Holiday Favorites 2012: Katy's One (Golden) Ring

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The Fellowship of the Ring

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

Nerd alert: My family has a holiday tradition based around The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Beginning in 2002 with the release of the extended cut of The Fellowship of the Ring on DVD and The Two Towers in theaters, we started a tradition of watching the films back to back. Santa brought us the DVD and Peter Jackson brought us the new release. Perfect synergy.

In 2003, Santa brought us The Two Towers extended edition on DVD and Jackson, The Return of the King. You can see how this tradition progressed. Since 2002, we have managed to watch the trilogy in some form or fashion every Christmas season. Clearly other Americans have this same tradition, since TNT tends to run the films ad nauseam during December.

We all know the story here: Ring of power corrupts; Middle-earthlings band together to save the day; kings are returned to their rightful thrones; hobbits prove that courage and strength can come in small packages; and every small child in the world asks for a white horse named Shadowfax for Christmas. Ian McKellan kills it as Gandalf, while Viggo Mortensen offers a version of Aragorn that both men and women can swoon over.

Maybe it's the epic, sweeping story, or the magical fantasy setting of The Lord of the Rings that conjures up the holiday spirit (I'd like to see the holiday special where Legolas leads the North Pole elves into battle against the forces of the Grinch: Return of the Kringle). Or maybe it's simply that the holiday break allows us the time to watch such a long trilogy. Either way, The Lord of the Rings movies have very naturally become a part of my family's holidays.

With the release of Jackson's new trilogy The Hobbit, the holiday viewing tradition will surely continue. I'm not sure we'll be able to do all six in a row, but then again, what else are you going to do the day after Christmas?

[Editor's Note: At this point we usually embed a trailer or clip from the film being discussed. But I couldn't help but pick the following clip from an entirely different movie, which is absolutely not for children or the office. And hilarious. Hoping Katy will forgive me.]

Katy Daiger Dial is the Community Education Manager at the Austin Film Society.

Walking

and lots of walking...that video is a hoot!