Just bought the LOTR Trilogy tickets for Dec 16th....will need new butt

[Malikshah]

For those LOTR fanatics...Dec 16--selected theaters--all three films back to back. FOTR extended edition--TTT--extended edition--ROTK.

www.theonering.net or www.lordoftherings.net for further info.

We're talking 12 hours of giant screen loveliness.... This will be one for the record books.!!!

Woo-frikkin-hoo.

After Ahnuld--I needed something happy.

AHHH_- please move Mods-- thought this was the DU Lounge.

Sorry, I was giddy. Big ole MeaCulpa from me.:spank:

[BikeDeck]

1. New butt

New butt will be needed. Not to mention many buckets of pop corn, and many bathroom breaks.

[cprise]

2. Why are Orcs "cursed", black and have dreadlocks?

Seems like the old-time Biblical racism to me.

Also Dwarves are short, have big noses and love riches. That sounds like a strong stereotype to me.

Is this the best Hollywood can do?

[BikeDeck]

3. Hollywood

Hollywood didn't come up with the Characters, Tolkein did. Should Hollywood change the characters of literary classics to conform to todays PC dictates? I say no.

And in what world are Dwarves not short?

[cprise]

5. Perhaps I should have asked another question

Is this a way for some people to cuddle up to racial stereotypes? It makes things simple and dramatic, does it not?

I do not believe Tolkein stereotyped those characters so strongly. The dreadlocks were definately too much for me.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cprise]

8. I've heard this sort of attitude plays well in Idaho

And what a shame, too.

[Selwynn]

10. And YOU are upset about "stereotypes?" :D

Nice one - I couldn't have made more fun of you than you just made of yourself if I had tried.

[cprise]

13. Surely this isn't the way to discuss a controversial subject

I've already stated what bothers me about those movies. Perhaps you could tell us what bothers you about bringing it up...

[Selwynn]

16. I just did - but I still find your stereotype utterly ironic...

in the face of you just making such a big deal about these horrible stereotypes in movies, you sure throw around stereotypes with ease!

[Selwynn]

15. Take two

Since my first response was alerted and deleted, let me rephrase for you:

I find your argument to be ignorant and utterly without even the slightest hint of merit. It's wildly ridiculous, childish, and obtuse to say the least. It's another example of kill joys agressively looking for to invent problems where none exist just to be upset.

As a person who has read all the lord of the rings books five times over, and can assure you that the costume designs for the movies very accurately depict the description provided by Tolkein in the books.

What's more I find YOU to me more stereotypically racist in your thinking by assuming that any character with dreadlocks must be an offront on any particular ethnic group. You've never seen white folk with dread locks? Well, I guess you haven't lived yet, becuase it is a real (and scary) sight. You know, Aragorn had long hair brown hair, I think that was an intentional racial slur against the long brown haird community. And Leagolas was TALL -- that's utterly offensive to the people of Height! And Galadriel was Blond AND - AND I say - had pointed ears! Obiviously hollywood is saying that Blonde people ARE THE DEVIL!!!!!

Sometimes, there is nothing to read between the lines, except that these were beautiful moves that made a lot of people laugh and cry, and feel very happy in a time in the world where there doesn't seem to be much happiness.

For you to come in and throw a bucket of watever on that with ridiculous over the top tripe and grabage makes me sick...

It reminds me of the site on the Web that wanted to Protest the movie "The Two Towers" becuase they claimed it was a shamless ploy to capitalize on 9/11 - even though that's the name of Tokien's work. The site was a ridiculous embarassment to human reasoning, and this doesn't seem very dissimilar.

There, go ahead and alert that.
Sel

[Malikshah]

19. Been through these over and over again

On the rottentomatoes forums, oscarwatch forums, councilofelrond forums. Yeah, I'm a geek.

Been hashed, rehashed, and triple hashed.

Folks will see what they want to see.

One of the more egregious cases was someone likening orcs to Muslims and that this was something that should be taken up...

Vile, disgusting garbage (stress on the "age" part there)

Once people sit back and think of their "offense taken" they'll realize that they're just looking to be offended.

Sort of like the joke:

Question: Did you hear the one about the two feminists
Answer: That's not funny

(FYI--you can replace feminist with any other group btw--I just heard the joke w/ that term first.)

[cprise]

20. Stereotyping

The Orcs inthe movie have dreadlocks and dark skin and are surpernaturally cursed to an evil state of being. There is more here to be concerned about than, say, Jar-jar Binks (he had an accent that made him seem African).

" And Leagolas was TALL -- that's utterly offensive to the people of Height!"

That's an argument typical of Rush Limbaugh. It funny how this stuff surfaces when you question pop-culture icons. They resort to the antics of other pop-culture icons without even realizing it.

I'm sorry you're so upset. Obviously it would have been better in this case to leave your brief comment right where it was.

[Selwynn]

21. And that's a logical fallacy, and also yet ANOTHER stereotype..

Wow, you're 3-0 in the hypocrisy game today.

Whether or not it is a "typical" argument of anyone else does not in and of itself prove or disprove the validity of the argument.

The point is that ANYTHING, including sensitivity to prejudice can be taken to extremes. This is an extreme case, and so far you've really said nothing to counter anything I've said.

Tolkien described the Orcs, and said their skin was black like death - the Orc's skin is supposed to refelct their rotten state -- they have been tortured and mutilated, they are hardly alive. These are TOLKIEN's DESCRIPTIONS. So to me this puts the whining about the color of the orcs skins to rest.

This levaes you with ONE COMPLAINT - their hairstyle. I'm sorry, but I'm just really having a hard time taking that seriously.

