TWO TOWERS UPDATE: Reader Michael Drout emails:

Saw the Two Towers today and thought you’d be interested to know that if there’s a central “message” that comes out of the movie, it is that the only responsible thing to do for one’s people is to ride out and engage the attacking evil rather than retreat into a fortress. Very interesting that Jackson made this movie before September 11, since there are a lot of images (“suicide bomber” orcs; terrified children; Saruman deliberately targeting women and children because they are weaker), none of which are specifically found in the books, but which fit the current zietgeist quite well.

I think people who liked Fellowship will find Two Towers consistent: magnificent setting, good battles, cool creatures (the cgi of Gollum is amazingly effective; the revised dialogue less so), flawless costumes, etc., but also gratuitous plot changes, oversimplifications and changes that are, to me, flat out unexplainable. Definitely worth your $10 and 3 hours.

And as a coincidence, a new book by Tolkien, which I edited, just came out oday. It’s a scholarly book about Beowulf that Tolkien wrote in the 1930s but will be of interest to at least some Middle-earth fans. There is some interesting discussion about war, civilization and one’s duty to protect it (applied to Beowulf, of course, but generally relevant, as all great literature is). Here’s a link to my home page where there’s a more developed blurb: Link

Interesting.