On the small screen (my Kawasaki DVD player at work), I watched "Ringers", narrated by Dom Monaghan. It's about Tolkien fandom before and after the movies.
A lot of it was embarrassing, with a look at the cartoon versions, the hippies' adoption of LOTR, and Leonard Nimoy's "Bilbo Baggins" music video. Not to mention the geeks and fangirls. There was some interesting stuff about the legal hassle of the American paperback, and early script attempts at a movie (or cartoon).
There was a tiny bit of serious discussion, but one aspect was totally ignored: Tolkien's combat experience in World War One as a butterbar. It took a while for the four hobbits that got caught up in the war outside the Shire to realize that being cold, wet, scared, and hungry was still worth it, as long as the Shire survives.
The hippies saw dope, the greenies saw bucolic paradise, and the fans saw (??). Never mentioned was what people with military experience saw. I first read LOTR while in Basic. A buddy, while cruising the Mekong on a PBR. Others here have brought a non-dope, non-green, non-geek background with them while reading the book.
It was interesting (and sometimes embarrasing) to watch the documentary, but it seemed to miss a large part of the equation as to why LOTR was voted the most important novel of the 20th century.
Hadn't heard of the movie, thanks for the review. The hippie aspect was the one most prevalent when I read it in the 60's; I never subscribed to that theory as is it was evident to me right from the start that these books were different; it was an epic story of good and evil set with a mythology that had to be studied, one reading was certainly not sufficient in my case.
Where did you get this documentary, winmag? Was it one that was with the extended ROTK? I haven't watched any of that material yet.