LOTR:John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Interview (MUST READ)Islam Vs. The West

http://promontoryartists.org/lookingcloser/movie%20reviews/Q-Z/returnoftheking-jrd.htm ^ | 12-05-03 | Jeffrey Overstreet

[OXENinFLA]

On Wednesday, Dec. 5th, Jeffrey Overstreet joined several other privileged film critics, including Steven D. Greydanus (Decent Films), Andrew Coffin (World), and Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) to talk with members of the cast and crew for the year's most ambitious, exhausting, and gloriously realized film.

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(There's some stuff about the movie but then this question is asked.)

Jeffrey: How much of Tolkien’s Catholic beliefs and perspective resonate with you?

I’m burying my career so substantially in these interviews that it’s painful. But I think that there are some questions that demand honest answers.

I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged. And if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose their civilization. That does have a real resonance with me.

I have had the ideal background for being an actor. I have always been an outsider. I grew up in colonial Africa. And I remember in 1955, it would have to be somewhere between July the 25th when the school holiday started and September the 18th when the holidays ended. My father took me down to the quayside in Dar-Es-Salaam harbor. And he pointed out a dhow in the harbor and he said, “You see that dhow there? Twice a year it comes down from Aden. It stops here and goes down [South]. On the way down it's got boxes of machinery and goods. On the way back up it’s got two or three little black boys on it. Now, those boys are slaves. And the United Nations will not let me do anything about it.”

The conversation went on. “Look, boy. There is not going to be a World War between Russia and the United. The next World War will be between Islam and the West.”

This is 1955! I said to him, “Dad, you’re nuts! The Crusades have been over for hundreds of years!”

And he said, “Well, I know, but militant Islam is on the rise again. And you will see it in your lifetime.”

He’s been dead some years now. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and think, “God, I wish you were here, just so I could tell you that you were right.”

What is unconscionable is that too many of your fellow journalists do not understand how precarious Western civilization is and what a jewel it is.

How did we get the sort of real democracy, how did we get the level of tolerance that allows me to propound something that may be completely alien to you around this table, and yet you will take it and you will think about it and you’ll say no you’re wrong because of this and this and this. And I’ll listen and I’ll say, “Well, actually, maybe I am wrong because of this and this.”

[He points at a female reporter and adopts an authoritarian voice, to play a militant-Islam character:] ‘You should not be in this room. Because your husband or your father is not hear to guide you. You could only be here in this room with these strange men for immoral purposes.’

I mean… the abolition of slavery comes from Western democracy. True Democracy comes form our Greco-Judeo-Christian-Western experience. If we lose these things, then this is a catastrophe for the world.

And there is a demographic catastrophe happening in Europe that nobody wants to talk about, that we daren’t bring up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well.

By 2020, 50% of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim descent. You look and see what your founding fathers thought of the Dutch. They are constantly looking at the rise of democracy and Dutch values as being the very foundation of American Democracy. If by the mid-century the bulk of Holland is Muslim—and don’t forget, coupled with this there is this collapse of numbers ... Western Europeans are not having any babies. The population of Germany at the end of the century is going to be 56% of what it is now. The populations of France, 52% of what it is now. The population of Italy is going to be down 7 million people. There is a change happening in the very complexion of Western civilization in Europe that we should think about at least and argue about. If it just means the replacement of one genetic stock with another genetic stock, that doesn’t matter too much. But if it involves the replacement of Western civilization with a different civilization with different cultural values, then it is something we really ought to discuss—because, g**dammit, I am for dead white male culture.

You do realize in this town what I’ve been saying [is like] blasphemy…

…but we’ve got to get a bit serious. By and large our cultures and our society are resilient enough to put up with any sort of nonsense. But if Tolkien’s got a message, it’s that “Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and fight for what you believe in.” He knew what he was fighting for in WW1.

[With that, he departed our appreciative and applauding table, saying:] Try and put verbs in my sentences.

[RinaseaofDs]

Satan is the prince of this world. We have the Comforter in this interim, but God has yet to establish His Kingdom on earth.

This is something most Christians overlook.

[MonroeDNA]

Fat? You are nuts.

[Nebr FAL owner]

The Good Lord helps those that help themselves ! That is why the West with it's Greco-Judeo-Christian culture is finding cures to diseases & contemplating going out to study the stars & planets & all of God's wonderous works and why the muslim world is barely advanced beyond the outdoor privy ! It is because they are always saying if Allah wills it & sit back & wait for somebody else to get the job done.

[stuartcr]

Very true.

[stuartcr]

I don't believe that satan is the prince of this world.

[stuartcr]

That must be the way God wants it to be.

[RightOnline]

Re: Your #74: Stick to riding bikes. Minimizes how much you show your ass publicly.

[stuartcr]

So after the final war, we will all believe the same? I doubt it.

[stuartcr]

Must be God's will.

[Tolik]

Amazing book. I am 20% through and enjoying immensely.

[King Prout]

I have no words grand enough to express my gratitude for this man.

[jocon307]

The link on this thread actually gives a better version of the interview than the article on NRO today. That leaves out Rhys-Davies' comments to the woman reporter present.

Of course, I totally love this guy now. And his dad was pretty prescient, he must have been a smart guy.

I have a very good friend, her ancestry goes all the way back to the Mayflower, she's more libertarian than conservative, but she's steeped in the Anglo/American tradition. I'll never forget what she said to me in our first calm conversation on Sept. 11th: This is the war, the war we've been expecting our whole lives.

Rhys-Davies seems to grasp this too. I very much like that he highlights the falling birthrate in Europe. The self-hatred had become self-destruction; but I have hope, I really do. I have hope in the common man, and in the internet, etc. to liberate our power.

I do not think to many of us want to be Muslims, I'd say the most "interesting" place to be may be Europe over the next few years.

We'll see!

[Deb]

:+)

[Utah Girl]

Interesting ping for you

[Fledermaus]

Funny...discrimination is alive and well in Hollywood if he even thinks he's "ending his career".

I don't get it. Gays demand rights but conservatives in Hollywood don't get any.

[Fledermaus]

He's a great actor. How many 6'1" men can pull off a dwarf? And he got all the good comic lines.

Remember in the Two Towers where he tells Aragon, "go ahead, toss me"? Funny line.

[Fledermaus]

You can tell from this interview that this man LOVED his father.

How many of us can say that at age 11, in 1955, can have meaninful conversations about political ideals?

I don't even care if he's a Democrat, he's right on the money with his views. And he'll do just fine in the future. No one would be stupid enough not to cast him.

[Fledermaus]

You can hate Rush all you want but to say he "shouldn't say much of anything" says more about your faux conservatism and judging of others than him.

Anyone that says others "shouldn't" say anything is a facist. You need to rethink your hatred and your rhetoric before you are the one that we all wonder why is saying anything.

And quit shoving your ideals on others. DRUG users come in all kinds and Rush was taking PRESCRIPTION drugs for pain. Yes, addiction happened as it does with millions like Betty Ford.

I hope your glass house is built on soft sand.

[KneelBeforeZod]

well to see what if rush was S T R E T C H I N G yet again, I checked out the DUmmies. they have a thread titled "Gimli actor is a white supremist"

[Fledermaus]

He's a troll.