"This day we fight!" yells Aragorn as his outnumbered soldiers confront an army of vile orcs

National Review, Dec 31, 2003

* "This day we fight!" yells Aragorn as his outnumbered soldiers confront an army of vile orcs. "I bid you stand, men of the West!" These words, shouted in the new movie The Return of the King, capture much of what is great about the now-complete film trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic novel The Lord of the Rings.

There's the grim determination to defend freedom from those who would take it away, an inspiring display of courage in the face of long odds, and some wonderfully un-PC language. Did anybody in Hollywood try to edit the script to read "people of the West"? Tolkien wrote one of the best-loved books of the 20th century, and it's imbued with ideas and principles that conservatives continue to hold dear. Many of them have found their way onto the silver screen in director Peter Jackson's faithful rendition. A story set in a fantasy world of wizards and elves may not appeal to everybody, but Tolkien and Jackson have shown us that it has much to teach us.