Discussion Forums

Re: A Film Portrait of J R R Tolkien

Subject: Re: A Film Portrait of J R R Tolkien
by Khamûl on 2008/1/13 2:29:42

I'll second that! If you don't have this - buy it!
(Christopher Tolkien is interviewed at great length.)

Interestingly, Hammond had the following to say about this documentary when it was aired in US on the discovery channel:

[...] In fairness to the program's producers, the original cut was fifteen minutes longer. The version on American television was cut for the sake of commercials, and unfortunately it's this same version that is available (at $100+) on videocassette. I saw the complete version (the producers made a copy available to The Tolkien Society in the U.K.), and the extra fifteen minutes made a difference. There was also to be a still longer version commercially available (though oddly enough, with some material in the broadcast version deleted!), but this has never materialized. The producers have had enough trouble selling the broadcast version (which I believe still has not aired in Britain).

(Mon, Mar 20 1995 3:24 pm) on rec.arts.books.tolkien

I'm sure it never was aired (on TV) in the UK. From what Hammond states the US version has some material omitted. The UK version I have says 'approx. Total Running Time 110 minutes'.

BH