NOW I finally understand

I've always liked the Lord of the Rings books, and while they have very moving moments of friendship and sacrifice, I admit I looked down on the books as fairy tales for the obsessive. I like Peter Jackson's movies even less, Jackson spent too much time on false drama and unnecessary action scenes, letting the character development become secondary. Return of the King seemed way over-praised, not nearly good enough to sweep the Oscars, IMHO.

The ROTK extended edition DVD has humbled me. Not for the new scenes, but the documentaries are a mind grenade. It's like the filmmakers saved all their favorite insights and comprehension for this one film. First is begins with a very intelligent and heart felt look at the languages that Tolkien wrote and some of the intense tradegy that he experienced in his life (like losing 3 close friends in WW1). Then the theme moves to the deeper themes in Tolkien's work, and draws back to examples in all his books. Then they talk about the structure of the films and some of the great ideas that Jackson had but rightly dropped. Then they move on to the amazing craftsmanship of the sets and props. I could go on and on, the documentaries do go on and on, there is over 8 hours on these 2 disks. Check it.

My friend Kristen showed me this great Middle Earth website, The Encyclopedia of Arda.