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• Explain to me why this isn't a shallow movie -- 90% spectacle and 10% character exploration.

OK. It's not a shallow movie because it's about the Great Questions. What is honor? What is courage? Are we innately good, or innately bad, or a bit of both? How much free will do we have, and can we exert our own efforts to redeem ourselves from evil? Is there really an evil force operating in the world, and if so, how can ordinary people of good will do battle against it without being corrupted? Should we live for ourselves, or for history? How do we keep faith? Stuff like that. Tolkien was a devout Catholic and said that this was a Catholic work; the movies address his themes.

The NYT review is one of the very few tepid reviews. They see LoTR as terribly bourgeois. All that "good and evil" stuff is just so unsophisticated.

Ha! This is one of the great cinematic acomplishments of all time. It takes a very interesting but very difficult book, and preserves the story while creating a visualization that is "right" to almost everyone who watched.

Tolkein is what Harry Potter fans can graduate to (oddly, the Harry Potter movies fail to capture the wit of the books). And maybe some of them will read his translation of Sir Gawain or maybe even his recently discovered translation of Beowulf.

It's not a shallow movie because it's about the Great Questions. What is honor? What is courage? Are we innately good, or innately bad, or a bit of both? How much free will do we have, and can we exert our own efforts to redeem ourselves from evil? Is there really an evil force operating in the world, and if so, how can ordinary people of good will do battle against it without being corrupted? Should we live for ourselves, or for history? How do we keep faith?

All very important thoughts and questions.

I would throw in "what is friendship and loyalty" as well. The movies captured those two themes/questions and did a good job. Gandalf basically giving his life to save the rest in the mines, the trio setting out to rescue Merry and Pippin, without really giving a thought to the fact that they would be vastly outnumbered and might even die. Sam staying loyal to Frodo even when he sees the ring turning Frodo into a monster (at the risk of his own life). I won't get into the RotK for those who haven't read it.

I would say the LotR trilogy would be the ultimate "buddy" movie. There are a lot of movies that revolve around friendships/companions and loyalty, but none can come close to LotR.