All fair-skinned, mostly blond and mostly blue-eyed. The "good guys" include the human Dunedain, Rohirrim and Gondorians. A recently released "Towers" companion book, "The Lord of the Rings: Creatures," calls the Haradrim "exotic outlanders" whose costumes "were inspired by the twelfth-century Saracen warriors of the Middle East." The Saracens were Islamic soldiers who battled Christian invaders during the Crusades. They resemble nothing other than North African or Middle Eastern tribesmen. They are garbed in turbans and flowing crimson robes. But their headgear looks like a cross between a Samurai warrior's helmet and a cone-shaped "Coolie" hat. The Easterlings can barely be made out under their armor their faces are covered except for a narrow slit through which glare pairs of coal-black eyes. They include the Easterlings and Haradrim, denizens of lands in the east and south of Middle Earth who have joined with the forces of evil. In "Towers," though, which continues to do big at the box office as the second film of the Rings trilogy (the third, "Return of the King," is to come out at the end of the year), the series' heroes - hobbits, elves, dwarves and people - for the first time encounter races of human adversaries.
No connection can be made between ordinary people and these malformed uglies. In "Fellowship," we saw non-human foes: Orcs, trolls, Uruk-hai, Ringwraiths and the like. The first controversy may be decided in Tolkien's favor once the present generation of literary critics passes from the scene (I admit some bias in this regard), but the second probably always will flare up whenever some skinheads read more into the "Rings" than really is there.Īnd with the enormous popularity of Jackson's film interpretation of Tolkien's work coinciding with the current international crises, it's possible some will start confusing villains on the screen with real-life adversaries on the battlefield. Unhappily, in "The Two Towers," Jackson may reflect the "Rings'" racial view of the world as well.Īs the United States wages war against an ominous "other" - currently Al Qaeda terrorists, soon perhaps Iraqis and eventually, North Koreans? - it's worth keeping in mind Tolkien's stern admonition against viewing his work as allegory.įor years, Tolkien scholars have waged a fight on two fronts: against an academic establishment that for the most part refused to take the author's work seriously, and against white supremacists who have tried to claim the professor as one of their own. Tolkien, director Peter Jackson stayed true to the fantasy author's artistic vision in "Fellowship of the Ring," the first film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
0 kommentar(er)
