Rating: 
Summary: Lopsided Examination of the Roots of Rings
Review: It was interesting to see which influences National Geographic deemed worthy of exploring, and which they ignored. All falling along predictable political lines, of course.The horrors of war? Environmentalism? Anti-industry? These messages are all delved into, and rightfully so...Tolkien did see the violence of war first-hand, after all, and he did see the rude intrusion of industry and "progress" on the land that he loved (see the "Scouring of the Shire"). But isn't part of the message that some things ARE worth fighting for? And what about Catholicism, Christian ethics and self-sacrifice? Or his emphasis on family and friendship? All were fundamental to Tolkien, but are nowhere to be found in this documentary. Wasn't his close friendship with C.S. Lewis, the man who encouraged him to continue writing more than anyone else, even worth mentioning?!? Instead there's a strange tangent about a guy walking across Africa...whom Tolkien never met. If you can hardly wait for the next installments of the Rings Trilogy, then there is some stuff here you'll enjoy--snippets of interviews with Peter Jackson, comparisons of Hobbiton and Tolkien's own hometown, as well as some interesting (if frustratingly truncated) anthropological information concerning Beowulf and the middle ages generally. But this is a very lopsided presentation, and if you know anything about Tolkien, you will be annoyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Better rental than a purchase
Review: I purchased it with high hopes that it would really give some good insight about how Tolkien came up with the LOTR. Unfortunately, the insights were rather weak. It was really well researched, but there were no interviews with Tolkien of any kind. One would have thought that some insight from Christopher, his son and editor of the Silmarillion, would have been included in this, but it wasn't. There was never any mention that the story of Bilbo Baggins was a story he told to his kids, and because they liked it so much, he began to write it down. I found out more about Tolkien by reading the CD sleeves of the radio dramatization of LOTR (ISBN 0553456539) than I did with this DVD, I feel completely jipped. If you want to see it, I recommend renting it. It's not worth adding to your collection.
Rating:
Summary: Deconstructionist bilge. . .
Review: . . .which would have, in all probability, greatly angered the Professor. JRR Tolkien, author of the beloved bestsellers "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" was also a professional academic -- one who hated allegory; attempts to deconstruct works of literature based on conceptions about the author; biography in general, etc. Recognizing, as he did, that biography was inevitable, his estate kept careful control over who would provide biographical material, what would be released, and how much applicability should be made between himself and his fictional works. While I greatly respect "National Geographic" this is an attempt at deconstructionalist analysis which would not have been appreciated by the author were he yet alive. In his "Letters" he stated quite clearly that while there was certainly "applicability" between his writing and events in the 20th century, "The Lord of the Rings" was NOT meant to tell the same story. While the care of the environment was important to Tolkien, he was not an environmentalist as that word is now commonly used. Tolkien was a conservative, Roman Catholic, monarchist -- and any attempt to portray him as an environmentalist, an anti-war activist, etc. is just not academically honest or accurate. (Yes, Tolkien would have horrified at the politics of many of his fans in the 1960's and beyond!) Read the books, enjoy the movie, but pass this film up. If you are interested in serious Tolkien scholarship (rather than faddishness and fandom) allow me to recommend "A Tolkien Compass" and "England and Always" by Jared Lobdell as a good starting place.
Rating: 
Summary: Good documentary..good to have for Tolkien's fans.
Review: I love the movie and I love the book. This documentary helped me to understand more of the movie I like so much. It has both how the movie was made, talking about finding location and stuff like that and also, telling about what inspired and influenced Tolkien to write The Lord of the Ring and how he got all the ideas about elves and the origin of Tolkien elvish language..The price of this DVD might be a little high for just 1-hr documentary...But I can say it's one of the best national geographic documentaries. So if you're Tolkien fans, love the movie, love the books, I highly recommend you to buy this DVD..
Rating: 
Summary: Insipid
Review: The DVD reminds me of a high school term paper. It draws shallow and insipid analogies between the environmental movement and the two World Wars with Tolkien's work. The environmental "spokesperson" seemed particularly out of place. The only interesting part of it is on the historical background of Middle Earth's Elvish heritage. It's a shame National Geographic released something so blatantly without intellectual merit or interest. Buy it, if you want to reward this behavior.
Rating:
Summary: LOTR vs History
Review: Actually i live outside US so i gotta be sure if i like something before ordering it..so i rented it tonight expecting good Tolkien history and LOTR insight info...now, i will say it feels sooo good having some movie clips on DVD quality ...awsome...but then as somebody said, after the first 20 min the thing goes really boring..no related with LOTR so i can ill wait for the movie release to enjoy what i most like..action, fantasy, love and adventure.-
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is one very good video. I learned quite alot of new information, not to mention, it was fun to see the film scenes, to hear the interviews, and learn so much more about Tolkien.
