A GOOD DUNKING:

'Baptized imagination': The creative men and women behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy didn't always accept or understand Tolkien's themes, but his worldview still comes through powerfully in the films. The result is a profoundly Christian vision for the postmodern world (Andrew Coffin, 12/20/03, World)

Mr. Jackson himself isn't sure that he buys all of Tolkien's ideas. "I don't know whether evil exists," he said. "You see stuff happening around the world, and you believe it truly does ... I think evil exists within people. I don't know whether it exists as a force outside of humanity."

Writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh made similar comments on the DVD commentary track for the second film in the series, The Two Towers, addressing the question of what these films were really "about." "It's about our need to feel that there are universal values of good. Whether or not that's true in the real world, who can say?" suggested Ms. Walsh. [...]

[J]ohn Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli the dwarf, seemed to reveal a deeper understanding of at least some of Tolkien's themes. He related the Middle Earth myth to the rise of Islam in the modern world: "I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged and if they do not rise to meet that challenge they will lose their civilization. That does have a real resonance with me.... What is unconscionable is that too many of your fellow journalists do not understand how precarious Western civilization is.... The abolition of slavery comes from Western democracy. True Democracy comes from our Greco-Judeo-Christian-Western experience. If we lose these things, then this is a catastrophe for the world.

"And if it just means replacement of one genetic stock with another genetic stock, I don't think that matters too much. But if it involves the replacement of Western civilization with different cultural values then it's something we really ought to discuss because ... I am for dead white male culture! If Tolkien's got a message, it's that sometimes you've got to stand up and fight for what you believe in."

One could argue that Tolkien's myth puts his ideas at a safe enough distance from real life as to be palatable to those who don't share his faith. The orderliness and hope found in his concept of providence, for instance, can prompt a sort of wistful admiration.

Ms. Walsh acknowledged that Tolkien "took from his own profound Christian beliefs" and that the filmmakers "attempted, as much as you can in film, [to] base them in the story. Certainly the values in them give you a sense of hope that [life] isn't chaos, and it isn't up a tree, and isn't without a point in the end. I love storytelling for those reasons; because so many things fall away as we charge forward in this new century-there's so much cynicism and such a lack of ritual and a kind of bleak belief system governing things. I like stories for that, because they still offer it."

Tolkien's myth is a forceful answer to such yearning. C.S. Lewis, Tolkien's great friend and admirer, spoke of a "baptized imagination" as one important step in his journey toward Christianity, allowing him to begin to accept the potential for truth in the One Myth.

One is always perplexed at how folks can recognize our need to believe in universal values yet resist their existence.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 13, 2003 10:13 AM