J.R.R. Tolkien &
The Birth Of Lord Of The Rings
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: C+
I am part of a more sizable minority than one would think
exists that did not like or care for Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings
films, though this critic is no fantasy fan and much prefers Ridley Scott or
John Boorman if Fantasy genre filmmaking is to be taken seriously. Early on, we looked at a very disappointing
DVD/CD set called J.R.R. Tolkien – Master Of The Rings, which dragged
and dragged. Much less pretentious, yet
simple but viable is J.R.R. Tolkien & The Birth Of Lord Of The Rings
(2004) which is not stuffy and does a much nicer job of covering his life story
in under-hour running length.
Once again, this is a European import with the same
narrator Delta has been using on other programs. Our critic and literary expert Wayne Wise was not pleased with
the King Arthur installment, but I believe Rings fans would find
this more interesting and straightforward, not having to worry about problematic
history records. People lost in the
fantasy will likely not want to hear about the reality, but here it is and it
is more interesting than his books.
Inexpensive and short, you cannot go wrong picking it up.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on analog PAL video and looks
fine for that, but a nice mix of film footage surfaces from time to time. The simple stereo sound is PCM 2.0 for a
change and Liam Dunn’s quasi-sarcastic tone at times is a hoot. He’s always half the fun of watching any of
the shows in this series, which is good, because this disc has zero extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
