Movies Are Spiritual podcast: Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring: Nathan’s Top 6 Favorite Movies Countdown #3
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Welcome back everyone to Movies Are Spiritual. We are doing our top movies, our favorite movies of all time series. So this episode we’re gonna cover my third favorite movie of all time and talk about why it’s spiritual, what we see in it. Our number three pick for me is Lord of the Ring’s, fellowship of the Ring.
A lot of people probably pick Return of the King. But my favorite was always the first one. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m just comfortable with the dark gloom and stuff, but this movie to me had some horror influences. The Ring wraiths look gloriously spooky, you know, I thought they were so creepy and I was just fascinated by this movie.
I’d never seen anything like it in the fantasy world, and it was like a modern type of Star Wars to me. So those are some of the reasons that I [00:01:00] liked this movie when I saw it in theaters. Spiritually, here are some themes that I saw in it. This is actually supposed to be a part of a, a fictional telling of Catholicism.
J.R. Tolkien wrote those Lord of the Ring’s books as a way to tell that story, and initially it wasn’t intentional, it was maybe subconscious, but he says that when he revised the story, It was a conscious decision to tell the story of Catholicism through those books. And you can see that in the film. I mean, it shows up in a few places.
You’ve got a few characters, Aragorn. He’s supposed to be this king, the rightful king that’s not on the throne at the time, and that’s kind of a parallel possibly to Jesus. So he’s a savior figure who has to claim his ultimate throne at the end. Frodo, he’s got this task of carrying the ring, which is like this unbearable [00:02:00] task that puts this huge weight of the world on his shoulders, and he didn’t ask for this task.
He has to suffer through this whole movie and run through or run from all of these creatures, the ring wraiths. So I looked at him as maybe like the righteous sufferer type of arch type. He’s almost a form of a Jesus figure there. And I also liked just the ring wraiths because to me they represented almost a ghost-like, or a demon-like spiritual threat.
So you could almost look at some of the ring wraith stuff as a spiritual warfare interpretation. I mean, they’re kind of in this other realm when Frodo puts the ring on. And what’s that place that they go to? I keep wanting to say the further, but I know that’s a different movie. That’s the Insidious trilogy.
Anybody [00:03:00] remember? I don’t remember. No. The, the eye could see. Yeah, yeah, yeah everything turns white and it looks like, like it’s all windy and the ring wraiths are able to see the person wearing the ring. So it’s almost like there’s two dimensions depicted in the film, and you could look at that similarly to the Matrix where there is a physical world and there’s a spiritual world.
So two worlds in one. Kind of like our world if you believe in the spiritual. So that’s what I saw in this movie. Now I’m gonna punt it to you guys and you tell me, do you think this movie should be in the conversation of best movies of all time? And did you see anything different than I saw in this film spiritually, or what do you think?
I think the trilogy would definitely be in the conversation for at [00:04:00] least greatest, groundbreaking movies of all time, cuz they, did something that, the way Star Wars kind of upped everything back in the seventies and the Jurassic Park and the nineties.
So when Lord of the Rings came and they’re doing all these different things, they, again, it was kind of groundbreaking and the way they shot everything. All three books in one, you know, four or five year timeframe or whatever. It was a different way of doing things and they were really good.
They’d be in the conversation. I’ve seen this movie one time and I saw it in the theaters when it came out. Only once. Wow. I hated it. Really? I hated the entire trilogy. I cannot wait to hear why. I thought it was boring. Huh. It was boring. It was walking and talking and more walking and more talking, and then he’d have a couple fight scenes.
I got so bored in the first movie that I [00:05:00] actually got up and went out into the lobby, struck up a conversation with the theater owner, and this was in Hipston. Went outside and smoked a cigar with the owner for 20 minutes. Came back in, movie got over. I went and saw the second one. And again, I’m just like, oh, I just, I can’t.
And, and it’s, it’s weird. It’s because I love those kind of movies, so you would think that would’ve been right up my alley. I can’t sit in the movie for three and a half hours watching this stuff. Like we saw the third one in the theater and they had the five different like false endings before they actually ended the movie. On that one.
