Salon.com > The Lord of the Rings

Is “Game of Thrones” too white?

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Ser Jorah’s face grew thoughtful as their horses trod together down the godsway. “When I first went into exile, I looked at the Dothraki and saw half-naked barbarians, as wild as their horses. If you had asked me then, Princess, I should have told you that a thousand good knights would have no trouble putting to flight a hundred times as many Dothraki.”

“But if I asked you now?”

“Now,” the knight said, “I am less certain.”

-- George R.R. Martin, "A Game of Thrones"

Epic fantasy -- sprawling stories full of swords, castles, magic, kings and lots and lots of white people – is slowly finding its way into America's cultural mainstream. In the age of the anemic box office, Peter Jackson's films of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy remain a gold standard of blockbusterdom – and his forthcoming version of "The Hobbit" will almost certainly follow suit. Newer writers like Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss have sold hundreds of thousands of their "door-stopper" tomes of wizardry and courtly intrigue. And tonight, countless viewers will be glued to their sets for the return of what is arguably the hottest show on television, "Game of Thrones," HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels.

Five pop culture items we missed

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:06:00 +0000

1. PSA of the day: Don't drink and buy puppies! A pet store in Greenwich Village has banned boozy patrons from purchasing dogs. Finally, taking responsibility for a live animal requires the same amount of mental wherewithal as getting a tattoo.

2. Cover of the day: They Might Be Giants goes "Tubthumping" for The Onion's A.V. Undercover series. "I get knocked down, and I get up again…"

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

3. Performance slide of the day: Grantland has declared Natalie Portman to be the actor who most "cuba'd" their Oscar cred in 2011. Thanks, "No Strings Attached."

Five pop culture items we missed

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:01:00 +0000

1. Grizzled old man uttering profanities of the day:

Harrison Ford on Shia LaBeouf talking crap about the last "Indiana Jones" movie, "I think he was a fucking idiot." Boom!

2. Major nerd accomplishment of the day:

Fifty thousand Lego pieces and a love of "Lord of the Rings" is what inspired Kevin Walter to create the world's most complex model of the Dark Tower Barad-dûr. One block to rule them all?

3. Exposed Twitter (non)scandal of the day:

The reason for Lindsay's sudden interest in the Federal Reserve? The Twitter blast was actually a sponsored message paid for by the National Inflation Association. Are there really so many people out there that look to Lindsay Lohan for financial advice? Wasn't she just released from house arrest today for stealing a necklace?

“Game of Thrones” actors encounter real-life violence

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:15:00 +0000

You have to be somewhat out of your mind to take on one of the bloodthirsty warmongers from HBO's popular George R. R. Martin adaptation, "Game of Thrones." After all, these guys wouldn't think twice about putting their sabers between your ribs on TV, and in real life, actors like Sean Bean (who plays lead Lord Eddard Stark) and Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) aren't any less intimidating. So why are the actors constantly under attack?

The most recent injury occurred earlier this week when Bean was drinking at a pub in London. According to the Daily Mail, a drunk passing by made lewd comments toward the "Lord of the Rings" actor's female drinking partner, and Bean stepped in to confront the man. Although he initially slinked away, the guy later returned and punched Bean in the face, then stabbed him in the arm with broken glass.

But because Bean is such a badass (and has his reputation to protect), the actor refused to go to a hospital, and instead ordered another round of beer. Another patron of the pub gave a quote when Bean and his lady-friend refused to comment:

Five pop culture items we missed

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Even if you spend all day surfing the Internet, some stuff will invariably fall through the cracks. Here are five pieces of pop ephemera we managed to salvage before the day was over.

1. Song of the day: Beyoncé's "4" album leaked three weeks early, and our favorite track so far is "Party" with Outkast's Andre 3000:

Beyonce - Party feat. Andre 3000 Vidéo MrMusic sélectionnée dans Musique

Why I reimagined “LOTR” from Mordor’s perspective

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:30:00 +0000

First, a few words about myself. I’m not a writer either in form (no literary memberships; royalties are a negligible share of my income) or in substance (writing fiction is not my only or even main occupation). I’m a senior researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Academy of Sciences – the very place where [Russian paleontologist and science fiction author] Yefremov used to work; professionally I’m known as the author of almost a hundred works on the classification of Chelicerata and historical biogeography. In the last few years I have found it more interesting to deal with living children than with extinct arthropods – I teach electives in high school, summer and winter supplemental courses, etc. I wrote a couple of textbooks, got involved in creating a new natural history school curriculum; if I had to state a preference, it is precisely those activities that I consider my most important. I graduated from the Biology College of the Moscow University (a well-known nest of Voltairians) and have gained most of my life experience in expeditions through Siberia and Middle Asia; I’m an epicurean hedonist in my aspirations and a skeptical rationalist by conviction. Do you get the picture?

Middle-earth according to Mordor

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:30:00 +0000

As bad lots go, you can't get much worse than the hordes of Mordor from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Led by an utterly evil disembodied entity who manifests himself as a gigantic, flaming, pitiless eye, and composed of loathsome orcs (or goblins), trolls and foreigners, Mordor's armies are ultimately defeated and wiped out by the virtuous and noble elves, dwarfs, ents and human beings -- aka the "free peoples" -- of Middle-earth. No one sheds a tear over Mordor's downfall, although the hobbit Sam Gamgee does spare a moment to wonder if a dead enemy soldier is truly evil or has simply been misguided or coerced into serving the dark lord Sauron.

