The grand themes of The Lord of the Rings are timeless and
universal
– loyalty, friendship, good versus evil, the nobility of the
heroic quest – but the fit is not quite perfect.
The grand themes of The Lord of the Rings are timeless and universal – loyalty, friendship, good versus evil, the nobility of the heroic quest – but the fit is not quite perfect. For example, there is a terrific scene in “The Return of the King” in which Pippin, seeing an unimaginably huge army marching toward his city, turns to Gandalf and asks, “Is there any hope for Frodo and Sam?” and Gandalf replies, “There was never much hope — only a fool’s hope.”
That’s where American audiences are put to the real test of imagination, because we have no modern experience in long odds, in striving against vastly superior force, in fools’ hopes. It’s been quite a while since we were outgunned or outmanned; we have lost the memory of peering over the battlements and seeing an enormous power arrayed against our puny defenses.
We are the power to be reckoned with. If threatened, we send out a bulldozer to mow down the enemy. If a bulldozer isn’t enough we send a tank, then a hundred tanks, then a thousand planes, then 11,492 nuclear weapons — whatever it takes, we win. So it’s hard to put ourselves in the position of Tolkien’s heroes, stunned and amazed at their own victory. If it were us, things would be different.
ORC CAPTAIN: My lord Aragorn, your victory over Mordor is complete. We surrender and expect no mercy.
ARAGORN: Nonsense, we have no quarrel with you; we only came here to free you from your evil tyrant Lord Sauron. Now that we have prevailed, we will offer you our assistance in rebuilding Mordor so you can have a nice country and be free just like us and have freedom and live in freedom and learn to say “freedom” over and over again as you learn what we want you to want it to mean.
For example, the first thing I notice is that the Black Gate at the entrance to your country is ruined; now, I happen to control a wonderful construction company – my vice president, Captain Faramir, used to be CEO – that will rebuild it, with lights and cameras and high-tech stuff all over it, and …
ORC CAPTAIN: But my lord, we don’t really need that gate rebuilt now that …
ARAGORN: Nonsense, of course you need it, and you will have a generous amount of time to repay us for the work; now, Lord Halliburton does charge top dollar, but the workmanship! You’ll be so pleased. And then there are the power stations, and you’ll need some freeways and a whole new phone system, and a network of Internet cafes — have you heard of those? They’re marvelous, and prisons, and pipelines and harbors and TV stations. Fortunately I also have a list of approved companies that will do it all, and the good news is, we’re going to give you a great interest rate on the loans!
ORC CAPTAIN: But my lord, we haven’t had time to plan what we want to do with our country or which direction we want to go, so we really don’t need so much …
ARAGORN: Nonsense, we know what’s best for you, we’re the good guys, remember? Now just try to stay out of our way while we build you a nice new country –- we’ll tell you when you can have it back – and by the way, “Mordor” is kind of a bummer name, don’t you think? We have a committee working on a better name, and also we have some ideas about your religion; how would you all like to become Swedish Anglicans? It’s a very nice religion, we’ll build you some churches …
