John Rhys-Davies on Tolkien and Islam (Q&A)

This is an excerpt from a Q&A given at the Gen Con Game Fair that just wrapped up. John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli in Lord of the Rings, and also Sallah in the Indiana Jones films, is taking questions from the audience. Here's one of them, taken from a longer intereview:

Question: But my question. those of us who spend way too much time on the internet noticed that you get asked, or all the actors, get asked a lot of the same questions over and over again and so I just wondered what you wished fans or journalists would ask you about.

JRD: Well, I mean there's a difference between fans and journalists; there's a difference between talking about the film, which I think is one of the great pictures of all-time (applause and cheers). But the question I'd like to get asked is 'Does it mean anything?' and uh, I suspect it does. I think that Tolkien is a man living in a particular age of crisis and his life is quite uneventful, really, except for the fact that he's a captain in the First World War. He was at the first battle of the Somme. The British army in the first DAY of the first battle of the Somme I think probably had 20,000 dead and maybe 60 or 80,000 wounded. And that was the first day. You don't go through that sort of furnace without having to ask yourself questions: Why are we fighting? Is the cause we're fighting for a just one? How can I justify the deaths of those men that I'm leading? And I think that

Tolkien found a justification for it. His justification is that there are certain times when your civilization is challenged and if you do not meet that challenge and overcome it, you will lose your civilization.

And I think that there's a terrible resonance between that period of time and our period now. I do think that our civilization is being challenged. We've been challenged internally because I think we've lost so much character, moral fiber, decency, integrity, and I think it's being challenged partly, because we have lost those, externally by fundamental Islam. And I think that if we do not pull ourselves together and recognize that that challenge is there, we're going to end up with people taking a hammer to the Pieta and to the.you know, defacing pictures and portraits in the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But you Americans I think are further along the way of realizing that. I actually think that you're morally a stronger country than Britain is. I'm appalled by what I see in England these days. There was a time when an Englishman's word was his bond and an Englishman didn't steal. Even Welshmen. (laughter) The little town where I live in Wales, well not far from where I used to live in Wales, has one of the highest rates of carjacking in the world. More cars are stolen from Exely and Swansea and places like that than almost any other part of the world, including Bogotá and places like that. I'm ashamed and embarrassed by that but you, know unless we start to affirm that we are not going to steal, that we will not put up with theft, that we will not put up with drug-taking, we will lose our society, and then perhaps it will be for the best that fundamental Islam, which forbids these things, sweeps across the world. I personally dread that thought. I hope one day that I will have great-granddaughters and I am very adamant and determined that one should not lose one's daughter's fingernails to the local Taliban if she dares to paint them.

The resonance between Lord of the Rings and present time is that we need people of courage to take the real challenge to our civilization and meet it head-on and win.

And that is a very unpopular cause, often, and it is very easy to say 'Oh, let somebody else do it'. And that is one of the questions that I wish somebody would ask. At least, one of the answers that I would give to one of the questions that I wish someone would ask (applause).

Yes, I do not think that the Germans wanted to 'rule the world', or desired it to any particular degree greater or lesser than any of the other involved parties.

There's where we differ. Go ahead and think what you like, because you haven't changed my mind in the least.

I have no desire to change your mind. I simply point out factually incorrect or unsupportable historical theory when I see it.

Kaiser Willhelm's cabinet wanted war, and they would have obtained it anyway they could. And their goal was nothing short of domination of all of Europe. And it isn't hard to imagine that if such appetites were possible, they could never be satisfied with anything less than control of the world.

Yes, to someone with your rather robust imagination, I'm sure that wouldn't be hard.

While France and Germany align to try to dominate the EU, and therefore control Europe "politically," and while France and Germany attempt to create a counterbalance to American influence in the world, keep thinking that there is no danger.

What a cartoonish synopsis of current geopolitical dynamics. Please do detail exactly how these two have aligned and exactly how they're pose a 'danger' to the US.

You're safe for now. After all, your German Univeristy experience was so cosmopolitain.

I'm safe now because, unlike you, I don't have voices in my head and I actually know what I'm talking about.

Keep tilting at windmills if you'd like.

re: My wife's wise policy is to know as little about these folks' personal lives and views as she can. She has found that, when they're not saying and doing what others write for them, they're pretty disappointing. There are exceptions, of course -- but a lot of NOT! )))

I like movies--like a good story. I love LOTR--love a GREAT story.

I have tried to avoid reading celebrity interviews of actors--actors are 95% low-IQ, gullible, easily led by pompous activism, have no education to speak of. What they can do is "let's pretend" effectively. Your pleasure with stories will be spoiled if you read celeb interviews--

Wish I'd never seen that ridiculous "No Blood For Oil"--because Aragorn's lines with Theoden in TTT were so at odds with Viggo's silly, shallow Old Euro public politics. Now I've started to wonder if Sean Bean might have made a better Aragorn--

I agree. I've often wondered: does acting ATTRACT (generalizing, here) messed-up, immoral, clueless people, or does it CREATE messed-up, immoral, clueless people?

The lazy answer may be the correct one, that it is a both-and situation.

It is nice when exceptions like JRD and Sean Astin and (on many things) Tom Selleck and Mel Gibson and Charlton Hestin come along.

But they're definitely the exceptions, not the rule.

Dan

re: I agree. I've often wondered: does acting ATTRACT (generalizing, here) messed-up, immoral, clueless people, or does it CREATE messed-up, immoral, clueless people? )))

Probably some of both.

Having watched a fourth-string celebrity at close range for a number of years, there's also another psychology at work that decays the character of the artist.

You get so much attn, so much money, so many people telling you that you're wonderful that all those basic needs are satisfied. Pretty soon you need to have your "Great Wisdom" validated by spouting off shallow political postures, generally rec'd from a fellow artist at some party whose favor you're currying. Naturally, if you're such a success, so important, your *attitudes* must be Important, too.

Truthfully, I often break my own rule and end up paying attn to what they say, despite myself. Now, why do I do that? Maybe I buy into this celebrity nonsense, just like the celebrities do.

Happen to listen in on a Kate Hudson interview where the reporter tried to trap her into saying something stupid. She, little 23-yr-old daughter of Goldie Hawn, said, "Now why would anyone care what I think about politics? I'm just an actress, and can only speak from a show-business world"--something like that. Now, I was impressed. This girl is much smarter than she looks...

No. I just think John is exceptional. Most people we come in contact with think America is the big threat to peace in the world. We got into a huge fight in South Africa at dinner one night a couple of months ago during a shoot. Everyone (Brits, Americans, South Africans), at the table was screaming at us. But I can't blame them since the international press is completely anti-US. I can't name a single pro-American movie to come out of the foreign film community...ever.

The worst thing about having to travel so much is learning that the World really has a uniformly negative image of us. Of course, it's gotten worse since GW was elected because the international left-wing, which controls all media, is hysterical with hatred.

I was surprised how biased Sky News is against Bush, since it's owned by Murdock. I don't understand it. And if you think CNN is slanted, you won't believe how bad CNN International is.

We have run into only one group of Republicans, or conservatives in the film business, and that was the American film crew shooting in Bulgaria last year. Producers, director and just about everyone in the production company was a good guy.

No, JRD is exceptional. And having been a history professor, he can win every argument.

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