You were. Somebody in the theater went, when is this movie over? It’s just not up my alley, that’s all I can say about it. I have no desire to watch those movies. They, they come on tv. I, I don’t watch ’em. I just, I can’t do it. Is fantasy part of the issue too, like the fantasy show?
No. Cause I mean, I, like, I, no, cause I like Willow. That’s not it. It was just something about it [00:06:00] just never grabbed me. Ah. But with that said, with that said, I will say, I, I agree with Doug that the overall, the way they did it, that’s an epic, epic series and that they, they knocked it all out at once.
So the, you know, so the continuity between all the actors they did, you know, they could just flow from one movie to the next. I mean, that’s, that’s a huge project. I thought visually it was really well done visually. It looked really neat. It looked cool. I guess when you say like, what’s some of the greatest like, film franchises of all time, I think you could throw Lord of the Rings in there.
I don’t wanna say that I think they’re bad movies. It’s just, it didn’t grab my attention. It’s like I saw ’em and it just…. I, I, I can say I saw them, you know what I mean? So, so to be honest with you, I don’t remember anything about this movie. I remember walking trees. That was in the second movie.[00:07:00]
Okay. So, yeah, he liked the first one there. Yeah, the first one. I don’t remember anything about it. You shall not pass. I remember that part. Is that the first one or that the third one? Yeah, that is the first one. Okay. Yep. I’m just gonna shut up cause I, nothing to add.
Well, Boromir has a really good redemption arc too because he tries to take the ring from Frodo and you can tell that he’s been influenced by the ring. The voice of the ring and the eye. I mean, it’s starting to get to him. You could look at that as spiritual influence. And so he goes to try to take the ring.
You can almost parallel that to Adam and Eve being tempted to take the fruit from the tree and the Garden of Eden. But then he gets his redemption because, you know, he doesn’t get the ring. And then later when the Orcs attack, Boromir defends Frodo and gives his life for him. So there’s a pretty powerful redemption scene there. That death scene [00:08:00] I always found pretty moving.
He was an animal on that. I loved that one. I mean, it’s the way to go out if, well, you live in that kind of world. I actually turned from disliking Boromir to liking him because of that scene. I mean, I was like, ah, I don’t like this guy. And then his death scene, I was like, I take back everything I ever said about that guy.
He’s a very interesting character because everyone else at that meeting was living in peace. Behind this great army that he was in charge of. So nobody was under the kind of stress that he was under. You know, everyone understood that, how bad everything can be and all of that, but no one else was in that kind of stress.
Like I’ve seen my best friends and [00:09:00] family die. Defending against this evil while you guys sit back here and, you know, dance and drink beer and all this, I wanna use this ring to save my people. It wasn’t like he was the bad guy in this situation. And yeah, I think he was definitely tempted and that just pushed him over the top.
But at the same point, I can sympathize with him because, even though it may not be the right thing to do, it seems like the proper thing to do. I don’t, I don’t know.
Making the wrong sacrifice maybe. Mm-hmm. The redemption story was great. His death scene was epic. Poor Sean Bean dies in everything he’s in. I really do enjoy those movies. I’m not as hyped about ’em as other people. I think. Truthfully, I’d rather watch the Harry Potter [00:10:00] saga over Lord of the Rings.
And at my age, a lot of people may snicker at that, but I really did like the Harry Potter movies. But not to say, not to take anything away from Lord of the Rings. It was, it’s amazing. I’ve got, The extended versions on DVD and oh, you know, once a year I’ll pop, actually pop ’em in and you know, have an epic weekend, you know, through 12, 13 hours, however long it is.
I was gonna say, how long is it like Yeah. To watch one movie? Because extended three and a half hours already? Yeah, the extended versions are over four each. I. I can’t, I wouldn’t get through it. I know it’s supposed to be like the medieval ages, but it, the big battles and the epicness that you do kind of make me think of those battles in the Bible and the Old Testament between the Israelites and some of the other [00:11:00] nations around.
