After The Return of the King was released, I wrote two longish essays about the film trilogy, one attempting to explain where it sat in terms of film history, and a second, somewhat more controversial, in which I posited that the film trilogy was better than the book trilogy, in terms of storytelling. Rather than to repeat the points made in those essays, I will simply link to them here, for your perusal at your own convenience. Likewise, because I assume my audience of readers has seen these films, over and over and over again, I won’t spend any time substantially revisiting the plot or themes of the trilogy. You know it, you’ve seen it, you can whistle “Concerning Hobbits” unprompted.

Instead, allow me to present a series of five thoughts about the The Lord of the Rings, both the individual movies, and the production itself.