I went to see Lord of the Rings - Return of the King last night. A good movie, though long. At the end of the movie, the group of teenagers in the seats behind me were complaining about how long the ending took. "This has got to be the longest ending ever!" they said.

My understanding is that the movie was filmed in New Zealand. If so, what a beautiful place! There's something about mountains that calls out to one's soul, I think. Or perhaps it was the celtic music...

LOR is heavy on heroism and this seems appropriate for these turbulent times. There are lots of scenes where a king of some sort or another is exhorting his men to "die for honor".

I found myself wondering if Tolkein had some sort of symbolism in mind when he wrote LOR. I know this has been examined and reexamined and the answer has always been "no". It occurred to me that Sauron has all the technology. In middle-earth, technology is represented by magic. Sauron has the all-seeing eye, he has the magic that can make orcs walk forth in the light of day. The race of men has the elves and gaandalf but they're outmatched on the technology front.

I also wondered--what would LOR be like if written from the point of view of an orc? How did Sauron exhort those men from the east with their huge war elephants to fight? What incentive did he offer?

Then, while driving to work today I found myself scanning the distant horizon for the fires of mount doom...