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Reviews
National Geographic: Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
The documentary completes its objective.
This documentary's stated thesis is to show why the Lord of the Rings trilogy resonates with so many people. The hypothesis it presents is that many people can relate well to the themes and characters in the books/movies. It is well narrated by John Rhys-Davies, the actor that played Gimli in the movies.
The documentary then covers the major themes of the books/movies and the characters with which those themes are named. Each theme that is covered shows an example story from history that relates closely to the theme. The documentary NEVER claims that Tolkien was influenced by these real-life examples, it is merely supporting the thesis that people can relate to the themes/characters by using examples from real life.
Some reviewers seem to have the notion that this documentary is meant to show how Tolkien's life influenced the book. That notion is false. For a documentary that covers this aspect of The Lord of the Rings, see the similarly named National Geographic documentary that is two years older (IMDB page here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312999/ ).