Lately I've been watching the Lord of the Rings DVDs and now, seeing them so many times, I've really started to pay attention to what's in the background of each shot. It's amazing, and I'm wondering if you all have suggestions of movies that are good in this regard.

Terrence Malick's movies are great in this regard. The only thing Days of Heaven had going for it, in my opinion, was how beautiful the world it took place in was.

mise-en-scene anybody

oh yes. Roger Deakins is my favorite (Shawshank, Assassination of Jesse James).

Legends of the Fall. Really, who doesn't want a house in Montana like that?

good call. i just watched this the other day.

Not sure if they filmed on location, but the Scottish highlands in Braveheart are pretty awesome.

oh yes, John Toll. He also did Legends of the Fall. And also the great Thin Red Line, another Malick.

Last Of The Mohicians

I love the scenery in the films of Alfonso Arau. It is deliriously stylized. And his films are all intensely romantic. He should film Stephen Sondheim's Passion.