I am glad I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not what I expected!
Review: I really bought this video, as I missed the making of lord of the rings on tv, and thought that maybe this would give me an insight. It did have some clips from the actuall film, but it is more about Tolkins life! So I wouldnt recomend it if you are a fan of lotr and want to see what happens behind the scenes, as that is only part of the beginning bit, and some references towards the film in other parts. If your a fan of Tolkin, then get this vid! But I was a little dissapointed!
Rating:
Summary: Stick to Tolkien, please
Review: If they'd clung to the subject material, this could have been a GREAT documentary. As it is, it is flawed and mediocre, with some bright bits. Unfortunately, heavy-handed messages sometimes take over the narrative, rather than allowing us to hear about Tolkien and LOTR. The first half is pretty good. We hear a basic outline of the premise, stuff about the hobbits and Middle-Earth and the making of the movie -- including clips from Jackson, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom (both cute as ever), Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, and Sean Astin. We also hear about some of the things that shaped Tolkien's experiences for LOTR, such as his fighting in WWI and the destruction of little rural communities when he was a child. Also some production stuff, such as the descriptions of creating Hobbiton and Orlando Bloom waxing eloquent about his long-knives. But then the documentary starts to unravel. We hear about the Kalevala - but hardly anything about how it affected Elvish. Lots of preachiness about the vanishing languages of the world, followed by a giant tract about enviromentalism - Tolkien would never have compared present-day enviromentalists to Frodo! (Let's see -- one tries to save the world FOR people, the other tries to save the world FROM people) Very little about the heroes in the story is mentioned - they talk vaguely about Frodo, but literally nothing about Sam! How far would Frodo have gotten without Sam? Two miles? Three? And I agree with tvtv3 -- Tolkien's religion was another great shaping force on LOTR, yet it doesn't get a word. Why not cut the tree-hugger monologue and include something about the moral structure of Middle-Earth, or the theological hierarchy? It's only one of the ways in which this documentary approaches Tolkien's work ALL WRONG. However... if you are in withdrawal for PJ's live-action film, and can't wait for the DVD release next summer, then you might want this. It includes some great footage from the film (and one or two snippets of Two Towers): We see Legolas receiving his Lothlorien bow, the "fiery letters" scene, just about everything in the birthday party, the adorable "ask Rosie for a dance!" Frodo-Sam interaction, and Gandalf's first scene. Okay, it's not quite the same as the movie, but it's tiding me over! Overall, watch this if you don't mind a deadly-dull second half after a delightful first half, and some irrelevent stuff after hearing about the movie production.
Rating:
Summary: A pale reflection
Review: As a promo for the film, National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings works great. But as an exploration of the history of the fable and the man behind it, it is surprisingly thin. What it does explore may educate the ignorant to some degree, but most of the DVD is filled with quick soundbites from historians and given little depth. And worst of all, Liberal National Geographic uses up a portion of the program to push its ecology propaganda. There are other DVD's available that are much more in-depth, yet they too have an agenda. We rarely see a diverse group of opinion's when interpreting Tolkien: it's usually a bunch of Liberal "scholars" making sure that J.R.R Tolkien is an "acceptable" figure. In National Geographic's documentary, we do see how the First World War greatly impacted the author, with rare combat footage including some of the battalion that to which Tolkien belonged. We also see that Tolkien was deeply inspired by epics like Beowulf and the Finnish Kalevala. But more surprising was what National Geographic did not include: the all important influence of Tolkien's deeply conservative Catholicism. Indeed, Lord of the Rings echo's Christian salvation and resurrection. There was no mention of his close freindship with C.S. Lewis. I was also surprised that there was nothing about Wagner's Ring Opera which, at a superficial level, the two ring stories share several things in common: important rings that cause evil, directly or indirectly; the broken sword remade; a wandering, grey deity, inspiring men; and the moral and physical stretching of the ring's original possessor. Also surprising was the lack of commentary on the persistent issue of racism in Lord of the Rings. Nor was there mention of the truly insightful letter's he wrote to his son, Christopher. Fortunately, Nationl Geographic does make it clear that Tolkien despised allegory and was disturbed by those who delved too deep into the meaning of his book. No, Lord of the Rings is not about World War Two, despite wishful thinking. If anything, Sauron the Dark Lord represents Western man's self destruction through modernity. Tolkien feared the world would become one big homogenous corporation. In our drive towards globalization, his fear is justified. As such, Tolkien's myth provides persons with a means to escape the drabness, conformity, and mechanization of our modern world.
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