Thank you, BBC, for posting this short (26 minutes) 1968 documentary about J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, featuring interviews with the author himself, some of his fans, students and a couple of amusingly tedious detractors. The film is also kind of a neat time-capsule of 1960s culture. I was seven at the time. I wonder what became of those fresh-faced college kids?
You might need to pay close attention, and ear buds might also help. Tolkien was a notorious mumbler, I'm afraid.
There was quite definitely a Tolkien craze in the late Sixties ("Frodo Lives!"). Then, as perhaps now, a large number of fans didn't get much past the flashing swords and fantastic creatures to what Tolkien was ultimately driving at. That's okay. As with fairy tales and nursery stories, the moral might slip in the back door and do some good down the road, just as there are many atheists who have been deeply influenced by the Gospel in ways they will never know or wish to acknowledge. They might one day be surprised to find themselves acting with heroic self-sacrifice and not completely understand why. It's in the air more than we might imagine... especially in America, I think. I hope.
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