They make me think of those battles. And now I’m gonna get really weird on you again for a second. Yes. You know how in Lord of the Rings they’re fighting orcs? I don’t know if orcs are just supposed to represent evil, maybe, but if I were to go back to ancient Judaism and what they thought, again, remember how I’ve kind of talked about the whole idea of the Nephilim?
There were, yeah, supposedly these evil spirits who didn’t like that God made humans. They had children with human women that were half God, half human. The idea in ancient Judaism is they’re what corrupted the earth before the flood? Well, their descendants end up being the giant clans in the Bible.
So all these other nations that the ancient Israelites were fighting like the Amorites and the Amalekites, they’re thought to be the descendants of [00:12:00] those half God beings. So what’s interesting about that is if you think about it that way, then whoever Israel was fighting, if that was true, they’re half evil spirit.
They’re not actually fully human. So you could almost look at these Lord of the Rings epic battles as a replay of Judaism. Maybe they were fighting these giant orc-like creatures back then. I mean, I, I don’t know what a giant looks like. I don’t know if any of us do, but it’s very interesting if you wanna get into the weird, the deeper side of theology there.
Right. Now I just freaked everyone out. Ah, it makes it interesting. Never thought about it that way. Yeah. But yeah, if anybody wants to read about that, it’s actually the Book of Enoch or the Book of Giants, some second temple Jewish literature. But [00:13:00] what’s weird is the New Testament writers, Jude and Peter, they, they pick up some of that material and quote Enoch.
So it makes you wonder whether or not that stuff’s actually a part of their thought process or just the literature of the day. Mm. I like it, but I’m a theology nerd, so. All right. Makes sense. So my last question for you then, which I’ll ask this to Doug. Since Drew doesn’t, uh, you already know my answer?
Yeah. What are you, what are you saying? Is Fellowship of the Ring the odd one to pick as the best as my favorite? All of the three Not, or is not, not is the usual return of the King, is that the normal go-to? Yeah, returned to the king. That was epic. You know, it was an epic ending that kept going and going.
It was the coming together and I think that one everyone goes to mainly because it was nominated for all these [00:14:00] awards. Did he deserve it? Absolutely, absolutely. But at the same time, the first two probably deserved it just as much, but I think by the time the third one came around, everyone was like this trilogy is so great that they had to throw it out there. And almost had to win. So, you know, this is the one that won all of the awards. So that’s kind of the trendy thing to do, is to get in there and be part of it. I agree with you a hundred percent. I, I think the first one is the best.
I like all of them being together. Not saying that the other two are hard to follow. They aren’t. But there’s a little bit more to think about with that because you bring in more characters, you have more plot lines, you know, this is going on, this is going on, this is going on.
Meanwhile, this is going on and. It’s not hard to keep up with, but at the same point, the first one is just a little [00:15:00] more calm, I guess. Uh, when it comes to it, it still has plenty of action. A lot more comedy. I like all four hobbits being together. I think that’s cool. So yeah, the first one is my favorite of three as well.
I also forgot to mention earlier, I like the theme of the temptation of the ring because you wonder what is the ring supposed to represent? Because when people are tempted with it, they generally have good intentions and they think they’re gonna do something good with it. And I think if you want to think about the subject of temptation, Like we usually don’t fall for stupid stuff.
Like, Hey, go do this really terrible thing. There’s usually some way that we rationalize it to make it reasonable in our heads, and then we just kind of slowly move in that direction and maybe before we know it, we’ve done something that we don’t really want to have done and… mm-hmm. [00:16:00] I see that in this film because everybody’s got good intentions and they want to use the ring for something.
It just, it sneaks up on ’em like that. So I think that’s a really interesting spiritual theme I saw. Mm-hmm. And yeah, I think most people, I’d say in most cases, you, everyone tries to justify it. And a lot of times you can convince yourself that you are. I mean, that was the original one with, Satan or Lucifer.
Betraying God. He felt like he was doing the right thing. And then everything that follows. Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. All right guys. Well thanks for joining me. We’ll be back soon with another quick cast on favorite movies of all time. We’ll see ya.