[DrWeird]

22. I think LOTR has rather obvious racist connotations.

I mean come on. All the bad guys are black skinned savages. He even has black humans in the book, and they side with bad guy. Where as all the white people and things are the good guys. And the more white, blonde, and blue-eyed the character, the more good they are. Hell, the best white good people are slowly being displaced by the darker uncouth people.

Tolkein wrote this in the forties. He was born and spent his early years in South Africa. So I would find it hard to believe that some of society's racism rubbed off on him, and that is reflected in the book.

Now I think it's also obvious that these connotations are unintentional. Tolkein didn't have a belligerent bone in his body, except when it came to bigots, he hated bigots. And I'm sure he'd be appaulled if he saw his own connotations through modern eyes.

And I think Peter Jackson picked up on this, and carried it on with the dreadlocks in order to expose it, a critique if you will. He does the same thing with marijuana, and the eye of Sauron, which is clearly a giant, flaming pussy.

[Selwynn]

23. Hey hey - if you want to say Toliken, and not hollywood had...

some racial overtones, then let's talk!

However, I honestly do not think they were deliberate. I think JRRT was more a victim of being culturally isolated and british hahahahaha (I'm kind of kidding with that last part... kind of)

So I very much agree with you when you say this:

Now I think it's also obvious that these connotations are unintentional. Tolkein didn't have a belligerent bone in his body, except when it came to bigots, he hated bigots. And I'm sure he'd be appaulled if he saw his own connotations through modern eyes.

And then we have this....

He does the same thing with marijuana, and the eye of Sauron, which is clearly a giant, flaming pussy.

Best.
Sentence.
Ever.

BWahahahhahahhahahahahahahaha! :D

[DrWeird]

24. Well, I wouldn't call it a hollywood film

but I think Jackson purposefully kept the racist overtones and expanded on them with the dreadlocks. For creative purposes, not because he's a racist.

[woofless]

25. Oh man

lighten up and read the books and quit making everything that bothers you into something that should bother everyone else. Make up your own mind and we will do the same. Since I have lived in both MA and ID you have insulted me twice. Sing it in the shower and leave us alone.
Woof

[roguevalley]

26. there's nothing simple about Tolkien

*

[THUNDER HANDS]

14. actually, in the book

I'm pretty sure that the Dwarves are almost as tall as the Elves are. At the very least I know that Legolas is supposed to be an exceptionally tall Elf.

[Selwynn]

17. That's not true.

Leagolas is tall, but all evlves are supposed to be roughtly the same height as men, dwarves are shorter than them, but taller than hobbits - exactly like in the books...

Oh and why is no one upset that hobbits are short? Any time any movie includes a story about a character that is under 5 feet tall is it just stereotypical garbage, or are we getting a little ridiculous here?

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. No, dwarves are taller han hobbits, but shorter than men and elves

sort of the inbetween demographic. ;-)

[Malikshah]

4. WTF?

Oh lord, not this old tripe again.

Hey, howz about trotting out the LOTR = WW II argument for old times sake.:eyes:

It take it the previous post was just a joke. If not-- get a big clue. "Hollywood" indeed.

[Selwynn]

6. If anyone catches wind of any promo thing like this in Idaho...

Please share with me!

I'm sure I'll be seeing it at either the Egyptian or Edwards/Fandango Theaters (Boise) but if anyone was going to show all three movies back to back I would so be there for that!

[Malikshah]

9. Here you go--though I'm not sure it's close

IDAHO
Boise Regal Cinemas Stadium 22

If you go to www.theonering.net and scroll down--they have a link to the theaters that are doing the trilogy on 12/16

From there-- you'll have to try fandango etc. to get tickets.

[Selwynn]

11. Wow -- I'll confess I didn't look...

Because I didn't expect there to be anything for Idaho. Thanks!

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I'm gonna do it herre in NY!

WEEEE HAAAAAAAA!

[roguevalley]

27. These movies saved me during all this crap over two years.

It was about good triumphing over evil, about even ONE PERSON changing the world, about love and friendship, honor and courage.

Tolkien wrote a book fifty, sixty years ago and put his heart into
it. He wrote about industrial despoilment of the earth, the importance and sacredness of the natural world, of trees, of listening to the world.

He spoke of big themes, of small sacrifices and hope.

I love this book and the others. It was a mythology that never gets old or out of time.

In the old days, they believed that if you were evil, it would show on your person. It would leave a mark, something dark. Since most of these stories were written before people had an awareness of the world and of people of color, it would seem that this has more to do
with the darkness of the night and things that lurk there, of dark shapes reaching out to grab you than racist skin colors and that ilk.

As for the Elves, they are tall and light and beautiful and they are historically present in the texts of the oldest works around. They were spoken of as beings of light, of learning and danger.

Which time of the day do you suppose people squatting in houses lit by fire would feel most safe? Day or night?

You cannot discount the old texts when reading Tolkien and it helps to know the base from which he drew so much. Then it would be easier
to understand what it means to read these, these renderings of heroic societies, fable and myth.

I don't see racism in Tolkien because I know about what he built his stories upon. I just love these books, these movies and I'm very jealous about your viewing. :) I wonder if they will do this in Alaska.

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Damn - apparently, NYC is sold out already. Bastards.

Read on the site that they apparently sold out in 45 minutes. That's insane. All I can figure is that the theater allowed some assholes to buy tickets in groups of 20 or more. Now I'm really annoyed.

[HornBuckler]

29. Well There Is Tolkien And There's D&D

Sure Alot Of D&D Is Adopted From Tolkien But As Far As Races Heights Etc There Is Quite A Bit Of Difference

6d6 Werd Up Homey!