Frodo & Harry: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives [Paperback]

Ted Baehr (Author), Tom Snyder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

There is a war afoot between two fantasy worlds. The feature films based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy has reawakened popular interest in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical creatures. Meanwhile, Harry Potter fans devour every installment of J.K. Rowling's best-selling series. While both series have ardent fans and some similarities, is there actually an important difference between the two? How are readers and moviegoers to think about Frodo and Harry? This book contrasts the fantasy worlds of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, showing their very different worldviews. Using Harry and Frodo as a lens to examine media entertainment as a whole, the authors show us how to make wise choices, because there's more at stake than just a book or a movie - it's a way of looking at the world. Discerning readers and thoughtful parents will find this book an eye-opener about what they're being taught through the entertainment they choose. Ted Baehr, an award-winning producer, writer and director, is chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a division of Good News Communications, Inc., and serves as the publisher of MOVIEGUIDE: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment. He writes a nationally syndicated column and is the author of numerous books, including What Shall We Watch Tonight? and The Media-Wise Family. Tom Snyder is vice president of Good News Communications, Inc., and an editor for MOVIEGUIDE. He is an experienced journalist and film scholar, having taught in the Radio-TV-Film Department at Northwestern University, where he completed a Ph.D. in film studies. He is also the author of Myth Conceptions: Joseph Campbell and the New Age.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 207 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581345593
• ISBN-13: 978-1581345599
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,966,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Informative and Insightful Read --- Highly Recommended, January 24, 2004

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frodo & Harry: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives (Paperback)

The world has really become acquainted with the names Harry and Frodo. With the upcoming release of the third Harry Potter movie to the much-anticipated release of the final movie in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, we have been inundated with these two characters. Both overcoming evil for the triumph of good, it's easy to understand the attraction to both. But how are we to discern whether these characters, books and movies are moral and present a worldview that is proper for our children?

FRODO & HARRY, co-authored by media experts Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder, compares the fantasy worlds of Frodo and Harry Potter, contrasting the fictional "real world" in The Lord of the Rings with the occult world of Harry Potter. Baehr and Snyder are obviously movie buffs, but they are also Christians who observe culture and are concerned with the way visual media is affecting our world. "Our purpose is to help people of faith and values see and understand the difference between the two movies that have been adapted from the popular literary works," the authors state.

Part one is an analysis comparing and contrasting both movies and their worldviews. They briefly outline each film and discuss the message that each is giving. Although they point out a couple of positive aspects, the authors are extremely critical of Harry Potter, saying that it "attacks Biblical Christianity," and that the stories reflect a "pagan, gnostic, and nominalistic worldview." However, they praise The Lord of the Rings, calling it an "epic story" that "points us toward God and Jesus Christ and toward truth, honor, virtue, and beauty." Discussion questions at the end of each beginning chapter help readers evaluate the books and movies, and their effect on their lives personally.

The second part of the book touches on the spiritual approach we are to take when evaluating entertainment media in order to protect our lives from negative influences. Because the entertainment industry has such an influence over our children, Baehr and Snyder say parents should be concerned. They provide shocking statistics, ways we can pass on our moral and spiritual values to our children and go into detail about how children develop mentally and exactly how they react to certain types of media --- horror films, violence, etc. This section also touches on the history of the Church and its relationship with media and culture. Finally, there are suggestions for discerning readers and parents on how to ask the right questions about Frodo and Harry.

FRODO & HARRY is strongly recommended for those who are interested in pop-culture and how it relates to our spiritual lives, as well as for thoughtful parents who want to learn about the nature of the fantasy genre and the various critical tools necessary to develop an informed judgment about art and entertainment.

