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What are your thoughts on Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings project?

posted 6 years ago by RussellNash (2087)
31 replies | jump to latest

Allegedly it's going to be the most expensive tv series ever made. Recently it's been revealed that it will take place in the second age in Tolkien's fictive world of Arda. As Tolkien readers will know, this is roughly 3500 years before the events in the Lord of the Rings and will cover the rise of Númenor (the civilization of Aragorn's forefathers), the rise of Sauron in Middle-earth, and the wars of the Rings between Sauron and the Elves. We see a glimpse of some of these events in the prologue to Fellowship.

I've been a huge fan of Tolkien and his universe since I was 7, and I enjoyed Peter Jackson's original trilogy, particularly Fellowship. Yet I have no clue about what to expect of this new series. I do fear that it will be too heavilly influenced by the present time and political correctness, which in my opinion ruined the Hobbit trilogy and the new Star Wars trilogy. I have little hopes in a faithful Tolkien adaptation which will stand the test of time. But hey, I might be pleasantly surprised! I will have to subscribe to Prime to find out, no matter what.

[–] howgamer (3933) 6 years ago

I love the LOTR and Hobbit books and started reading them as a child. I thought the LOTR film trilogy was absolutely outstanding. The Hobbit was ruined by gobs and gobs of unnecessary CGI and multiple changes to the story imo and I did not really enjoy them that much especially the last two films.

I am very excited for the series and glad that they are going with a timeline which will separate it somewhat from the films and popular story we all know. This is good imo since the expectations are going to be huge.

[–] RussellNash (2087) 6 years ago

I completely agree about the two trilogies, howgamer.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

I'd also heard that someone was developing a TV series about Young Aragorn, which I think is a great idea.

Anyone know anything?

[–] RussellNash (2087) 5 years ago

I heard rumours about that too.

There's a fan-made movie on YouTube about Aragorn's hunt for Gollum. I wonder if it might have created those rumours.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14437) 5 years ago

I've asked my brother multiple times if they're gonna go full SJW on this and ruin it too, but he assures me that whoever's at the helm of this project actually cares about respecting the source material, which is rare in the realm of tv and movies today. I'm hoping he's right. Last thing I need are black people shoved into parts of Middle Earth where they never existed, different groups shitting on humans for being "racist," and various races disrespecting the environment and being shamed for it.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Tolkien himself had very strong environmental feelings, he loved nature and loathed seeing it despoiled for profit, and that's all through the "Lord of the Rings" book and especially the "Scouring of the Shire". So yes, including a respect for the natural world would be 100% true to the source material, even if you don't like it.

As for Tolkien's attitudes about race... I do expect a few changes.

[–] RussellNash (2087) 5 years ago

I hope your brother is right, AmeriGirl! Does he happen to have inside information?

Otter is right about Tolkien's view on environment. I think Jackson included this tactfully in the trilogy (the destruction of the gardens and forests around Isengard).

As I wrote in my OP, I sincerely hope that the series won't succumb to modern day political correctness. That being said, Tolkien was a great humanitarian and I love the following:

Berlin publisher Rütten & Loening wrote to Tolkien's publishers to express its interest in a German edition. The company had previously been owned by German Jews, but in 1936 Wilhelm Ernst Oswalt and Adolf Neumann were forced to sell to an "Aryan" citizen as per the anti-Semitic and racist Nuremberg Laws, designed to isolate, dispossess and intimidate the country's Jewish population.

New owner Albert Hachfeld fired all Jewish staff and dropped all Jewish writers. In the letter to Tolkien, his firm explained that before it could start work on a German version of The Hobbit, they had to ensure Tolkien's "Aryan descent," i.e., make sure he had no Jewish ancestry.

In a letter to his friend and publisher Stanley Unwin, Tolkien said the letter from Berlin was "a bit stiff." He questioned whether "I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require a certificate of arisch [Aryan] origin from all persons of all countries?"

"I should be inclined to refuse to give any Bestätigung [confirmation] (although it happens that I can), and let a German translation go hang," Tolkien added. "In any case I should object strongly to any such declaration appearing in print."

Tolkien submitted two draft replies to the German. The first simply ignored the request. But the second demonstrates the author's opinion on the Nazi state—and its misunderstanding of the word "Aryan"—in no uncertain terms. It reads as follows:

[–] RussellNash (2087) 5 years ago

"Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects.

"But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject—which should be sufficient.

"I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

https://www.newsweek.com/hobbit-how-tolkien-sunk-german-anti-semitic-inquiry-his-race-1132744