Stumbled across a discussion on LGF, where Charles comments:

By now most people know that Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, is also a first class moonbat when it comes to politics, sharing the stage with radical Muslims at International ANSWER demonstrations and reading horrible "anti-war poetry."

Charles points us to this article which quotes discussion from writers, producer, and cast members about the signficance of the "Lord of the Ring" series.

People who sat next to me during the viewing of The Two Towers noticed I was suddenly caught in a fit of choking and coughing when director Stephen Jackson changed the entire message of the movie, by having Samwise tell Frodo he had to continue on because he "had to believe in the good in all of us" -- thus repudiating Tolkien's central thesis of the fallen, weak nature of mankind in the face of evil.

I believe Tolkien would have had a similar reaction; the authors of the article also noticed the contrast between Tolkien's values and the ones the filmmakers imposed over his text:

For some of the filmmakers, engaging the spirituality of Tolkien’s epic over an extended period of time seems to have been a challenging experience. While not sharing Tolkien’s beliefs, Frances Walsh acknowledged the appeal of the moral vision embodied in stories such as his.

"I think that stories [like Tolkien’s] do offer us comfort that we live in a moral universe, whether or not that is [true]… who can say? The world seems to be a very amoral place, governed by something arbitrary, and not founded on a great sort of sense of decency."

She noted also the importance of Tolkien’s belief in immortality, "that even those who leave us too soon or who are lost in war or who die young — and Frodo certainly represents all of those — they go to another place, they don’t just fall into nothingness… [Tolkien] took that from his own war experience and from his own profound Christian beliefs."

While bringing a measure of respect and sympathy for Tolkien’s religious worldview, the filmmakers seemed not always to fully understand or appreciate the writer’s vision. For example, one notion that kept cropping up was the idea of the goodness of humanity, of looking within ourselves or to our own innate goodness to overcome evil and achieve salvation.

In reality, this notion is quite alien to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which dramatically emphasizes in a critical scene the frailty and fallibility of mortals and their dependence upon divine grace and providence.

Yes indeed. Not the inherant ability of human beings to be good. This article also has another pertainent quote about Jackson's views on the subject:

But the filmmakers' didn't always seem to agree with the themes in the "bible" that they were faithfully translating. Mr. Jackson himself isn't sure that he buys all of Tolkien's ideas. "I don't know whether evil exists," he said. "You see stuff happening around the world, and you believe it truly does... I think evil exists within people. I don't know whether it exists as a force outside of humanity."

Well, I can understand being confused about whether evil has an independent existence from humanity. But wondering whether it exists at all? I amazed this would even be an open question in Mr. Jackson's mind. Hollywood is a separate reality, indeed.

So does evil exist as a force outside humanity? Tolkien certainly believed it did: In LOTR, evil is illustrated through Sauron, who is now a disembodied evil, and has lurked unformed through the lands for centuries, and is now trying to take form once again inside the facist regime rising in and around Mordor.

His servants, the ring wraiths, are also disembodied, though we can see them because of their clothing. When the ring is placed upon the wearer's finger, he disappears, and enters or perceives another dimension where the wraiths and Sauron are physical and real.

The metaphors undoubtedly arise from Tolkien's Christian beliefs, in which there are disembodied evil entities which can influence mankind from another plane of existence, and also an even more illusive force for good, capable of working through what we'd traditionally call "providence":

Despite what seemed a general lack of appreciation for this theme, there was one notable exception: co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens, who spoke insightfully about the story’s theme of fallibility of human nature, and the necessity of having faith, not in ourselves, but in a higher power for the final triumph over evil.

"One of the things Tolkien understood, because he was a [Christian] humanist," Boyens correctly noted, "is that we all fail, and we have the ability within us to fail. Faith requires us to believe in a higher power. Gandalf, very early on in the book says, 'The Ring came to Bilbo and in that moment something else was at work.' Not the [Ring’s] designer, the maker, this evil power, but some other power was at work. So it's whether you believe in that or not, whether you choose to believe in that or not."

There is also an excellent set of comments by John Rhys-Davies, who plays the Gimli, the dwarf, about our current clash of civilizations:

Perhaps the most passionate observations came from John Rhys-Davies, who plays the dwarf Gimli and voices Treebeard the Ent. Focusing on the necessity of defending civilization in times of crisis, Rhys-Davies took the media to task for failing to appreciate the preciousness of Western civilization, and warned of the potential consequences of rising Muslim extremism and the increasingly Islamic face of Europe.

“I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged,” said Rhys-Davies, “and if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose their civilization. That does have a real resonance with me.”

Pointing a finger at the media, Rhys-Davies went on, “What is unconscionable is that too many of your fellow journalists do not understand how precarious Western civilization is, and what a jewel it is… The abolition of slavery comes from Western democracy. True democracy comes from our Greco-Judeo-Christian Western experience. If we lose these things, then this is a catastrophe for the world.”

Rhys-Davies revealed that as far back as 1955 his father had predicted that “the next World War will be between Islam and the West.” The actor recalled his response: “I said to him, ’Dad, you’re nuts! The Crusades have been over for hundreds of years!’ And he said, ’Well, I know, but militant Islam is on the rise again. And you will see it in your lifetime.’ He’s been dead some years now. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and think, ’God, I wish you were here, just so I could tell you that you were right.’”

Looking at the lone female journalist at the table, Rhys-Davies said pointedly, “You should not be in this room [according to Muslim custom]. Because your husband or your father or your husband is not here to guide you. You could only be here in this room with these strange men for immoral purposes.”

Rhys-Davies went on to contemplate the significance of demographic shifts among Western Europeans and Muslims in Europe. “There is a demographic catastrophe happening in Europe that nobody wants to talk about, that we daren’t bring up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well… By 2020, fifty percent of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim descent…

“And don’t forget, coupled with this there is this collapse of numbers. Western Europeans are not having any babies. The population of Germany at the end of the century is going to be 56% of what it is now. The populations of France, 52% of what it is now. The population of Italy is going to be down 7 million people.

“There is a change happening in the very complexion of Western civilization in Europe that we should think about at least and argue about. If it just means the replacement of one genetic stock with another genetic stock, that doesn’t matter too much. But if it involves the replacement of Western civilization with a different civilization with different cultural values, then it is something we really ought to discuss — because, [hang it all], I am for dead-white-male culture!”

His fellow filmmakers might not all agree, but Tolkien would have applauded.

It's odd that it's (derogatorily) called "dead-white-male" culture.

Regarding skin color: Some of the most important influences on the West were Jesus and Jewish culture: these were not white, but were in fact semitic. Indeed, "the West" itself is merely delineated as the place where Christianity suvived by successfully repelling invading Islamic jihadists -- the light skin color of these people is nothing but an accident of history.

And why do we call Western culture "male", when, though not perfect, it is far less male-oriented than every other culture? It's like calling Danny DiVito -- who has height, but less than most others -- a "tall" actor.

Update: This article lists more differences between the last book and Jackson's adaptation. Warning: Major spoilers!