National Geographic Beyond the Movie
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Whether you love The Lord of the Rings or not, you can’t deny that it's
one heck of a story.
It's also highly complex - but did you know that despite its fantasy setting,
it hearkens back to real life world history?
On this disc, National Geographic goes beyond the movie to examine where J.R.R.
Tolkien may have gotten his ideas.
Narrated by John Rhys-Davies, this 60-minute special looks at remarkable similarities
between characters in the trilogy and actual historic figures.
Aragorn, as the special mentions, is much like William Wallace, also known
as Braveheart. Both are the reluctant hero, not
wanting to lead a group of men (and women) to almost certain death, but also
not wanting to go down without a fight. What’s a natural leader to do?
It also looks at the similarities between Gandalf and Benjamin Franklin, one
of the smartest and most respected men in American history. The partnership
of Frodo and Sam is compared to the friendship of Lewis and Clark (the chaps
who hiked all the way across the mainland United States a few years back) among
others. Grima Wormtongue bears a very strong resemblance to Rasputin, the family
friend and advisor to Czar Nicholas II of Russia, while the battle for Middle
Earth is similar to the Battle of Gettysburg.
The special does make some good points and is surely interesting, and at a
mere 60 minutes (about 53, to be more precise), it doesn’t go on too long
or overstay its welcome. You may get to a point at which you ask yourself “what’s
the point?” or “who cares?” but until then, you’ll probably
enjoy yourself well enough.
It’s hard to imagine a lot of people will be buying the DVD of this particular
special, since, like most National Geographic specials, it’s far more expensive
than it’s probably worth, but the presentation is good enough.
Here we have the special shown in full frame with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack,
and both are exactly as good as they need to be. There wasn’t a single
instance during the hour when I was wishing for better audio or video, and if
a snob like me doesn’t care, chances are you won’t either.
The DVD also features a photo gallery, an interactive quiz, and footage not
seen in the original broadcast.
Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think
