An Insult to Both Tolkien and America

Oregon Magazine ^ | December 4, 2002 | Larry Leonard

[WaterDragon]

December 4, 2002, Charlie Rose (PBS) -- Viggo Mortenson. He is the actor who plays Strider (Aragorn of Arathorn) in the Ring Trilogy. He is, he says, an American. He appeared on this program with Peter Jackson, the director and Elijah Wood, who is Frodo. Wearing a t-shirt that he made himself, which said "No more blood for oil....(snip)

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[CapedCrusader]

Geez, and here I thought that dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was about bombing innocent civilians. I stand corrected, I guess.

[CapedCrusader]

Yeah... just points out that yes, oil IS worth a certain amount of blood. Nothing wrong with that.

Than just about anything is worth a certain amount of blood. Everything wrong with that.

[CapedCrusader]

Don't you think anything is worth risking your life for? Do you drive to work every day?

So you're saying that the ability to drive our cars and be parasitic on cheap Middle East oil thereby propping-up their totalitarian, fascistic and un-democratic regimes is something worthing dying for? Astounding.

[HairOfTheDog]

His country has allowed him to be successful, it also has a rule that he is free to dissent with a particular policy if he wishes.

Avoid the film if you like. I won't miss it. The story is too loved by me, and the adaptation of it to film too wonderful for a man's politics to interfere with. He is a great actor. I hire him to act with my money, not run my country. If he acts well, he deserves my money.

You are careful with your funds, perhaps, but perhaps not your time and energy. I do not want to know the politics of my soup maker, my toilet paper maker or the guy that cuts my hair. I don't have time to give everyone I do business with a litmus test.

[HairOfTheDog]

:~D True.... actors have a platform to speak that toilet paper makers to not have! Lucky for the toilet paper makers!

[rmmcdaniell]

"......If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied......"

This is very interesting commentary, and it does not cast the good guys from WWII -- and, by extension, us, fifty years later -- in a good light.

So in order for us to be "good" in Tolkein's eyes we would have had to destroy the ring (nukes) and never use them to shorten the war and save lives. We would also had to have commited genocide on the Japanese and Germans instead of occupying their country? I think your misreading Tolkein in this case. He was just trying to say that Lord of the Rings was not based on World War 2. I don't think he's saying that the heros in his books took an appropriate action and that the victors of World War 2 were wrong in what they did.

[Rocko]

It's pathetic he believes I'd care what he thinks about Iraq.

[k2blader]

This is going to ruin my "Two Towers" cinematographic experience a tad... :~[

[Sloth]

I'm saying that most of us get up and drive our cars to work everyday, knowing that in doing so we present a not-insignificant risk to our own lives as well as those of strangers, in order to do nothing more altrusitic than getting money to make our lives more pleasant. It's a cost-benefit balance. We have decided, as a culture, that certain conveniences are worth certain risks. What's your problem?

[Capriole]

I don't care about his political stances. He IS Aragorn.

I dunno, I always thought Aragorn was less filthy, greasy, and foul-smelling. One is compelled to wonder why Arwen doesn't make him go to the barber and take a shower.

I won't let Mortensen's political views bother me because when watching a film I assume that ALL the actors are brainless liberals, with the exception of Mel Gibson. But I do wish I didn't know that Gandalf is queer. I can't look at him anymore without imagining Gandalf using some boy in various ways too horrible to contemplate.

[CapedCrusader]

Fighting wars for oil while ensuring despotic regimes like in Saudi Arabia is my problem.

[ecurbh]

Ring Ping!!

[Hildy]

How much oil was used to shoot that movie, I wonder? Maybe Hollywood should start conserving first.

[45semi]

You would think their manager's would be on them like babysitter's, trying to keep them from destroying their own career's with political commentary sure to piss of at least a portion of their politically active movie-going audience...

[Libertina]

Sad to hear this... I loved him in this movie. Actors should learn. Of course they can have personal opinions, but when their opinions are louder than their acting talent, it makes the public choose. And we choose "Just say NO, to America haters."

[JenB]

Thanks for pinging me. Actors should not be allowed to talk about their views of anything except movies.