Don't Start None, Won't Be None
Robert Duvall once said that a lot of people in Hollywood don’t know when to keep their mouths shut, and he couldn’t have been more correct. I thought I was done talking about Rings of Power and Hollywood’s dogged toxicity (for now, at least), but that was before I saw this:
Nice, guys, and not hugely inappropriate or dishonest in the slightest. Not at all. And it’s not at all telling that you’re the only Peter Jackson trilogy cast members to call Tolkien fans racists. Right? Right?
Seriously, everyone connected with Rings of Power should be ashamed of themselves. They set themselves up for what’s happening and are now reaping what they’ve sown.
If Rings of Power stuck to Tolkien or at least respected the lore, the vast majority of people would have fewer or no problems with it. That Amazon and the media would dig their heels so firmly into Racism Ridge indicates they know Rings of Power is a very expensive piece of crap but they’re too dishonest to admit it. It also says they know the fans are justified in calling them out.
However, as galling and disappointing as this hollow virtue-signal is, not to mention the media’s bowing and scraping, it got me thinking about something else:
Why is it, if America’s so racist, many well-loved parts and beloved stories can be multicultural and no one bats an eye?
The answers are simple.
First of all, America’s so-called racism isn’t what the media and Hollywood make it out to be. Racism does exist, but if one is constantly pointing fingers and yelling, “RACIST!” sooner or later the accusation becomes suspect if not completely meaningless.
In the case of Rings of Power, Elijah and his disgruntled band of white knights can’t cite a single specific example of actual racism on the part of Tolkien fans. They’ve got nothing but grandstanding and bloviation, and none of it is cute.
Or original, for that matter. There’s clearly a pattern among the current headlines:
CNN: Elijah Wood and original ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast shut down racist critics of ‘Rings of Power’
New York Post: Original ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast supports ‘Rings of Power’ amid racist attacks
News84Media: Elijah Wood and original ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast shut down racist critics of ‘Rings of Power’
New York Daily News: ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast reunites to shut down racist ‘Rings of Power’ critics
IndieWire: ‘Lord of the Rings’ Alums Elijah Wood, Sean Astin Support ‘Rings of Power’ Amid Racist Backlash
Um, hobbitses? Disagreeing with casting choices isn’t racist, and in my opinion Rings of Power was not cast correctly. The acting is terrible. Elrond and Galadriel’s scenes together are stiff as boards. Princess Disa literally blends into her surroundings when we first see her, which isn’t a good look for anyone. A lot of the characters have no reason to exist. Let’s be honest.
Secondly, some writers go for more of a blank canvas feel than others, and that makes a huge difference in the way a story is presented. The stage directions in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, for example, are meticulously detailed right down to the color scheme of Harold Higgins’ study (dark red wallpaper and mahogany furniture) or the style of Eliza’s robe (light blue with white jasmine blossoms). Shaw knew exactly how he wanted his plays to look and feel, and woe betide anyone who deviated from his vision.
Like Shaw, Tolkien put immense detail into his work and was extremely protective of it, which is probably why he refused to let the Beatles make an animated version of The Lord of the Rings.
(He was also not racist in the slightest, by the way, as demonstrated in this smackdown of Nazi Germany. But I digress.)
On the other end of the spectrum, Shakespeare’s stage direction is minimal to the point of nonexistence, which means the design and casting choices are pretty wide-open. They fight. They kiss. Dies. Falls. Enter. Exit. No directions on interpretation of lines, either, presumably because the words don’t need help, plus Shakespeare’s original actors would have known what he wanted. Any physical descriptions of scenes are also ambiguous. An island. The forest. The street. Juliet’s bedchamber.
That’s it. That’s why Shakespeare can be set in different countries and different time periods without losing anything in translation. The plays lend themselves to versatility.
Shakespeare isn’t the only writer who left his work open for interpretation. It’s pretty safe to say that no one running cover for Rings of Power has stopped to consider why Norm Lewis beautifully plays roles such as Harold Hill, Javert, Erik the Opera Ghost, Sweeney Todd, and Billy Flynn and no one gripes about race-swapping.
Or how about Denzel Washington as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing? Or as the title character in MacBeth? Hello. I’ll be doing a full review of that little Coen gem someday.
Or why most James Bond fans aren’t opposed to the idea of Idris Elba playing 007. Bond might be associated with the likes of Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, but in the end he’s another blank canvas. And Idris Elba is so danged cool.
Neither method of storytelling is superior to the other; each serves a purpose and each deserves respect on its own merits. The trick is that none of it is contrived; the characters and the actors have to bring something that connects meaningfully with the audience beyond surface characteristics and tokenism.
Again, we reap what we sow, and since the first Rings of Power posters dropped Amazon has predisposed people to hate the series. The longer they keep going down that road, the less likely it is that the show will succeed, and seeing as Amazon and its allies keep piling on the accusations and fudging the data, it’s obvious that they don’t care. One might argue that this is a weird sort of marketing ploy because it sticks the show in the news, but one doesn’t win friends by making sweeping accusations and telling people how horrible they are.