Hilarious: Unused audio commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, recorded summer 2002, for The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Extended Edition) DVD. An excerpt:
Zinn: Well, power needs to have its proxies. That way the damage is always deniable. As long as the Hobbits have the ring, no one will ever question the plot Gandalf has hatched. So here is the big scary ring, and all that happens when Gandalf moves to touch it is that he sees a big flaming eye. And notice it is a