Thanks for giving such detailed, concrete examples of the entering wedge of girl power in the LOTR films. Those moments felt forced, thought not enough to ruin the films. But anything more extreme would indeed be fatal. Is there anything more ridiculous than straight-faced scenes of women warriors kicking male ass? Especially now that men-pretending-to-be-women are destroying the very concept of women’s sports? Can even the most ardent feminist still believe that women warriors are, or should be, a thing? Fantasy is not an excuse to be ridiculous; art always needs to be true to the fundamentals of human nature.
I totally agree with you Morg, I read the books long before the movies. There are more characters in the book which were complerely left out of the movies although they have their own roles to play.
Never watched the Rings of Power. I am not into remakes.
I didn't mind the changes to Arwen that much. The books are the final word of course, but it didn't kill it for me to have her take Glorfindel's place and raise the river waters. Her decision to stay also added some tension to the story of Aragorn and Arwen and Eowyn's love for him, resolving to the love story of Eowyn and Faramir.
Yes it was a kind of feminist statement and annoying but I could overlook it. What annoyed me more was the way the Ents decided to go to war -- as if they weren't aware that Saruman was massacring the forests before Pippin tricked Treebeard into going south. Very out of characer for the Ents who were always aware of what went on within their magical Fangorn.
I think a lot of the change Jackson made were down to his own weakness as a directory and his lnability to simply trust the material. He kept inserting these "big moments" of decision, cliffhanger scenes and such. Cutting out the Old Forest, Crickhollow, Tom Bombadil, the Barrowdowns, the Scouring of the Shire - those I kind of understood just due to time limitations but I missed them.all the same.
All in all he did manage to get the overall spirit of the story down without mucking it up too much. IMO the only way to really do the LOTR is as a TV series where there is enough time to include every aspect of the story. Ironically, when he did the Hobbit he actual had enough time (too much really) and he made a disaster out of it. God was that awful, I couldn't even finish the second film. Jackson , at the end of the day, is a half-talented dimwit who actually achieved far more than he had any right to in his LOTR films.
And I agree - anything they make now will be even worse. I watched an episode of that Rings of Power (Lawd 'dem Rangz) and it wasn't Tolkien in any way whatsoever. Complete woke trash - and anything else they make now will be just as bad.
Maybe in 10 years when woke has been utterly and finally banished from our culture something good can be made but let's be honest: nothing will ever top Tolkien's books.
Just for Peter Jackson to attempt the complexity of the Trilogy would have been daunting, given the large numbers of faithful readers who each had their own primal experiences with all three books. I think overall, he did a great job. Besides the Bible, the Trilogy is the only book that has truly traveled with me most of my life. I began Lord of the Rings in my youth, thoroughly wore out the paperbacks, dived into all 3 books during deep depressions in college (failed the college process) and now at age 71, am joyfully re- visiting again these cherished friends in book form . Since Tolkien was a deep man of the Christian faith, his journey through the battles between good and evil are intense, knowing his own experience in both WW1 and WW2. The good vs evil is forever with us but the enduring honorable characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Frodo and the dear Hobbits, Elrond and Arwen still carry the heft of the lifelong battle we all fight! We keep on, as they did.
Agree, dear Morgthorak. The battle is not pleasant and many times I am ready to give up and go Home...but I would not take my own life. I do not long to live to 90...but I do long to offer encouragement to at least a few people out there, to say that "keep on plodding, hold fast to God's hand and seek the gifts He has given to each of us". This place is temporary, I live for Eternity. Currently, reading The Two Towers, deep into the battle of Helm's Deep, what a roar!! Hope you are having a good weekend, wherever you are. Blessings to you and yours, Wendy
Thank you for redpilling me on the movies. I didn’t realize they wokified the LOTR movies, just not as woke as they’ll make it in 2024. Perchance can you recommend where to buy original edition unedited copies of the LOTR and Hobbit books before “they” rewrite the books too? Did you hear about how “they” are rewriting classic literature already such as Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl? What else are they secretly rewriting and selling as original copies? I would like to start buying up unedited copies of western classics before they get rewritten.
I have heard and seen nothing about woke revisions to Tolkien's works. You should be able to buy them anywhere. If you go to the Tolkien profile page on Amazon, you can see a list of different versions of his books: https://amzn.to/3wBTicr
We would know nearly instantaneously if any woke revisions are made. Fleming and Dahl are not in Tolkien's league in terms of popularity. Many, many copies exist of Tolkien's books, so any changes would be detected quickly .
I know there is a version of The Hobbit that is illustrated, and maybe one for LOTR, but I can't remember now. It's late and I am tired. But if you can find an illustrated version, grab it.
