South Bend Tribune Article

On December 29th, the South Bend, Indiana, Tribune ran an extensive article on Greg's lecture at Notre Dame University in November. A snippet of the article follows... If you'd like to read the whole article, let us know.

[Greg Wright's] talk, "Missing the Spirit: 'The Scouring of the Shire,' Tolkien's Catholicism and Peter Jackson's 'Return of the King,' " was the final lecture in the Ethics and Culture Center's Catholic Culture Series. Wright thinks the films blur viewers' awareness of what distinguishes a world influenced by Christian values from a world based primarily on secular ones.

During a conversation over breakfast at the Morris Inn on campus, and again that evening before a mostly young audience, Wright made it clear that he is no Scrooge when it comes to films, including popular blockbuster films. The "big movie fan" thinks Jackson's movies are "good filmmaking."

Jackson, Wright said, has an artist's right not only to adapt Tolkien's novel to film, but also to express his own vision and values. He applauds Jackson's powerful portrayal of the culture of death and the tragedy of war, which are found in Tolkien's book. The theme of hope remains, he said, and some attention is given to the Christian belief in providence and the importance of compassion.

Wright draws a line, however, when Jackson misses or misrepresents critical elements of Tolkien's book despite telling the press he was determined to be loyal to it.

Wright said Jackson told Andrew Adamson, director of the just released film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on Christian author C.S. Lewis' classic children's novel, that he had made changes in Tolkien's work, "but that's fine as long as the film is good."

Wright disagrees: "Art is as essential to the nourishment of the soul as food is to the body," but its success as art does not guarantee it will succeed in capturing the original work's spirit.