Journey's End

What's amazing about Pete Jackson's LOTRs films is that they are so far removed from the slick Hollywood productions. These people did not just make three amazing films but lived they lived them.

We watched all 3 extended films yesterday in a 15 hour extravaganza of food and fellowship. I'm thinking lots about friendships, journey's and moving on.

These films have what can't be bought - heart. I love a lot of epic films but never do you see the level of honesty and love between people at all levels of the productions that you do here. You would never see George Lucas crying with his cast and even for the most dedicated directors DVD interviews are a formality but Jackson & Co. just give it their all and then some.

It's probably not cool to say this - as a media studies guy I know I should choose cool some indie-art film - but I can't be that dishonest. These are my favourite films ever, they have changed my life. What is at the core of the story transcends entertainment or intellectualism or cynicism (and all the other-isms people like to cling to). Tolkien's story transformed those that tried to make a film out of it - have you watched the documentaries on the extended DVD's? It's awesome. The book and Jackson's film did a similar things to a lot of us here - who watched them together over 4 years, read the books and discussed our lives in relation to them - working out who we related to most and made sense of hard times through comparing life to the story.

I am thinking about consumerism and nostalgia. How I/we run over old memories and experiences - trying to relive them but actually killing them. I'm thinking about how amazing my life has been - how many great people and memories I have. Am thinking about how to treasure things but not try to freeze them as they are. Thinking about love and friendship, about what changes and what does not. Watching LOTRs has been one of the most powerful cinema experiences of my life - I don't want to rewatch these films to the point that they become old to me. I want to move on and find new allegories for life - loving the old ones but not pulling them apart in an attempt to bleed them dry. So after watching all the ROTK extras I'm going to put my DVD's away for a long time - because I love them too much to kill them. I don't want to shoe horn my experiences into the same old paradigms all the time when Jesus is waiting to meet me in so many new things.