> > It's always Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. There are no other issues in the
> >coming US election?
>
> It's a pretty important issue. Not the only one, for sure, but it's
> really big - and not just in itself, but as a taste of what a second
> Bush admin would do. And the domestic consequences - fiscal ruin,
> repression, surveillance - that flow from it as well.
November 2004 is a referendum on Mordor, no question.
Just watched the extended-version DVD of "Two Towers". My jaw hit the floor -- and stayed there. It's now the two films it needs to be. Faramir has a real character, the Ents finally get their due, Gollum comes alive, etc. Also some good documentary material, revealing, among other things, that the crackerjack screenplay was written by two women.
Speaking of the Eye of the Enemy, connoisseurs of media culture will note that Jackson had the assistance of (1) late 1990s CGI techniques, (2) lots of open source connections to the fantasy/gaming culture, and (3) the rise of DVD sales as the major driver of the media biz (DVDs are now over half of total video sales/rental revenues).
-- DRR