Well, there's two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal maxim, history is written by the winners. That's the philosophy behind "The Last Ringbearer," a novel set during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of "The Lord of the Rings") and told from the point of view of the losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.

Martin Freeman cast as Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit”

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:23:00 +0000

The much maligned "Lord of the Rings" prequel just got a little … funnier?

Director Peter Jackson announced yesterday that British actor Martin Freeman will play the lead role of Bilbo Baggins. Freeman is best known to Americans for playing Tim Canterbury in the British version of "The Office." The character Tim, a mild-mannered salesman who is drolly aware of his job's pointlessness, is the U.K. version of Jim Halpert.

Freeman, at the very least, looks the part of Bilbo: boyish, unassuming, short with a decidedly British expression. "Hobbit" fans, however, wonder if Freeman can carry a dramatic movie. He was at ease starring in the underrated "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and he proved more than capable with short cameos in "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "Love Actually." But those, like "The Office," are comedies. Falling in love with the receptionist is one thing; fighting off trolls, goblins and giant spiders is another.

Will Tarantino direct “The Hobbit”?

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:30:00 +0000

Here's what Guillermo del Toro told me four years ago, in an interview at Cannes after the premiere of "Pan's Labyrinth": "I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits -- I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff."

Yes, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, but maybe del Toro should have stuck with that view all along. Two years after rearranging his family life and career and putting about a dozen other films on hold to move to New Zealand and direct a two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" for Peter Jackson, del Toro has now officially quit the project. Or semi-officially but not quite totally quit the project; he's still listed as a co-writer, along with Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and whoever else is hanging around the production offices in Wellington.

LOTR: Final showdown at Mount Doom

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:01:00 +0000

I'm calling a halt to the debate about whether Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy belongs on anybody's list of the greatest films of the 2000s, or whether (as I am beginning to believe) they are, like Tolkien's books, a sui generis accomplishment, in some ways out of step with their times.

But it wouldn't be very bloggy to end without giving each side one more shot, now would it? Reader Troy Blanchard from San Francisco, who describes himself as an admirer of the films and books, delivers an especially pithy summary of why he doesn't feel much need to watch the trilogy again:

The case against LOTR: Scrubbing bubbles!

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:07:00 +0000

Responses to my original post about how and why the critical reputation of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has fallen so far and so fast were divided fairly evenly between pro- and anti-LOTR factions. But while the lovers had a pretty consistent argument -- we think these are wonderful fantasy movies, and we don't care what the supposedly cool espresso-depresso crowd thinks -- the haters were all over the place.

This provokes me to milk the debate just a little longer, and also to save you the trouble of reading through almost 200 comments to find the juiciest McNuggets. To be clear, I'm genuinely not pimping any particular ideology. I enjoyed the films immensely, and wrote a rave about "Return of the King" for Salon at the time. But I can barely remember them today, feel unsure whether I'll ever watch them again, and still don't regret leaving them off my own personal decade-end list. Then again, this isn't about my dumb-ass list, or Stephanie Zacharek's, or anybody else's; this was about the fact that when I reached out to 60 or 70 filmmakers, critics and bloggers I know, in search of entries for our Films of the Decade series, not one of them suggested Jackson's colossal trilogy as a personal favorite. So something's going on here, and these responses are helping me figure it out a little.

Fantasy still can’t get no respect

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Why did LOTR drop off the critical radar at decade's end? Methinks it's due to that perennial, fundamental disrespect of the fantasy and science fiction genre, the same reason "sci-fi" literature was/is ghettoized and consigned to the bring-your-own-blacklight section of your local bookstore. See Ellison, Harlan, or King, Stephen. Or better, Dick, Philip, K. (while he was alive). "Fantasy" is just not as critic- or award-friendly as, say, our annual dose of Clint Eastwood directed melodramatic "relevant" Oscar fodder.

Or, as the great Firesign Theatre pinpointed, "honest stories of working people as told by rich Hollywood stars."

“Lord of the Rings”: WTF happened?

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:06:00 +0000

Last week we received a fascinating letter here at Film Salon Towers (OK, it's more like a deep purple grotto) from Matt Burr, a reader in Austin, Texas. In between bites of excellent Tex-Mex and BBQ, Matt raised a question about Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and all the recent decade-end lists, including our own Films of the Decade series. I realized it was a question that's been hovering, half-formed, in the back of my brain without quite expressing itself clearly.

I just want to ask [Matt writes] if one of the Salon movie contributors would explain why the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has been so disrespected by critics. Not just at Salon but also at Slate and in every list I have seen. This suggests that a negative critical consensus has formed about LOTR and I have to admit that that really surprises me. I consider LOTR one of the singular cinematic achievements in film history. But if not that, at least of the decade. And I think there was a time where some critics would have agreed with me. It seems that some sort of gestalt has changed while I wasn't looking.