Product Details

• Actors: National Geographic
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
• DVD Release Date: December 16, 2003
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000D9BF6
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #50,318 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

  #35 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > Series & Studios > National Geographic > History & Culture
  #32 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Series & Sequels > Lord of the Rings

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

How do ordinary people find the strength within themselves to change the course of the future? What inspires a reluctant hero to become a courageous leader? Profound questions like these are the basis of The Return of the King. History has known many great leaders, and now, National Geographic delves beyond the film to provide a historical context for Aragorn's struggles. Through exclusive film footage and powerful interviews, surprising connections come to life between our world and The Lord of the Rings, helping us to better understand both.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars National Geographic slipped on this one, April 18, 2004

By	viagrafalls "Peter Schmitz" (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (DVD)

Where the original National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring was quite decent, providing an analogy of the creation of Middle Earth, and what personal events Tolkien probably inserted into his masterpiece, this one is the complete opposite.

While the concept basically is the same (interviews with the cast, experts, etc), the underlying theme is extremely poor. Basically the makers of this documentary start comparing characters in Lord of the Rings to real historical figures.

Wormtongue poisoned Theoden's mind with lies; Rasputin did the same. So Wormtongue might have been based on Rasputin. Aragorn dwelled in the wilderness for years, only to return and claim his throne. Theodore Roosevelt lost his wife and mother, and retreated to a ranch in Dakota; the wild. See the connection?

Characters in the Lord of the Rings most likely have not been based on any real persons. And if they were, I'm quite sure Professor Tolkien would have mentioned it somewhere. While even linking world events to Lord of the Rings was speculative, this is just stretching it.

Very poor.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Alternately amusing and bemusing, March 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (DVD)

Well, I bought this DVD to see a particular movie clip, and I saw the clip. As to the rest, I think I would rephrase the sentence: National Geographic struggles to provide Aragorn a historical context beyond the movie. While there are lots of interesting tidbits about certain very well-known historical figures, they all seem to have been dragged in (kicking and screaming?) from other documentaries. Certainly none of them had anything to do with Tolkien or the actual historical sources that inspired him!

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Really disappointing, January 5, 2004

By	Monica_O (Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (DVD)

When I saw this I was happy for another show about Lord of the Rings because I love the books and the movies, but this is not really about the LOTR, is more about war and, really strange explanations about how is LOTR linked to history. I like History, I'm a historian myself but when I watched this I was expecting something really different :(, I give it 3 stars because I did had some spoilers about ROTK, but as a National Geographic work??, is not worth that much.