students of jesus

It’s becoming popular to hide away for a weekend and watch a single season of a television series in the space of one or two days. It’s an inexpensive and fun getaway. But before you invest a weekend with the likes of say, Burn Notice, may I suggest The Lord of the Rings?

This is not a nerd-alert. Hooded robes are not required for a weekend of viewing. You can retain whatever level of hipness you have and still carve out ten hours of your life to experience a tale well-told, a story that depicts eternal values and represents the best in Christian artistry.

Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings stands as a triumph of cinematic story-telling, and is well worth a second visit now that the series has had a few years to mature. The three movies garnered a total of 17 Academy awards: Jackson and his team poured nearly five years of their lives into the making of these movies. If Tolkien’s work was widely considered the “book of the century,” these films could rightly be considered the movies of the decade.

In a time when Christian fiction and movie-making frequently features “message” over mastery of the art, The Lord of the Rings reminds anyone engaged in creative endeavors that we need not dumb-down our efforts in service of the King. Of course, Christian publishing houses and movie studios are the ones in the greatest need of this reminder: God is honored most when artists are allowed to pursue artistry over profit.

In my opinion everyone ought to lose themselves for a day in The Lord of the Rings.