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"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work"

I would say, in reference to other letters which state that LOTR is not any sort of retelling of the Christian story, that LOTR is a Catholic work in the same sense that Tolkien was a Catholic man. That is, as a Catholic, his life and his work were inevitably framed by his religion. Therefore, while I see LOTR as a Catholic work since it was written within the framework and morality of Catholicism (as the man led his life), I do not see it as specifically "pushing" Christianity.

I also suspect (without any real knowledge) that Tolkien's Catholicism may have been quite different from the more modern "reborn" and evangelical variety of Christianity.

In spite of these thoughts, I found Jackson's interpretation to be, at times, religious in feeling, particularly with usage of a boys' choir, etc. Frodo's first sight of Arwen, for instance, might have well been a vision of the Virgin Mary.

I'm not particularly religious, though I do find inspiration on the ocean and in the woods. I did, however, enjoy what I considered to be the almost overt religious overtones in the movie (which I had not noticed in the book).

I found Jackson's interpretation to be, at times, religious in feeling, particularly with usage of a boys' choir, etc. Frodo's first sight of Arwen, for instance, might have well been a vision of the Virgin Mary.

I'm not particularly religious, though I do find inspiration on the ocean and in the woods. I did, however, enjoy what I considered to be the almost overt religious overtones in the movie (which I had not noticed in the book).

I'm just glad they didn't make it PC! Other than the Arwen thing,what else did you notice that had religious overtones that weren't in the book? I guess I'm not paying attention or I'm just a slowcoach (or maybe I need to see the movie again!) Or is it just the "feel" of the whole movie?

See last two posts above, I meant to ping you also, and goofed.

I found Jackson's interpretation to be, at times, religious in feeling, particularly with usage of a boys' choir, etc.

I love the use of choral music in the score; it is so dramatic and evocative of the actions in the movie. I love just listening and remembering the way things happened. The funny thing is that in the score, at the "Journey to the Ford", Howard Shore uses horns very effectively to 'describe' the flood overtaking the Black Riders; when we heard the CD the first time, we could see the white horses in our minds. However, in the movie, that music is not used! When we saw it the second time, we realized that. I guess it was because Arwen uses an Elven 'spell', if you will, and the loud music would have overpowered it. But I thought that was interesting that the music would 'show' something that was in the movie, but the movie did not use that same music.

I thought that the song "In Dreams" should have been the one put up for the Oscar; to me it evokes more of the sense of hte movie than "May It Be". I do like the Enya song, but I like the boy choir sound much better.