Lord of the Rings -my precious ...

Illustration by Alan Lee: Orthanc, the tower in Isengaard

For five days I´ve looked at the stuff on the special extended edition DVD box of the Lotr films by Pete Jackson and his fabulous crew. Wow, what a work! I´m too close still to come up with any art critic. The spirit behind the film-making, however, is easy to say something about. What love. And heroic bravery in taking it on and going through with it. My sincere respect to Peter Jackson for daring to push everything to it´s limits, and insisting upon fine details as well as gigantic scenes.
That speaks about real love given freely, and not bought love.
I´m going to look more, and I´m going to write about it. Just knowing about the beautiful miniatures and the big miniatures they built, make me awed when I look at the scenery in the films, many many highlights: Helm´s Deep, Isengaard, Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, The Black Gates, The City of the Dead. Fantastic.

I think Jackson did the absolutely right thing in inviting Alan Lee and John Howe, the two famous Tolkien- illustrators, to design the film. It was the link to the past the film needed. Their knowledge was invaluable. And thanks to those two, that they said yes, and joined.