Great job! I'm curious why you cast the Cardinal as Frodo. Is it because he seems to battle with himself?

When I first saw the Robert Graham statue over the doors I was inspired to sing, (no disrespect to the blessed virgin) "Oh Masculine Mary, they praises we sing!"
 

My years in major seminary taught me -- through trial and error... and a lot of both -- that our ultimate battles are not against other human beings, but against the disorders in our own hearts, structures of sin, and also the spiritual forces - the principalities and powers. The fallen angels would prefer that we dehumanize our brothers and sisters by scapegoating them. I'm trying my best not to scapegoat the Cardinal for all of the sins of omission / commission that are happening here in Los Angeles on the archdiocesan level.
 

Oh, heaven help us!!

Well done!! Too bad there's no time to make the whole movie in Flash.

It's a sad, sad thing. Ghastly looking thing costing millions of dollars. Thank God it's not MY Diocese!

Lisa
 

Not since Leni Riefenstahl’s celebrated 1935 masterpiece, *Triumph of the Will*, has a director so ably dramatized the vitality of the Nietzschean aesthetic. The star of this film is a veritable warlord of architecture that brooks no maudlin concern for effete notions of proportion, harmony or refinement, but which apprehends in the sublime the opportunity to mow down everything in its path and take what it will. And yet, somehow, this menacing, expressionistic cathedral manages to exercise the restraint and subtlety that accompanies all great works of art. Nowhere does it incorporate any overt symbols of Tolkien’s dark fortress or of the Nazi regime, but the spectator stiffens unavoidably with the eerie sense that if the statue of the Blessed Virgin is not hiding an orkish battle axe up her skirt, she is poised to heave the great stone swastika from the Reichstag to the top of the bell tower. And then to challenge all who enter its gates to a kickboxing match. To the death.

The irony of all this, of course, is that a building of such unyielding character should be erected at the behest of such a soft, pliant cleric as Cardinal Baggins.

One feels compelled to congratulate Mr. Emmer for portraying the very soul of this cathedral in film, except for the fact that the building appears to have been contrived as a study in *soullessness*. Nevertheless, the film is a job well-done and worthy of three cheers.
 

The movie captivated me, but Jim Strain's review had me laughing my ass off.

The descriptions of the Blessed Virgin STILL have me laughing as I type this. I am debating whether or not to wake up my wife just to see the film and to read the postings. (It is 11:00 PM here in NJ)

PLEASE keep this on your site (the movie and the associated postings) for a long time. I am a first-time visitor, coming by way of the Curt Jester.

I saw this at the end of a very stressful day. Thank you ever so much.
 

Clayton, I've enjoyed everything you've linked to in an e-mail to us, but never enough to comment on. Bravo! In the native tongue of "Aragorn", Ausgezeichnet!

When is the release date?

Where do I sign up for the "Lord of the Thing" fan club?

If I do sign up for the "Lord of the Thing" fan club will I get my name printed in very small font at the end of the extended DVD edition?

Will there even be an extended DVD edition?

Maybe there is a reason I've never posted? I'm a silly, foolish Hobbit! Keep up the great work Clayton!
 

hen I first saw the Robert Graham statue over the doors I was inspired to sing, (no disrespect to the blessed virgin) "Oh Masculine Mary, they praises we sing!"

Wait a minute -- that's a WOMAN? I could hardly recognize the Blessed Mother.

Good grief. And all this time I thought it was some representation to the Nietzschean Ubermensch in keeping with the "tough" theme of the rest of the fortress -- er -- cathedral.
 

Who're playing Saruman, Galadriel, Legolas, Gimli, Pippin,Merry and Boromir?
 

DEAD BRILLIANT!!!! Keep up the good work!