[HairOfTheDog]

Or you can try to not gripe, and listen to a fellow fan tell the story, even though you have heard it before.

Anyone who tries to retell a story invariably has different favorite things about it, different things that they see as vital, and things they inevitably missed or remembered wrong. When you listen to them tell the story as they saw it, it is tempting to interrupt and say they are telling it wrong. But the meddling is what wrecks the telling, not the errors.

I love these books. If I told the story, I would have included Tom Bombadil and his lady Goldberry. But I also know that Jackson was also telling a story he loves, including his favorite things. No story is so sacred that it can't be retold by someone else who grows it, gives it their own flavor and perhaps embellishes it with a few things he wishes had happened. That is how stories become legends and mythologies that survive and grow, because we can all feel they are ours to see. There is so much that we all, including Jackson, saw very similarly in the story. A tribute to Tolkien's ability to create a grand and real vision.

[BradyLS]

No story is so sacred that it can't be retold by someone else who grows it, gives it their own flavor and perhaps embellishes it with a few things he wishes had happened.

Hmm. The Last Temptation of Christ. Well, is no story so sacred, after all? ;-) :-D