[eno_]

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.

[KneelBeforeZod]

recently discovered translation of Beowulf.

I hear Helen Thomas is pegged to play Grendel when the movie is started.

[sweetliberty]

"Tolkein is what Harry Potter fans can graduate to"

Assuming, of course, that they mature intellectually and/or spiritually to that point. Seems less do these days.