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Tolkien's famous books are going to be forever up to interpretation, as are
any books that draw attention. I remember reading them thirty years ago, and at
the time was grateful to read a well written, imaginative tale. I could easily
see how
Tolkien had come up with the lesson of having to deal with "evil"
before it takes over, but I'm not certain it is up to us to determine whether or
not there were specific comparisons if the author himself has not said as much.
In the books, the evil characters are usually depicted as faceless, and the
kings and wizards who are part of the dark side are white skinned. Their armies
are a blend of colors, but dark skinned races are emphasized in the films,
whereas in the books there is more of a distinction between humans/humanoids and
fallen ones or savage beast types. Smeagle was originally a Hobbit, and I think
it's a stretch to say he was anything other than a regular citizen mesmerized
and poisoned by a ring of "power". Frodo will not give up on his "brother" or
else faith in his fellows is lost, and they are all doomed, was, I
think, more the idea here. Of course the wars in tolkien's time would have been
sure inspiration, but we tend to criticize what we like.
Another reason I feel we cannot so readily draw analogies about who Tolkien
may have been writing about is because of personal experience. I have written
two cross-genre novels, fantasy/sci-fi/comedic/romantic, which were begun twenty
years ago, with names and plot recorded well before "9-11", yet if you were to
read them, which I hope one day you will, you would easily see the whole George
Bush/9-11 analogy due to the way my imagination came up with proper names and
concepts. One could easily glean comparison to the current US/world
economic situation, but yet when I wrote the books, this scene was not yet
obvious to me nor anyone I was listening to at the time. I should be freaked out
by how similar some scenarios are, but more to the point today, hope that these
coincidences are not held against me. Perhaps they'll work for me, but it won't
be by my design, and I will not undo them just because of a paranoid
America.
I look forward to another interpretation of Lord of the Rings books on
the big silver screen. One that somehow compensates for the difficulty in
conveying third person narrative, which was the very best part of his work. As
well, I'd like to see more of Middle Earth, which was the real attraction of
this author's imagination. In the film there was far too much emphasis on
battle, and I must wonder about who is behind the financing. Though I did get a
thrill out of the loudest moment when Sauron released his crack of evil before
the big battle, attained primarily by boosting the volume to reach the Space
Station, I failed to see much psychological profiling of Sauron himself,
or the minions he had converted. I enjoyed the Elven scenes because of good
camera work, sets and costuming, but got little about their way of life. I saw
both blonde and dark haired lead roles amongst them, and could easily have seen
brown, green or purple skinned people blend beautifully, yet Tolkien's tale
is in keeping with traditional Elven stories. I was quite disappointed with the
lack of direction for Frodo in this last film. He was the only one who didn't
cry, nor did Jackson even provide him with fake tears at the film's end. A
serious oversight. I think the Oscar material is in the sets, camera work,
costuming, and editing and animation. Oh, and financing.
Cheers,
Natalia Kuzmyn
PS. Below a snippet of perspective on films/media from my younger brother,
Pete. A mythology fan, avid sci-fi/fantasy reader and sometimes writer.
"Now where was I? Oh yes, I'm "hungry for the quest" and only Pizza Hut /
KFC / Taco Bell and a Pepsi will satiate me! Yeah, that Lord of the Rings sure
made me hungry for overly processed crap! No wait, that's not it... so hard to
think... must remember... need protein... need brain-fat... Fat... Geez I'm fat!
Time to diet... Pass the aspartame (it must be okay, it has "tame" right in the
name!). Will we ever destroy the evil Sauron Hussein? Saruman Ladin is hiding
somewhere - the brave Ents destroyed Afghanigard, but where is Saruman? I can't
wait for Part III! But hey, if the war continues after Xmas, there's always more
Matrix sequels - mindless kung fu and pop philosophy along with a bland plot, is
guaranteed to relax everyone. Philip K. Dick (not to be confused with "King
Faud's"...) would sure be jealous over how they've "butchered-for-the-better"
his ideas. Yup, after seeing how ugly and boring "real" reality is - who would
ever wanna leave The Matrix? This black iron prison sure looks good in
comparison, doesn't it? Of course there's lots of action to help you avoid the
realization that Matrix is actually pro-illusion. But, if you do overcome
the numby-brain and see this... well, you can just sit back and let the "chosen
one" take care of it... since he is "chosen", surely he's more qualified than
you or I - or the critical mass of human consciousness, right?"
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