Thrones. I never felt that three blockbuster action/adventure movies would be able to do it justice.

The bottom line though, is that I simply prefer the imagery that JRRT's writing generates in my head, and am not looking for someone else's imagery to substitute for my own.

As you said though, nothing against those who enjoy the films.

[Hekate]

17. It always does, it always does

Thanks, catbyte, for the reminder.

Then there’s this:

“I wish the Ring had not come to me.”
“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All they have to decide is what to do with the time that is given them.”

[Illumination]

21. Yes. As patriots we DO see some good in this world Mr. Frodo!.....

[Evolve Dammit]

22. The good vs. evil plays out throughout history. Harry Potter series is also a great portrayal.

[DaisyTom]

23. "Courage, Merry. Courage for our friends."

[catchnrelease]

24. So many relevent words in those stories

I posted the same Samwise quote on my facebook page just a few weeks ago. I feel like we're facing the Black Gates of Mordor right now and it's the final battle! We need words to inspire us to defeat the orange menace.

[Baked Potato]

28. Great scene! When we watch these for movie-time, they are so epic

it’s like watching them for the first time again...

[Fritz Walter]

29. OK, you win!

I’m loading the BluRay Disc of “The Fellowship of the Ring’ in a minute.
Tomorrow, I’ll watch “Two Towers,” and Tuesday, “Return of the King,”

Thanks for nudging me into this reminder that good must triumph over evil, especially now.

[Efilroft Sul]

32. I will play King Theoden's speech at full volume before sunrise on Election Day

"Arise! Arise, riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword-day, a red day... ere the Sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride to ruin... and the world's ending! Death! Death! DEATH! FORTH EORLINGAS!"

[Wounded Bear]

33. There are quite a few good quotes in that story...

[winetourdriver01]

34. Samwise

I understood at long time ago that the real hero of that whole saga was Sam.

[Martin Eden]

42. I'm glad I saw the movies first

I read The Hobbit when I was very young, but did not read the LotR trilogy until after seeing the movies.

I absolutely loved the movies, and still do. I recommend the extended version boxed set, which my wife and I watch once a year. There are very good scenes not in the theater version, including what happened to Saruman.

However, the books are so much more. So much more in depth. More beautiful, with important storylines edited out of the movies. If I had read the books first the movies may have been disappointing.

I also recommend The Silmarrillion, which is the Bible of Middle Earth. It chronicles the ages which preceded the War of the Ring, from the creation through an incredible saga of amazing stories which in many respects are the pinnacle of fantasy fiction.

Those stories were also very much the life's work of J.R.R. Tolkien, which he wrote and rewrote for decades before The Hobbit and the LofR trilogy.

The Silmarillion is not an easy read, not at first. It was written in a more narrative style and begins rather nebulously, with the creator and his lessor Gods singing a chorus in which the notes of discord were first struck, leading to the darkness with which Samwise and other heroes have to contend.

Would you like to know more about the Balrogs of Morgoth?

Read and find out.

[cate94]

44. I'll have to try again.

I’ve read the Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy more times than I can count. I’ve also watched the movies repeatedly. Thankfully they do justice to the books. I’ve never made it through Silmarrillion though. You’ve made it sound interesting. I’ll have to try again.

[Martin Eden]

49. The early chapters can be difficult upon first reading

But are better understood as you get further into the book, and are much better upon 2nd & 3rd readings.

This really is the Bible of Middle Earth, essential for a more full understanding of the world inhabited by our heroes of the trilogy. The romance of Aragorn and Arwen harkens back to the Lay of Luthien, which Aragorn was quietly singing in The Fellowship.

[jrandom421]

58. The best part of the Silmarillion

was how Ulmo, Lord of Waters, plays the Music of the creation of the world, in the sound of the sea and surf. Men hearken to it, not knowing what it is, but are drawn to its seductive pull on their consciousness and spirit.


I feel it every time I go to the beach. It's one of the reasons that I live near the coast and almost went insane living away from any body of water.

[Martin Eden]

66. Hard for me to pick a favorite part.

The longing of the elves for the sea is beautiful, but so is their memory of living under starlight before they were called to Valinor.

And too many great tales of heroism, tragedy, and wondrous creatures!

[Dirty Socialist]

45. I found an LOTR representative for today's Trump humper

It's a minor character nemed Ted Sandyman:
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Ted_Sandyman

[Ilsa]

69. For me, it's Alfrid Lickspittle:

/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20140102201042

[berni_mccoy]

50. Tolkien himself lived through very dark times

The LOTR is a reflection of his experience through WWI, how power corrupts absolute and how destructive and harmful war and the industrialization of it can impact people. It also reflects how the goodness of everyday deeds can keep the light at bay.

[randr]

51. In all great mythology's the light side wins, the white hats ride in from the wilderness,

and everyone pretends the evil has been defeated. Except, that is, for the Christian myth. It ends with the evil forces destroying the planet.

[Silver Gaia]

52. That is my favorite passage in the entire trilogy! :)

They did a great job of it in the film, too.

Samwise Gamgee was a wise hobbit.

I've gone back and re-read that passage many times.

Thank you for the post!

[Marthe48]

54. I have wondered who the pukes root for in these movies

So many of the heroically themed movies are huge hits and so many people watch them. The fight of good vs. evil is a dominant story line. I can't imagine repukes in general avoid seeing these movies, or playing video games (again with themes of good vs. evil) So how do they either miss the message, or avoid absorbing it? Do they root for Darth Vader? Do they root for Sauron? Do they hope the zombies in Walking Dead will kill off all the humans? Do they cry when their (anti) hero is defeated?

