• GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    I can recall and there was a major lack of investigation and therefore right to speak or at least speak with authority. Deep Tolkien investigation is fucking hard. Like next guy down from Shakespeare as an academically accepted author to study. The orc stuff mostly exists in LOTR but his issues regarding the orcs with his creation myth and making basically a race of cannon fodder kinda sucked and came from goblins and whatnot from folklore which had their own issues that he struggled with mostly came from his letters and the things regarding the south and east being colonized by asshole numemoreans is a brief mention in part of the silmarillion which is tough enough to read buy greater detail requires seeking out less fleshed out notes and writings and piecing it together. Peter Jackson technically didn't have the rights to most of this stuff but it could have inspired a more vague reasoning for these guys joining sauron in the films. Tolkien was old as hell and British and I'm sure he had some degree of racism to him, but gotta say, from anything personal or fictional I've read, haven't really seen much. I'd say Jackson had a way more racist portrayal of the subject than Tolkien

    • rootsbreadandmakka [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      wasn't there a letter to his son or something expressing opposition to colonialism or something?

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        'I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust'

        Letter to Christopher in 1945 He was also born in South Africa and that colored his views as well

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      good example of Peter Jackson racism is king kong and his portrayal of the people of the fallen civilization on skull island.

      there's no magic or supernatural stuff involved. it's just pure "dark skinned removed savages" that are portrayed as basically demons to be put down violently by a german guy with machineguns

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I remember seeing Peter Jackson's King Kong for the first time a while back and the way the natives were depicted had my jaw hanging open

        • Des [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          i remember reading they hired maori and actually sprayed them with black paint to make them even darker. also red contacts for extra evilness.

          really gross stuff.

          a long time ago i actually liked that movie despite it's length because the insect scene was deeply disturbing in a good way and i liked the monster ecosystem of the island. obviously no longer

          • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
            ·
            10 months ago

            Holy shit michael-laugh

            I was about to add that it was especially egregious for Peter Jackson, a NZ filmmaker who made a big deal about how much he respected Maoris and Maori culture during the making of LOTR and the Hobbit