Fellowship 9/11

October 22, 2004 2:23 AM

Fellowship 9/11 is Michael Moore's latest damning documentary looking at how the Aragorn administration has twisted the hearts and minds of Middle Earth, ranging from interviews with Rep. Grima Wormtongue (D) to the folks at Minas Flint, a obscure, small town in Mordor used for recruiting. Online at iFilm.
posted by adrianhon (10 comments total)

I guess the commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky on the DVDM was dead on!
posted by homunculus at 3:22 AM on October 22, 2004

no horses were harmed during the making of this film ... they were already dead

"The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. 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. Saruman, failing to get posession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth ... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations ..."

- J. R. R. Tolkein

i note with some interest no wmds were found in the movie
posted by pyramid termite at 5:14 AM on October 22, 2004

Pyramid Termite - how is the Ring of Power not a WMD? Did you see how many men, kings even, it was able to kill in the hands of Sauron? That's why the Coalition of the Willing had to destroy it and make sure that even though Sauron didn't have the WMD at that time, that he didn't get his hands on it.

Particularly, if the UN had lifted sanctions, and he immediately restarted his Ring of Power program, since, after all, he still had all of the blacksmiths and held Sauruman in his thrall, after all.

Someone call Kofi Annan. I'm sure a strongly worded censure against Sauron, coupled with weapons inspectors, would hem him in.
posted by swerdloff at 7:36 AM on October 22, 2004

America = The Shire, after the fall of Morder
Cheney = Saruman
Bush = Wormtongue

Mars, my bitches. Scour away!
posted by Slagman at 9:20 AM on October 22, 2004

Um, I always thought the Ring of Power was, well, just that, POWER (and dominion, control, ownership, greed, etc) and the whole point of the story was the evil of what the Ring represented and how it warps inherently good people into evil, selfish, murderous, warmongering and destructive slaves of naked power.

Or something.

What sealed the deal for me (in terms of casting the baddies as Republican/Bushies/Corporate Folk) was the part of the story (at least the movie) where the evil guys are cutting down trees and destroying life to created weapons and armies of death. It amazing (and kinda interesting, actually) that people can see something so totally different from the same story.

Also, I always thought the Fellowship (that's the term, right?) was kind of like the United Nations as many different races from Middle Earth were represented and were working TOGETHER to defeat a common enemy. Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" would be more appropriate if in the story the Hobbits were doing 90% of the heavy lifting and, you know, had an empire.

In the end, what does it matter? LOTR kicks ass because its NOT reality.
posted by Boydrop at 10:32 AM on October 22, 2004

See also, the startling new movie, The Nine!
posted by homunculus at 11:13 AM on October 22, 2004

but swerdloff ... sauron didn't have the ring of power, frodo did ... furthermore, the elves had their own special rings, which they held in secret, refusing all international inspection agencies' request for details

bushamir's attempt to get the ring for his father delaythor tells us what the real intentions of gondor was ... to get control of mordor's oil and protect lothlorael

coalition of the willing? ... i don't think 4 hobbits, 50 elves and a dwarf joining tens of thousands of gondorians is much of a coalition

heh ... this is fun ...
posted by pyramid termite at 12:29 PM on October 22, 2004

this reminds me of a hilarious Rush commentary i accidentally heard last December, which boiled down to Saddam = Sauron, US = The Shire, and of course, GWB is the courageous hobbit who leaves the shire (yeah, right) to embark on a dangerous quest to save the world. the Fellowship are the GWB supporters, the Black Riders are the media, the Orcs are the terrorists, and the Democrats are the elves who leave the world to die. or something like that.

maybe GWB was Aragorn, and Allawi was Frodo. i can't remember for sure. either way, it demonstrates some "clear" conservative thinking yet again.

"My political beliefs lean more and more to Anarchy... ," Tolkein wrote. "The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity."

-J.R.R. Tolkein
posted by mrgrimm at 1:22 PM on October 22, 2004

mrgrimm ... great quote ... is that from his letters? ... interesting that the shire doesn't seem to have a government
posted by pyramid termite at 3:06 PM on October 22, 2004

is that from his letters?

yeah, it's in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" - a great read, if you like the Hobbit/Ring story and can handle some boring stuff (which, if you like Hobbit/Ring, you surely can ... i kid!)

that quote itself is actually from a conservative commentary on the Ring trilogy. i think he defines "conservative" differently than i would, although the term has pretty much lost all meaning at this point ...

could someone please explain "Tory anarchism"? all the references i see online are in regard to George Orwell. is it something like "rich people should be able to do whatever they want, as long as their intentions are good"?

colour me confused.
posted by mrgrimm at 6:29 PM on October 22, 2004