Yeah I saw the same thing when standing in line at Costco yesterday: "Standard Format - preserves the original aspect ratio of the television broadcast" or something like. Talk about Orwellian doublespeak. I put it back.
I don't get it. Why is this doublespeak?
This special was originally made to be broadcast as part of MSNBC's National Geographic Explorer show last December. Various threads here at HTF discussed it while it was airing, and all positively (despite noting that the scenes from FotR were cropped from 2.35:1 to (I think it was) 1.85:1). Since the scenes from FotR are less than a quarter of the make-up of this excellent show, I don't think it matters much. I will say, however, that those scenes looked gorgeous on my 30" TV. No noticable edge enhancement, and none of the blurriness that a lot of us talked about as being in theaters in one very long HTF thread. If this is a preview of what we'll see at home, then just give me the entire movie in the proper AR and I'll be there!
It does indeed spend some time showing how Jackson created the movie and getting behind-the-scenes a bit:
It interviews Jackson, most of the actors and actresses (Liv Tyler tries to impress by speaking Elvish!
BUT - The show *really* concentrates on how Tolkien got his inspiration from real life and put it into the books, and how that got translated to the big screen. There's a lot of discussion of historical influence into the writing. Like JRR's experiences in World War 1, and how that translated into the Middle-Earth's danger of an overwhelming conflict that threatens their entire world. They even show rare stuff from people who fought with him in the front line trenches, and depict how his experiences (and his son Christopher's in WW2) let him to show Sauron as a megalomaniac who wanted to rule all.
There was a very in-depth look at the Kalelvala (I hope I spelled that right), an epic told in the oral tradition in Finland in their native tongue, which was only started to be written down in Tolkien's time. He apparently went to Finland and met the man who was then one of the few alive who knew the entire epic, and who is now an old man and the last alive who knows the entire thing. NG interviews this man via a translator, all the time moving around with him (who needs a walker). After going off into this, on what seems like a tangent, they tie it back to LotR by showing how this was Tolkien's inpiration for the Elving language and runes and so forth, and how fully fleshed out the world of the Elves were in Middle-Earth.
Another item that comes to mind that the show explores is the inspiration of Tolkien's travels through England and surrounding areas: how ruins like those at Stonehenge and other places inspired ruins described in the book and shown in the film, how Beowulf influenced his writing, and how he wanted to create "legends for England".
It also covered JRR's love of languages, modern quests by single individuals, and how the protrayal of events in the books and film influence others even today.
It was "only" 60 minutes, but I got a lot out of it.
Those of you who catch my weekly roundup of good prices on new items, probably figured out that this one caught me unaware. I paid $19.99 for it, when most are getting it closer to $15, and the poster above is reporting getting it as low as under $10!
Well, I don't feel cheated. I bought it for my wife, who is a Tolkien nut, but I enjoyed it thoroughly myself and can highly recommend it for all.
It not only has the WB logo all over the box and disc, but New Line's as well. So it has the "stamp of approval". However, I don't see it as being included with the theoretical 4-disc FotR set that is supposed to be coming in November. Instead, I forsee it as being included as a supplement a couple of years down the road, when the trilogy set is released. In the meantime, I think they'll make more money forcing fans to buy this separately if they want it.
A keeper, if you ask me.
If anybody has a sams club membership, I picked up my copy for $8.99!!! Well worth it!
You sure it was the NG special? The only $8.99 LOTR releated DVD I've seen at my Sams is the one called JRR Tolkien Masters of the Rings (running 80 mins) and although interesting IMHO, it aint the NG one
