The emperor has no clothes

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2004)

Lord of the rings has been hailed as The literary work for half a decade. There are some of us who are completely baffled by this, this hysteria. My conclusion is that this story is celebrating tyranny, hierarchy, racism and attacking basic feminism. And that's why it is so popular. People like to have a mirror of their own daily life, a life they desperately claim is a good one. It is the defense of a world filled with ignorance, injustice and intolerance.
So, when the source material is this bad, the movie couldn't really be much to speak of. And it isn't. From the first moment we're confronted by the old, trite ideas of good versus evil, foreigner versus patriot, and so on. This story could just as well have been used and written as a propaganda tool for old Britain, and it was, and it is. So old fashioned and so supportive of strong «leadership» that one wants to puke.
Tolkien supports strong leaders, a hierarchical society. Doing the good vs evil illusion. Two countries going to war, generally speaking are basically equally bad.
The village is presented as a kind of ideal life. Yet, they are kind of simpletons, who enjoy village life and don't want to take part in ruling society. They leave that to the kings, the lords and such. Life, society in his stories is basically fair. Sauron (outside influence) and "traitors" make it bad. Nothing about society itself being bad.
Agriculture is hailed as a paradise. Nothing about the amount of pollution and poisons being produced by it.
Even the virtual complete lack of blacks in the story is proof in itself that it is racist. The orcs are another telling example.
Women, in the sense they are present at all, are merely ornaments. The worst part is Arwen, who is sacrificing immortality to follow a man and his preferences. And this story is hailed as some of the best of the previous century?
Unbelievable.
Intelligent men and women don't dislike the story because of the action, but because it is an insult to their intelligence.
Let me point out that I have respect for the amount of work Tolkien put into it. Or would have had, if the end result had been better, if he wasn't soiled in conservatism.
As stated the emperor has no clothes.
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