Tolkien produced his own illustrations which accompanied the earliest editions of the book. He was not a professional illustrator, but his paintings, sketches, and maps are a reflection of how he himself visualized his creations. This edition is not cheap, but is beautiful and the most complete collection of his artwork.
I know exactly what you mean, it’s easy to get swept away with the visuals of these films. And I am glad that they finally made it onto the big screen. There are some great moments in them, but it’s just a shame that Jackson didn’t remain true to the books. If he had done so, he would have made films, that would last through the ages.
the LOTR films are abominations, more horrid than anything in the Morgul Vale. Jackson completely destroyed the character of Faramir from how he was portrayed in the books by having him try to take the Ring from Frodo and that's only one of the many issues I have with these crimes against god movies. the following characters are all awful in the movies: Frodo, Legolas, Elrond, Arwen, Galadriel, hell it may be easier to list the characters who were good: Samwise, Gandalf, and maybe Boromir. I've read the books probably close to 50 times and have only watched each of these cinematic monstrosities once, nothing but overrated garbage. The animated films from the 70s are so much better, and they're really not good(except for the Hobbit). Ugh, I hate the LOTR films oh so much!!!
Yes, Faramir was way off and the scene where Frodo holds the ring up the ring wraith is absurd. However, I don't regard those as woke commie changes, just bad decisions on Jackson's part.
Woketards must rewrite history to synch with their cognitive dissonance! Wilson from "1984" is working a lot of overtime. Imagine being so weak minded that the truth can drive you insane!
I'm not a fan of Tolkien's writing, so I hold the incendiary view that Jackson's LOTR movies are better than the books. That being said, you've listed some of my biggest gripes with the movies.
If I remember correctly, Arwen was mentioned maybe twice in the books, and her elevated role in the movies makes for the weakest scenes throughout the trilogy. Glorfindel is one of my favorite characters in Tolkien's canon, and it irks me to no end that he's reduced to a silent cameo at the end of Return of the King.
Also, Frodo was the most interesting character in the books, and, in the movies, he's a helpless little wuss. Not to mention the overt homosexual undertones of his and Sam's relationship 😒
Another enjoyably provocative article ! I can't disagree with you about the changes/wokeification you list in the films, but just for the record I still loved the trilogy - obviously some parts more than others. I wondered whether you had watched all the extras of interviews with Peter Jackson, Pippa Boyens and many others involved either on camera or behind the scenes right down to the obsessively detailed costume design? I have to say that stuff was gold dust to me, and really fleshed out some of the reasons as to why there were such alterations to character or scene inclusion (or not). From Jackson and Boyens, it was clear to me at least that they did agonise over every aspect because of their consciouness of the legacy they were dealing with; and I do believe that they truly loved the material - they consulted constantly with fan forums, it seems - but at the same time they had to deal with the experiential distinction between a single-sitting audio-visual experience and that of a physical book, which can be picked up and put down as and when required, and in some ways alters the dynamics of the whole thing, if that doesn't sound too high falutin. There were other factors such as having to mess with the timelines as followed in the book, as these would make the films lose narrative power etc. I can't remember without re-visiting the interviews whether the character prominence and erasure you discuss was directly addressed, but I can completely see where you are coming from there, and you might well be completely correct in terms of politics. As they were released twenty years ago, my woke radar wasn't half-developed back then. I was very late to the party, as it were. So I give myself a pass on that one :) . My view on PJ's The Hobbit films : junk. Although I always felt The Hobbit was more of a children's book in any case than LOTR. But I am absolutely no expert so don't burn me on that ! Regarding copyright I am sure as you say that the other Tolkien works like The Silmarillion and the chronicles of the First Age and the creation myth stuff has huge possibilities for treatment in sympathetic and diverse (sic) ways. I always wondered what The Hobbit would have looked like if Guillermo del Torro had managed to complete the job. Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone were two films that left me sitting afterwards in stunned amazement, unable to categorise exactly what I had just seen. Great writing again. Thank you.
Great summary / there were some good bits in Rings of Power but in no way was it remotely Tolkien and ultimately made no sense when Sauron was revealed - thanks for the Audiobook links, I might try the Silmarillion
Thanks for giving such detailed, concrete examples of the entering wedge of girl power in the LOTR films. Those moments felt forced, thought not enough to ruin the films. But anything more extreme would indeed be fatal. Is there anything more ridiculous than straight-faced scenes of women warriors kicking male ass? Especially now that men-pretending-to-be-women are destroying the very concept of women’s sports? Can even the most ardent feminist still believe that women warriors are, or should be, a thing? Fantasy is not an excuse to be ridiculous; art always needs to be true to the fundamentals of human nature.