--- Reviewed by Karen Campbell

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I found it rather biased, January 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Frodo & Harry: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives (Paperback)

This book is an interesting read, although I don't agree with everything the author says. This book is meant for committed Christians who are concerned about media and it's influence on their children's lives. The review by Jim Keil was ridiculous, considering he hasn't even read this book and has no idea of its' content or topical matter. That being said, I think the author is rather predispositioned to dislike anything having to do with Harry Potter, and while he lambasts the HP series, he tends to excuse similar elements in Lord of the Rings. He takes the position that because it includes sorcery and children who sometimes lie and disobey rules (and other elements), Christians should stay away from it. I don't think that's necessarily true. It's a STORY. Let me say here that I am a committed Christian myself, and I have read all 5 Harry Potter books as well as the unabridged Lord of the Rings, and have seen all the respective movies. I read the Lord of the Rings because I wanted to, and I read the Harry Potter series because my step-daughter reads it and I like to keep up with what she's reading. I agree with the author that parents (Christian and non-Christian alike) have a responsibility to monitor the kind of media their children are expsosed to. But would I summarily dismiss Harry Potter from every Christian's reading list? Not necessarily. I think the books should be read by parents and children together and discussed, but I don't think by allowing your child to read the series you are predisposing them to joining a satanic coven (an exaggeration; the author never states this). The book is worth a read, but I disagree with the author on several points. To quote Sigmund Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I think he's reading too much into it.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A guilty verdict for Harry Potter, but special pleading for Lord of the Rings., December 12, 2010

By 

J. Michael (Now Born) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frodo & Harry - Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives (Paperback)

I respect the author and agree with a lot of his points, especially in his criticism of Harry Potter, but I'm just not convinced by his portrayal of "The Lord of the Rings" as a wholesome Christian allegory. Sure, he makes a good argument that all its magic, wizardry and its entire cosmology are barely concealed signs and symbols that point to Christ and a Christian worldview; but any competent English major could do the same. Just because a work of literature could plausibly be said to represent something does not mean that its author intended that construction, or that the average reader would ever take such an interpretation away from the book. While the Lord of the Rings may fit into a theoretically Christian mold, to claim that it is overtly Christian is an absurdity, especially when Tolkien himself said that that was not his intention and it was not an allegorical book.

I say this as someone who loves "The Lord of the Rings". At the same time I recognize the occult aesthetic of the book and its seminal, although unintended, influence on the modern pagan/New Age revival. Why did Led Zeppelin love LOTR so much? Why do so many Wiccans, witches and pagans find so much inspiration in Tolkien? I can personally attest to the spirit it conjured up in my 12 year old self, and can yet still conjure- yes, a spirit of bravery, nobility, dignity, chivalry, decency; but also one that is somewhat inimical to a Christian ethos: a dissatisfaction with the world as it was made and an overmastering desire to escape into an alternate, more magical reality; enchantment with a paganesque world in which Christianity and its demands were completely absent; a dangerous fascination with the lower orders of the supernatural and a general captivation with magic and its attendant charms. And although Tolkien well warned us not to try to use those dark powers for our own benefit, the talent with which he created his cosmology ensures that the allure of the darkness continues to tempt.

I personally never succumbed to those temptations, but countless millions have, and there is no doubt that the Lord of the Rings, with its prominent place in the aesthetic canon of modern paganism, has been a major cause.

I realize that Tolkien would have been horrified if he was able to see how his books have been misused. I think that at the time he wrote, he couldn't conceive that- except for a few upper-class degenerates in Cefalu and London- anyone would internalize the magical aspects in his fantasy stories and make them into a rival to Christianity. He probably thought his works were no more spiritually deleterious than Peter Pan or Grimm's fairy tales, and he was probably right in his estimation of his audience from the 1930s to 1950s. But we don't live in that world anymore. We live in a demonically-dominated, decadent and rapidly de-Christianizing society, in which one outrageous perversion after another is daily accepted as the norm. We need to open our eyes and recognize the actual effects of popular entertainment on the masses, never mind what a rational and intelligent Christian critic would take away from such entertainment.

I think the reason a lot of Christian critics are down on Harry Potter, while approving of LOTR, is because of Harry Potter's overt use of witchcraft in a modern setting, and its low-class, deracinated characters straight out of Tony Blair's low-class, deracinated Britain, while Tolkien's language is elegant, his characters noble, and his stories' ethos redolent of the great epics of our Northern culture. Nevertheless, I think those critics should recognize the actual effect the LOTR has had on our world and see that, though it can be taken as a great and noble work of art, it has been used quite successfully by the enemies of Christ to take souls down other spiritual paths.