Actor John Rhys-Davies talks about LOTR, Hollywood, and real war

National Review Online ^ | March 5, 2004 | Andrew Leigh

[doberville]

What is a Welsh Rarebit?

A Cardiff virgin.

[ecurbh]

Ring Ping!!

The Hobbit Hole :: Troop Support Projects

Anyone wishing to be added to or removed from the Ring-Ping list, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[Tax Government]

I spent the day on the Russia-sponsored Chechen website, http://www.chechnyafree.ru.

This site has a huge amount of info about Chechen culture, ethnography and history. It is hard to miss the parallel between the LOTR story and the Chechen defense of their land against Tamerlane and Genghis Khan.

The key aspect of the LOTR story, magic aside, is a tribal mountain people's defense against hordes from the East. This is, in a sentence, the Chechen experience. From guard towers that report fires, from war parties climbing and attacking invaders from icy mountains, to herding the population into mountain redoubts -- this is the same story.

Aragorn was a Chechen warlord. (Reportedly, their society was non-feudal, clan-based and democratic, a very interesting idea for our own tax-burdened society to consider.)

The Chechen language was only written within the last century or so. If you want to hear some interesting music, in a language that has been isolated from outside influences for thousands of years, more recent Russian word-borrowing aside, listen to the music on the same site.

[sneakers]

"He'd make a great Peter in the next Gibson epic."

Oh my gosh! You are so right! I was thinking that Mel should do a movie about the early church. JRD would make a perfect Apostle Peter.

[Alkhin]

Thanks for the link ecurbh!!

JRD, THANK YOU for speaking up! I don't mind so much that people voice opposition. Its when they move from opposing an issue to opposing the people that oppose THEM that has me on a tear myself. Especially when they are so ready to spit in the face of the society/country/culture that fosters their very independence.

Eagles up, Mr. Davies! Eagles up!

[Valin]

"It's not a question of the decency of Muslims," he says, many of whom he admires and respects. But "radical Islamist groups are controlling, manipulating, and forming the attitudes of Muslims throughout Europe,"

YES!!! a point some of us have been making since 9-11

[nuconvert]

"Rhys-Davies used to be a radical leftist, as a university student in the '60s. He first started to come around when he went to the local hall to hear a young local member of parliament by the name of Margaret Thatcher. "I went to heckle her," Rhys-Davies says. "She shot down the first two hecklers in such brilliant fashion that I decided I ought for once to shut up and listen."

Smart....changed his life

[future tense]

yes, that is right who cares? youll never win them over. As Rush Limbaugh has said too many conservatives feel they need to have their idealogy validated by the rich and famous and it is becasue they lack confidence.

You are assigning way to much influence to hollywood and need to give average people a little more credit for their intelligence and ability to separate fact from fiction when the yeatch TV and Movies

I'm not necessarily trying to win them over. I'm merely giving credit to those who already are on our side. Maybe if we gave those few conservatives in Hollywood a little more encouragement, they will be emboldened to stick their necks out a little more.

I'm not one who feels a need to have my beliefs validated by the rich and famous. But a fact of human society is, (far too) many of the great unwashed look to the rich and famous as guideposts. I don't like this. But whether I like it or not, it's the way things are. And conservatives are noted for dealing with the reality of things, not the way they wish they could be.

Of course most people can separate fact from fiction and realize that TV is not real life -- at least on the surface. But there's a reason corporations spend billions on advertising and hiring famous spokespeople. Images and celebrity can affect the way people think, often on a subconscious level, to the point where it can ultimately affect their behavior and belief systems.

Now, I'm not necessarily going to devote my life to converting every Hollywood celebrity to conservatism. But we're fooling ourselves if we dismiss Hollywood culture as completely irrelevant. Just take a look at the steady coarsening of our culture since the 1960s, and tell me it doesn't have an effect. What was considered unacceptable then is yawned at now. (Gay marriage, anyone?)

[Deb]

You're so very wrong. John just wrapped the "Princess Diaries II" on Thursday and Garry Marshall loved JRD so much he had his part expanded. That's a very good sign considering the cast was littered with lefties like Hector Elizondo.

[Eurotwit]

Quite the opposite. If Britney Spears or Madonna endorsed Bush, I would have to reexamine my views :-)

[grellis]

After I found out Tim Robbins was a flaming Lefty, I decided to not try to find out about the politics of actors I liked.

How is that working out ofr you? I tried the same thing but found I didn't really want to give up watching the news, reading newspapers, listening to the radio...

[Kieri]

If Peter Jackson goes ahead and agrees to direct "The Hobbit" (after the studios resolve who owns the rights to what), Rhys-Davies could be brought in to play Balin, one of his relatives, who made the trip to the Lonely Mountain with Bilbo & Co. Jackson wants Ian McClellan to reprise his role as Gandalf, and Rhys-Davies would sweeten the plot!

Legolas could also be brought in legitimately. It would be fun to see our favorite wood elf again!

[Kieri]

Hey! I think he was also in the nifty Sci-Fi series called "SLIDERS". Good actor. Now I have even more reason to like him.

He was -- he played Professor Arturo, the "father figure" of the party.

I quit watching after he was killed off. The show lost the depth of character when he left and the plots went downhill.

[eddie willers]

From the article:

Rhys-Davies used to be a radical leftist, as a university student in the '60s. He first started to come around when he went to the local hall to hear a young local member of parliament by the name of Margaret Thatcher. "I went to heckle her," Rhys-Davies says. "She shot down the first two hecklers in such brilliant fashion that I decided I ought for once to shut up and listen."

LOL...Seems to be the start of a pattern.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

In his view, "Fundamental Islamism is a particularly brutish and unpleasant form of fascism." He fears that if it becomes the dominant culture in Europe, it will wipe out all that is good about Western culture.

BUMP

[Deb]

Sometimes, when I need to win an argument, I wear my Maggie Thatcher t-shirt and gently suggest he "Shut up and listen". I rarely need to "hand-bag" him.

[Prairie Pubbie]

This is EXACTLY what John Rhys-Davies has been saying for some time. Here are some quotes from a recent National Review Online article:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/leigh200403051052.asp

"But "radical Islamist groups are controlling, manipulating, and forming the attitudes of Muslims throughout Europe," he adds. And Rhys-Davies fears that, due to their demographic advantages, their culture may eventually swamp or supplant the indigenous cultures of Europe."


"Europeans are having fewer and fewer children, while migrant populations, predominantly Muslim, are growing much faster. Most European fertility rates have dropped so much that they have declined below the break-even point, to the degree that populations are actually beginning to shrink."


"If the current trend continues, Rhys-Davies says, "The population of Germany at the end of the century is going to be 56 percent of what it is now. The population of France will decline to about 52 percent."


"Meanwhile, Muslim immigrants are having babies at a much faster clip, so that in time, they may become the majority population throughout Europe.


"Last year, 56 percent of the babies born in Brussels were Muslim," Rhys-Davies notes. "In a matter of 20-50 years, we are going to see two to three countries become predominately Muslim — Holland, France, and possibly Germany."

WAKE UP, EUROPE!

[Prairie Pubbie]

Apologies...I intended to post this reply to another thread and had this thread up for reference. I accidentally posted it to this thread! SORRY!