MovieChat Forums > Ringers: Lord of the Fans (2005) Discussion > What's this about? 'Ringers' or Tolkien ...

What's this about? 'Ringers' or Tolkien fans?

posted 16 years ago by the_cyanid
5 replies | jump to latest

I love the works of JRR Tolkien, but due to all the general merchandising and everyone throwing Frodo's and LotR's at my head I pretty much started to get really bored with all the Third Age reading, and now I think that the First Age material, like the Silmarillion, is by far superior to Tolkien's more popular works.

Could anyone tell if this documentairy is just about "Ringers" (in terms of: fans of the Hobbit and the LOTR), or also about fans of the much larger picture of Middle-earth presented in his many óther books?

[–] olive_heatherjane 16 years ago

Hey. Just bought the documentary and just finished watching it. The documentary primarily explores the books' impacts throughout the decades. It takes you through each decade and talks about the works of Tolkien and how they affected people and culture in each time, which is pretty cool. Actually a lot of the documentary doesn't have much to do with the Peter Jackson film versions...it talks more about the books' influences on popular music like Led Zeppelin and Rush and Motorhead, and the themes and spirituality of the books. They also talk a bit about Tolkien's other works like The Silmarillion. Of course, the documentary eventually explores the films and the influences they've had, and the documentary contains short clips of interviews with the film actors throughout. There are also many short clips of interviews with fans of all generations, and they even discuss the early cartoon film of the books. So it kinda goes through it all...I mean, as much as it can in only an hour and a half...but it seems the main goal of the documentary is to focus on the impact that Tolkien's work has made on people and culture from the 50s until now. Hope that helps!

[–] the_cyanid 16 years ago

Thanks for your comment.
Initially, I had the impression that the documentairy would just be another piece of "Jackson-merchandising", but this sounds a whole lot deeper and better.

I might be giving it a try sometime :)

[–] Akira-Takahashi 16 years ago

I haven't seen the documentary yet, but I'm glad that it's not an ad for the films. I enjoy seeing people discover Tolkien, and also enjoy seeing people really get into it.

One quick question. Do they mention the Adventures of Tom Bombadil?

[–] gambit924 15 years ago

No Tom Bombadil, but I did find it interesting. It told a lot of background about the publishing and who liked it when it came out and which critics didn't. It gave a history basically of the fandom. It's good, watch it. It even pokes fun at merchandizing at one point. Check it out.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost

[–] primoooze1138 14 years ago

The doc really is more about the history and perpetuation of the franchise (from the original books to the cartoons to the films and beyond) than it is about the fan culture surrounding it. Being named 'Ringers', you'd think it'd be more about the fans, but I guess that just didn't make for an interesting film.