Look What They've Done to the Official Web Site, Ma

and no-holds-barred revelation about what she values in the female characters. She spends little time apologizing for Tolkien's light treatment of women, which may be the best response to questions concerning the male-centeredness of the story. That is simply the story he wrote. What she might have said could be stated, "Other authors write stories about female characters, and there is no remorse over the lack of male characters in them. Those are the stories that other authors have written." It's hard to say much more without spoiling the whole effect. I'm not sure of how well the site plays for people without broadband access. Hopefully the non-flash version of the site reveals just as much interesting stuff. Were my expectations on the mark? I would say I was pleasantly surprised. There is the promise of a great deal of background information, and one must wonder who would be responsible for the research and composition of the background. Studying Tolkien's Middle-earth is a life-long process, and even the best experts make mistakes. And then there are the grey areas where people don't always see eye-to-eye (and we don't necessarily agree on what the grey areas are. Providing much detail would be a perilous task, I think, as it would open the site to generous amounts of criticism which might deflect visitor attention away from the movies. Some of the character bios are obviously incomplete. Merry and Pippin are presented as Frodo's friends. Well, that's true. They are Frodo's friends. They just also happen to be his cousins, but he has a few hundred of those so it's no great loss to see the familial relationship downplayed. In his biography, Peter Jackson mentions that he is most interested in friendships. That may be a key factor to look for. The relationship between Legolas and Gimli, for example, has elicited some fan questions. We are assured that they do not start out as friends but that they end up that way. The journey will be revealing for them both. So, am I impressed? Well, my reaction is favorable. But I've been surfing the Web for a long time. I've seen a lot of "Oh, wow!" sites. I will say that this one has so much content I doubt anyone can seriously digest it all in one sitting. And that's a good thing. A good Web site keeps you coming back. As far as official movie Web sites go, this

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