Glad you liked it, but this begs the question: Were Arwen and Galadriel troons in Jackson's films? 😂
I totally agree with you Morg, I read the books long before the movies. There are more characters in the book which were complerely left out of the movies although they have their own roles to play.
Never watched the Rings of Power. I am not into remakes.
Great article, well written 👍
Disney: "It wants the Precious. It wants to takes it from us."
I didn't mind the changes to Arwen that much. The books are the final word of course, but it didn't kill it for me to have her take Glorfindel's place and raise the river waters. Her decision to stay also added some tension to the story of Aragorn and Arwen and Eowyn's love for him, resolving to the love story of Eowyn and Faramir.
Yes it was a kind of feminist statement and annoying but I could overlook it. What annoyed me more was the way the Ents decided to go to war -- as if they weren't aware that Saruman was massacring the forests before Pippin tricked Treebeard into going south. Very out of characer for the Ents who were always aware of what went on within their magical Fangorn.
I think a lot of the change Jackson made were down to his own weakness as a directory and his lnability to simply trust the material. He kept inserting these "big moments" of decision, cliffhanger scenes and such. Cutting out the Old Forest, Crickhollow, Tom Bombadil, the Barrowdowns, the Scouring of the Shire - those I kind of understood just due to time limitations but I missed them.all the same.
All in all he did manage to get the overall spirit of the story down without mucking it up too much. IMO the only way to really do the LOTR is as a TV series where there is enough time to include every aspect of the story. Ironically, when he did the Hobbit he actual had enough time (too much really) and he made a disaster out of it. God was that awful, I couldn't even finish the second film. Jackson , at the end of the day, is a half-talented dimwit who actually achieved far more than he had any right to in his LOTR films.
And I agree - anything they make now will be even worse. I watched an episode of that Rings of Power (Lawd 'dem Rangz) and it wasn't Tolkien in any way whatsoever. Complete woke trash - and anything else they make now will be just as bad.
Maybe in 10 years when woke has been utterly and finally banished from our culture something good can be made but let's be honest: nothing will ever top Tolkien's books.
Just for Peter Jackson to attempt the complexity of the Trilogy would have been daunting, given the large numbers of faithful readers who each had their own primal experiences with all three books. I think overall, he did a great job. Besides the Bible, the Trilogy is the only book that has truly traveled with me most of my life. I began Lord of the Rings in my youth, thoroughly wore out the paperbacks, dived into all 3 books during deep depressions in college (failed the college process) and now at age 71, am joyfully re- visiting again these cherished friends in book form . Since Tolkien was a deep man of the Christian faith, his journey through the battles between good and evil are intense, knowing his own experience in both WW1 and WW2. The good vs evil is forever with us but the enduring honorable characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Frodo and the dear Hobbits, Elrond and Arwen still carry the heft of the lifelong battle we all fight! We keep on, as they did.
Lovely post, Wendy. Thank you and I agree, it is a lifelong path we walk choosing between good and evil. Not easy for anybody, but it must be done.
Agree, dear Morgthorak. The battle is not pleasant and many times I am ready to give up and go Home...but I would not take my own life. I do not long to live to 90...but I do long to offer encouragement to at least a few people out there, to say that "keep on plodding, hold fast to God's hand and seek the gifts He has given to each of us". This place is temporary, I live for Eternity. Currently, reading The Two Towers, deep into the battle of Helm's Deep, what a roar!! Hope you are having a good weekend, wherever you are. Blessings to you and yours, Wendy
Thank you for redpilling me on the movies. I didn’t realize they wokified the LOTR movies, just not as woke as they’ll make it in 2024. Perchance can you recommend where to buy original edition unedited copies of the LOTR and Hobbit books before “they” rewrite the books too? Did you hear about how “they” are rewriting classic literature already such as Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl? What else are they secretly rewriting and selling as original copies? I would like to start buying up unedited copies of western classics before they get rewritten.
I have heard and seen nothing about woke revisions to Tolkien's works. You should be able to buy them anywhere. If you go to the Tolkien profile page on Amazon, you can see a list of different versions of his books: https://amzn.to/3wBTicr
We would know nearly instantaneously if any woke revisions are made. Fleming and Dahl are not in Tolkien's league in terms of popularity. Many, many copies exist of Tolkien's books, so any changes would be detected quickly .
What’re your thoughts on the illustrated editions? I would like to buy as close to the original edition, even same book cover artwork
I know there is a version of The Hobbit that is illustrated, and maybe one for LOTR, but I can't remember now. It's late and I am tired. But if you can find an illustrated version, grab it.
