00:04J.R.R. Tolkien is considered the modern father of fantasy, and that's kind of not true, but what
00:12he did invent was what we call high fantasy. Fantasy, you know, with maps and languages and
00:19very deep world building. When it comes to adaptation, there's a lot of challenges with
00:24Tolkien's work. Pretty much every fantasy movie before Lord of the Rings was just cinema trying
00:29to get to a point where they could make Lord of the Rings. And then, you know, years later,
00:34Peter Jackson comes and he was somehow able to convince studios to let him not shoot just
00:38one movie, but three movies at the same time in New Zealand for hundreds of millions of
00:43dollars. It's truly remarkable that the Lord of the Rings films even happened. They're
00:47absolute miracles as a result. I'd say it's one of the few franchises where you release
00:52an extended edition that makes it even longer. And I'm like, yes, I'm there. You know, four
00:57hours, I am there. I don't care how long this is because the world is just so vibrant and just
01:04so
01:04rich. What Peter Jackson's films do so well is they give you those hints that you can get involved in
01:10the drama that's happening, the fight scenes, the special effects, but you also know that there's an
01:14entire world around everything that's happening. And that's why the Lord of the Rings, like Star Wars,
01:20have become for a lot of people this comfortable thing. A trilogy of movies you watch every year
01:25because it's like going back home and visiting old friends. It's kind of the anti-superhero movie.
01:32The hero is the weakest character in the whole trilogy. Frodo is small. He's really inexperienced
01:39with the world. He has no magical powers. But in spite of all of this, Frodo has his friends. He
01:46has
01:46his loyalty. He has his devotion. And that's the enduring message of Tolkien's work, that even the
01:52smallest creatures on earth could have an impact on the way the world functions.
