Frodo's faith - Middle-earth truths - Christian faith, hope and love in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings is definitely one of those films that can be analyzed through more than one approach. I am choosing to analyze this film through an ideological approach. Lord of the Rings may appear to be just a fantasy flick, but this film possesses a deeper meaning. One way at looking at this film is through a Christian perspective. In the article, "Frodo's faith - Middle-earth truths - Christian faith, hope and love in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings," which I found through the popular website: findarticles.com, Ralph C. Wood ties Christianity with Tolkien's amazing classic. He provides a few instances from the film which support this argument.

AT THE END of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings, as King Aragorn is preparing to die, he utters his final words to Arwen, his elven queen--words that contain a hint of resurrection: "In sorrow must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound forever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!" The account of Arwen's own burial contains another hint of resurrection: "She laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed." Here as elsewhere in the trilogy, Tolkien obliquely suggests a hope for radically renewed life beyond "the circles of the world."

For more information on how Christianity is incorporated in this film, click on the link. Enjoy!

The Qin Dynasty

I found this article from the website http://library.thinkquest.org/12255/library/dynasty/qin.html. This artcle provides a brief history of the Qin's second emperor.

"The emperor of this era wanted to conquer the warring states that the Chou dynasty had in essence created. This emperor succeeded and China was one nation once more."

Besides wanting to keep China one nation, this emperor wanted to become a god. Therefore, he sent for scientists to help him achieve this goal. Ironically, this action is what eventually lead to his demise because the medicine that he was given contained mercury. For more in-depth information, click on the link!

Enjoy!

Three Kings

I found this review by Rob Blackwelder from the website www.contactmusic.com. Blackwelder explains that through this film, Russell "has created a stealthily thought-provoking document that also kicks butt. " Blackwelder then goes on to explain how this movie incorporates more than one genre such as action and comedy. For more information, much more information, click on the link. Enjoy :0) !

I Heart Huckabees

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heart_Huckabees

Along with this comedic trailer is a link that displays information about the film "I Heart Huckabees." This trailer is accessible at youtube.com and the information at wikipeda.org. David O. Russell is not only the director of this 2004 film, but he is also the producer.

" Albert Markovski (Schwartzman) is a young man who heads the local chapter of an environmental group, the "Open Spaces Coalition". Hoping to find the answer to what would seem to be an absurd coincidence in his life, he contacts two existential detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Hoffman and Tomlin)."

For more information about this film, just click on the link provided. Do not forget to check out the trailer...it is pretty interesting!

Roberto Benigni

This biography of Roberto Benigni was found under the movies category of newyorktimes.com. Unlike many biographies, this biography does not dwell on Roberto Benigni's life before his career. Rather, it delves into information on his films. Roberto Benigni did not start out as a director, he began his succesful career as a comedic actor. Roberto Benigni is well known for his acting and directing of the famous film Life is Beautiful. "The movie -- which had the potentially ungainly premise of a comedy set in a Nazi concentration camp -- proved to be a huge international success, both critically and commercially. " For more information on this wacky director, click on the link.

COMEDY FILMS

Roberto Benigni's film, Life is Beautiful, not only serves as a historical-type genre, it is also a comedy. I chose to provide a link to a website that discusses and deconstructs the genre because it provides the reader with excellent information on a critically over-looked genre.

Tim Dirk's website, www.filmsite.org, provides an explanation of a famous genre called "comedy." It defines the genre of film comedy as "make 'em laugh" films designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are light-hearted dramas, crafted to amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment." Like many genres, comedy possesses many forms. A few of these forms include: slapstick, dead pan, and verbal comedy. This site provides an extensive list of the different forms of comedy present in the comedy genre. Filmsite.org not only defines the many types of forms, it also provides an example of each. Here is an example from the site:

Black or Dark Comedy:

These are dark, sarcastic, humorous, or sardonic stories that help us examine otherwise ignored darker serious, pessimistic subjects such as war, death, or illness. Dr. Strangelove serves as an example of this type of comedy.

For more information on the comedy genre and its many forms, click on the link. Enjoy the laughs!

The Ideology of Harry Potter: Fascism vs. Liberalism

David Baake's article, The Ideology of Harry Potter: Fascism vs. Liberalism, appears on the website http://www.zmag.org/. This article primarily discusses the ideological meanings that lie beneath the magical surface of the famous Harry Potter series. This article covers both the books and the films. The author's main point is that the Harry Potter films ultimately represent certain aspects of World War Two. Baake states that :

"Significant parallels can be draw between the battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort and the battle between the Allies and Nazi Germany in World War Two...Lord Voldemort is unabashedly modeled after Hitler, and his Death Eaters are typical fascist paramilitaries. "

What is interesting with Harry Potter is that one can watch the films a million times and overlook the hidden messages. Baake supports his argument by quoting J.K Rowling, the author of the series, in describing the similarites between Lord Voldemort and Hitler. For more information about this, click on the link. Enjoy!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

"Morality is a central theme in the film, a point demonstrated soon after Will finds Jack on the island...[to] appease the natives, Jack imprisons his old friend with the rest of his crew, the first instance in which the would-be hero betrays an ally to save his own skin," (McConvey).

This article includes a brief summary of the film along with an analysis of the film's theme. Morality can be defined as standards of conduct that are generally accepted as right or proper. This article emphasizes Jack's struggle with morality. Jack is unsure of where his heart lies so he constantly switches his role from good-guy to bad-guy, and vice versa. An example that this article uses to support the theme of morality is when Davy Jones asks Jack whether he would be able to live with himself after condemning an innocent man. Jack taking on the bad-guy role at this point replies cooly with “Yep, I’m good with it.” Later on in the film, however, Jack abandons his selfishness to help out his friends against Davy Jones and his giant octupus monster.

Coppola's Apocalypse Now

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now

Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film rendition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness alternates the novel's original Congo setting to modern Vietnam. Although Coppola was never able to fully capture Conrad's extremely subjective and ambiguous language, he does, however, manage to create what many critics claim to be one of the greatest movies of all times. The plot is essentially about a Captain who is sent on a mission to assassinate a former Colonel, Kurtz. The reason behind this mission is that Kurtz has gone mad, and was undoubtedly practicing "unsound methods." Methods which the United States Army wanted silenced. Apocalypse Now beautifully manipulates camera technology. Coppola utilizes shooting techniques such as superimposition, dolly shots, voice-over narration, and much more. Superimposition and voice-over narration play an amazing role in the first few minutes of the film. Check out my link to see what I mean. I must warn you, however that this is a pretty disturbing film. What else can you say about a movie that tries to depict Conrad's theme of "“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.”

Vocabulary : Voice-over narration: Voice speaking throughout film
Superimposition: shots laying over shots
dolly shots: shooting with camera placed on platform with wheels.