Is Art Limited?

[Grieve]

The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003): Author J. R. R. Tolkien was deeply conservative, so it’s no surprise that the trilogy of movies based on his masterwork is as well. Largely filmed before 9/11, they seemed perfectly pitched for the post-9/11 world. The debates over what to do about Sauron and Saruman echoed our own disputes over the Iraq War. (Think of Wormtongue as Keith Olbermann.) When Frodo sighs, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf’s response speaks to us, too: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

hah!

Funny, I had Dick Cheney more in my mind for Wormtongue, or possibly Glenn Beck these days. Plus all the heroes (Aragorn, Legolas, every other elf) are all long haired hippies, so I can't see Conservatives getting behind them at all.