"Lord Of The Rings, The Two Towers"

"Nothing But ACTION - Packed!"
And the comforting and inspiring HEROIC, too, of course . . .

We followed last year's Christmas tradition, and went to see the second installment of LORD OF THE RINGS. We wished Laura could have been with us, and in order to have some tiny part of her there, we each wore a blouse of Laura's. Julia had a pale gray polo shirt, and I wore an ivory long sleeved tailored shirt. Laura's long arms used to fill out its sleeves a bit better, so its cuffs have been folded back, but sadly, I am filling the body portion out a little too well. I must do something about that in the year to come.

Meanwhile, today's a day for fun. Oh, the second movie is nothing but action packed. It was thrilling, beginning to end. The horrid little gray Gollum gave us hopes of changing, his 'bad self' kept arguing with his 'good self', but at the end, it looks like he's reverted to bad ways, having felt Frodo betrayed him. Maybe he'll surprise us in the next show. Meanwhile, the ring is having a terrible power on beautiful little Frodo. He's still just the cutest thing, with those lovely blue eyes. And, as in the first movie, his friend Samwise stays besides him, pulling strong on Frodo so the evil ring doesn't overpower him.

Now, as I write this, the soundtrack from The Fellowship Of The Rings is playing on a small stereo beside me. Julia and I were the only ones to linger at the movie theater today to listen to the ending music and read the credits. I had no idea it took such a large army of people to create this masterpiece. It might have been 10,000 strong, like the army of Isengard itself. I wondered what Tolkien would have felt watching it. I imagine a great pride, both in his creation, and the creation of those many people.

It is a wonderful, epic creation, a giant 'coming-to-life' of the great classic.

(from Return to MOVED ME, THE MOVIE?)