Tolkien produced his own illustrations which accompanied the earliest editions of the book. He was not a professional illustrator, but his paintings, sketches, and maps are a reflection of how he himself visualized his creations. This edition is not cheap, but is beautiful and the most complete collection of his artwork.
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Illustrated-Author-Tolkien-Editions/dp/0063347539/ref=sr_1_1
Did anyone actually watch the Rings of Power trash? I struggled through an episode, but...ugh. It was terrible.
Nope. I lasted one episode of the WOT and gave up on that shit as well.
What’s worse is, that despite the woke going on in them, you still wanted to love the movies! I am LMAO at this critique. It’s just spot on!!
I know exactly what you mean, it’s easy to get swept away with the visuals of these films. And I am glad that they finally made it onto the big screen. There are some great moments in them, but it’s just a shame that Jackson didn’t remain true to the books. If he had done so, he would have made films, that would last through the ages.
Too true.
the LOTR films are abominations, more horrid than anything in the Morgul Vale. Jackson completely destroyed the character of Faramir from how he was portrayed in the books by having him try to take the Ring from Frodo and that's only one of the many issues I have with these crimes against god movies. the following characters are all awful in the movies: Frodo, Legolas, Elrond, Arwen, Galadriel, hell it may be easier to list the characters who were good: Samwise, Gandalf, and maybe Boromir. I've read the books probably close to 50 times and have only watched each of these cinematic monstrosities once, nothing but overrated garbage. The animated films from the 70s are so much better, and they're really not good(except for the Hobbit). Ugh, I hate the LOTR films oh so much!!!
Should've included Gollum under the good characters; Andy Serkis absolutely nailed that role.
Yes, Faramir was way off and the scene where Frodo holds the ring up the ring wraith is absurd. However, I don't regard those as woke commie changes, just bad decisions on Jackson's part.
Woketards must rewrite history to synch with their cognitive dissonance! Wilson from "1984" is working a lot of overtime. Imagine being so weak minded that the truth can drive you insane!
I'm not a fan of Tolkien's writing, so I hold the incendiary view that Jackson's LOTR movies are better than the books. That being said, you've listed some of my biggest gripes with the movies.
If I remember correctly, Arwen was mentioned maybe twice in the books, and her elevated role in the movies makes for the weakest scenes throughout the trilogy. Glorfindel is one of my favorite characters in Tolkien's canon, and it irks me to no end that he's reduced to a silent cameo at the end of Return of the King.
Also, Frodo was the most interesting character in the books, and, in the movies, he's a helpless little wuss. Not to mention the overt homosexual undertones of his and Sam's relationship 😒
Another enjoyably provocative article ! I can't disagree with you about the changes/wokeification you list in the films, but just for the record I still loved the trilogy - obviously some parts more than others. I wondered whether you had watched all the extras of interviews with Peter Jackson, Pippa Boyens and many others involved either on camera or behind the scenes right down to the obsessively detailed costume design? I have to say that stuff was gold dust to me, and really fleshed out some of the reasons as to why there were such alterations to character or scene inclusion (or not). From Jackson and Boyens, it was clear to me at least that they did agonise over every aspect because of their consciouness of the legacy they were dealing with; and I do believe that they truly loved the material - they consulted constantly with fan forums, it seems - but at the same time they had to deal with the experiential distinction between a single-sitting audio-visual experience and that of a physical book, which can be picked up and put down as and when required, and in some ways alters the dynamics of the whole thing, if that doesn't sound too high falutin. There were other factors such as having to mess with the timelines as followed in the book, as these would make the films lose narrative power etc. I can't remember without re-visiting the interviews whether the character prominence and erasure you discuss was directly addressed, but I can completely see where you are coming from there, and you might well be completely correct in terms of politics. As they were released twenty years ago, my woke radar wasn't half-developed back then. I was very late to the party, as it were. So I give myself a pass on that one :) . My view on PJ's The Hobbit films : junk. Although I always felt The Hobbit was more of a children's book in any case than LOTR. But I am absolutely no expert so don't burn me on that ! Regarding copyright I am sure as you say that the other Tolkien works like The Silmarillion and the chronicles of the First Age and the creation myth stuff has huge possibilities for treatment in sympathetic and diverse (sic) ways. I always wondered what The Hobbit would have looked like if Guillermo del Torro had managed to complete the job. Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone were two films that left me sitting afterwards in stunned amazement, unable to categorise exactly what I had just seen. Great writing again. Thank you.
Great summary / there were some good bits in Rings of Power but in no way was it remotely Tolkien and ultimately made no sense when Sauron was revealed - thanks for the Audiobook links, I might try the Silmarillion