[catbyte]

55. Well, I know that "conservatives" thought Avatar was a liberal, gay plot to make them look bad.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jan-05-la-et-bigpicture5-2010jan05-story.html

‘Avatar’ arouses conservatives’ ire

By PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
JAN. 5, 201012 AM

snip

To say that the film has evoked a storm of ire on the right would be an understatement. Big Hollywood’s John Nolte, one of my favorite outspoken right-wing film essayists, blasted the film, calling it “a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises. . . . Think of ‘Avatar’ as ‘Death Wish’ for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you . . . hate the bad guys (America) you’re able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all.”

John Podhoretz, the Weekly Standard’s film critic, called the film “blitheringly stupid; indeed, it’s among the dumbest movies I’ve ever seen.” He goes on to say: “You’re going to hear a lot over the next couple of weeks about the movie’s politics -- about how it’s a Green epic about despoiling the environment, and an attack on the war in Iraq. . . . The conclusion does ask the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency. So it is a deep expression of anti-Americanism -- kind of. The thing is, one would be giving Jim Cameron too much credit to take ‘Avatar’ -- with its . . . hatred of the military and American institutions and the notion that to be human is just way uncool -- at all seriously as a political document. It’s more interesting as an example of how deeply rooted these standard issue counterculture cliches in Hollywood have become by now.”

Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times, took Cameron to task on another favorite conservative front, as yet another Hollywood filmmaker who refuses to acknowledge the power of religion. Douthat calls “Avatar” the “Gospel according to James. But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, ‘Avatar’ is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism -- a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.” Douthat contends that societies close to nature, like the Na’vi in “Avatar,” aren’t shining Edens at all -- “they’re places where existence tends to be nasty, brutish and short.”

There are tons of other grumpy conservative broadsides against the film, but I’ll spare you the details, except to say that Cameron’s grand cinematic fantasy, with its mixture of social comment, mysticism and transcendent, fanboy-style video game animation, seems to have hit a very raw nerve with political conservatives, who view everything -- foreign affairs, global warming, the White House Christmas tree -- through the prism of partisan sloganeering.

snip

[Marthe48]

61. Not surprised

I know I shouldn't be fazed, but also surprised that dinosaurs can use a pen!

I thought about pantheism, about how each tree, each spring of water, and other natural entities had a god or goddess within, and how way back, pantheists left an offering for each god. I thought that could get burdensome for travelers and expensive for travelers. It made sense to move toward monotheism, just for the economy of it. When we moved to monotheism, (speaking mainly about Christianity), we also let go of respecting nature in general. I read that to cut a tree, a pantheist had to go through a ritual to get permission, not from other humans, but the tree or nature god. But when humans stopped honoring myriad gods, they stopped respecting the natural world. And we have what we have, all because of expediency.

I think all of the sexual spectrum has been part of human nature, and as we pass through to the Age of Aquarius, many people are more accepting of various differences, but just as in other transitions, there is resistance, and a need to bolster the way things were. Unless it means an economic boom. I really don't think a lot of changes toward acceptance of differences means someone had a change of heart. I was thinking about how the U.S.A. had 2 armies, one white, one black, white bases, black bases and so on. I don't think the military was fully integrated because this country had a massive change of heart. I think it was integrated for economy. As time passes, government, society and other organizations in the world will find a way to embrace alternate sexual orientations, but there will always be bigots and hypocrites.

I don't know if this is a good reply to your citations, but it seems like a good place to put it

[Ilsa]

68. "What fresh hell is this" is a phrase that

Bubbles up every time Donald Deathtoll or the other Rs introduce another plot to undo America.

[Hekate]

70. They are the heroes of their own stories; as always, people write themselves into the movie

That’s all.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

56. why do I just feel like crying 😪?

[catbyte]

60. So did I.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

62. ...

[world wide wally]

57. LOTR works its way into all facets of life.

A true masterpiece.

[UserNotFound]

63. Yes.

There is some good in this world. And it's worth fighting for.

[Ilsa]

67. Tolkien had some great pearls of wisdom woven

through the weft and warp of his stories. Gandalf said some very wise things to Frodo about not being ready to pass harsh judgments upon others, and that sometimes, pity, empathy, etc, needs to guide decisions.

Sam's speech to Frodo at the end of The Two Towers gave him the strength to go on. We can all accept the lesson.

[burrowowl]

71. Kick

[MustLoveBeagles]

74. K&R

I'm tearing up.

[electric_blue68]

79. I Love 💖 That Quote...(the movies, the books)

That quote is EPIC!!!

I read LOTR back in the 60's when I was about 12. I read them (the whole trilogy) off and on into my late 20's. Then snippets. And the books sorta fell apart from overuse (like vynil). I really need to get a new set.
I started drawing it by mid teens.

Oh, how I love the movies! So much of what they presented either was close to my imaginings, I loved just about whatever they did even if it didn't match my images, or if I hadn't concretely visualized it. The care they put into the costumes, accessories, models, and CG (swoon). The scenery, the landscapes of NZ! (more swoon😁 ) The music was impeccable.

When Aragorn & co are ready to storm (no spoiler) and he says "for Frodo", by this past Sat I imagined him saying
"for Ruth".

Having read some LOTR fan commentary - I was shocked to find how little a bunch of fans thought about Frodo!
She contended that people didn't particularly in the movies didn't "get" Frodo's deep internal suffering carrying the ring- the temptation, the evil etc. He and Sam both are heroes (as the rest are, too).

I loved everyone's performances. I can't find my extended FOTR, OR TT. Do have my extended ROTK.