Return of the King premiere in Berlin. As you know, we drove up there and watched all the actors, listened to Peter Jackson give his speech, but there was something more.
Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) walked out and had a chat with us.
Yes, I took that photo!
He stood in front of me and asked about a play in Hamburg that he was in - what play was it? he asked. I didn't know, nobody did. He asked what other movies or plays he had starred in and I told him I had seen X-Men 2 a few nights earlier.
But now I am kicking myself for not asking him some prevalent questions.
Like that scene in The Two Towers when he 'excorcises' Sauramon's spirit from the king - dang that was realistic - I have been involved in kicking out spiritual hitchhikers before and Gandalf's encounter was realistic. How did he know? Why did they put that scene in the movie?
And now . . . because I got star-struck and tongue-tied, we will never know.
My apologies to Blogdom for my blogging failure.
Never mind.
Good news is that he went over and shook my kids hands and that made their whole trip.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, in my opinion is the best set of movies ever. We should be really proud of it and delighted that such a piece of tremendous religious artwork has been entrusted to us.
Steve Taylor in NZ is excited about it and has some good links, including a quote from Tolkein himself . . . .
Tolkien himself admitted (letter of 2 December, 1953)1 that, "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism."
