The Four Color Media Monitor

A few weeks ago, before the recent box office and critical reception failure of LOTR: War of the Rohhirim, Entertainment Weekly interviewed one of the leading voice actors of the new animated film, Brian Cox, who had something quite eyebrow raising to say about what politics the animated film is echoing:

“It works on so many levels. It's massively allegorical for our present day,” Cox says. “The whole thing that’s happening to women in your country, where women’s rights are being set by men, not by women, is horrendous. There’s that moment at the end of The War of the Rohirrim where Helm closes the door. It’s like he closes the door on patriarchy and says it’s up to you girls to sort the world out. I love that, I think it’s so relevant today.”

Well if memory serves, Russia's Catherine the Great waged wars in her time during the 18th century, whether just or unjust, so I don't see where they believe a woman can do better than a man in every way when it comes to the battleground. The question is whether anybody's worried about barbarism, and that's the problem in today's world - many leftists won't clearly address whether they abhor the jihadist themes in the Islamic Koran, along with the misogynist themes. And fail to clearly address the issue of the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco under Joe Biden, which was a fiasco for women's rights too. If Mr. Cox only thinks issues of women's rights matter in the USA, and only western conservatives are the problem, he's really missing the boat. The problem alluded to here is that the story builds on a very awkward "girlboss" premise, which is often too close to a Mary Sue cliche, and art-wise, it hasn't improved the fortunes of fantasy storytelling.

But he also knows a lot about how fathers relate to their daughters under patriarchy. He recently played noted father of daughter Logan Roy on Succession and also has one himself.

“His performance came fully formed,” says producer Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote Jackson’s LOTR movies and directed the vocal performances here. “He is a father of a daughter, so that side of the story really did resonate with him. He loved that journey of a father learning to see his daughter in another way. Without losing any power or stature, you had this actor who was able to be this warrior king who could then say to his daughter, ‘The day you were born, I was brought to my knees.’ It was just like, ‘Oh my God, this guy knows what he's doing.’ When we were recording him, we just got the hell out of his way, and it was wonderful.”

In addition to the relationship between Helm and Hèra, War of the Rohirrim also shows the failings of patriarchy through Wulf, who becomes obsessed with vengeance after the death of his father and unleashes a wave of bloody violence across the land.

“It's always a problem when you have a deeply ugly father,” Cox says of Wulf and Freca. “Wulf hasn't been helped by having the ugliest father imaginable, who he clearly loves, and we all go, ‘Really?’ There’s a very tragic element to Wulf in that he should have been somebody else, but because of his circumstances and because of being bound up in the patriarchy game, he can't shake it off.”

This is absurd, because if a dad failed to raise his son properly, couldn't a mom also fail? It's not a matter of patriarchy or even matriarchy but of bad parenting, and they fudge up everything for the sake of a woke political agenda, strongly hinting that Peter Jackson, as a producer on this picture, let his own politics get the better of him. One can only wonder how he'd make his LOTR trilogy if he were producing it today, rather than in the early 2000s. If that's what he considers acceptable at all costs, then his live action take on Tolkien's classics won't age well.

I looked at a few reviews of this cartoon, whose credentials as an "anime" are admittedly questionable even if a Japanese director helmed it, and was most intrigued by what Charles Pulliam Moore had to say for The Verge, since he once worked for leftist sites like IO9/Gizmodo, which were notorious for advocating sex-negative viewpoints:

Based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Appendix A, director Kenji Kamiyama’s (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood: The Last Vampire) The War of the Rohirrim is an attempt at creating a mountain-sized fantasy epic out of a molehill of footnotes. At times, the film comes close to being a beautiful presentation of Middle-earth, and you can feel it trying to bring something of a feminist energy to the Lord of the Rings canon. But The War of the Rohirrim’s characters are so two-dimensional and its story is so plodding that it’s difficult to understand why the studio thought this particular bit of lore needed to be adapted for the big screen. [...]

There is little nuance to anyone’s characterizations or motivations. Héra’s another headstrong princess whose gender keeps her from being seen as a valuable warrior, and Wulf reads as so transparently evil that he’s hard to buy as the kind of villain capable of outmaneuvering his enemies. Those weaknesses would be easier to overlook if the movie had more to offer in the way of exciting visuals. But even when The War of the Rohirrim is clearly trying to impress you with soaring shots of Middle-earth from Great Eagles’ perspectives, it never feels like the movie is taking advantage of animation’s ability to present fantasy worlds in ways that aren’t possible with live action.

Wow, considering what kind of politics he was emphasizing before, it's kind of amusing he'd have issues with this tale, if it follows political metaphors he'd surely be okay with. I guess it's got something to do with the leading lady being too attractive rather than an ugly duckling? Who knows? Pajiba's review also alludes to the complaint of insufficent imagination in the proceedings (pretty amazing a site that's equally leftist would have such issues), but do they argue that leftist politics may have sunk it? Alas, that's something they won't consider at all, even though a most valid arguement can be made how leftist politics are coming at the expense of imaginative scripting.

Next, we have James Berardinelli at Reelviews, who's actually more favorable, but hints he's okay with certain "tropes" being avoided here:

The decision was made to present the story from the point-of-view of Helm’s daughter (voiced by Gaia Wise, Emma Thompson and Greg Wise’s offspring). In the book, she merits only a brief mention and doesn’t have a name, but the filmmakers decided to call her Hera. She is The War of the Rohirrim’s hero, although care was taken to avoid many of the warrior princess tropes. Director Kenji Kamiyama has said that her characteristics were inspired by the young female protagonists in Hayao Miyazaki’s films. It’s an apt description; I found myself often thinking of the likes of Princesses Nausicaa and Mononoke while watching this tale unfold. Hera’s father, Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), on the other hand, is very much in keeping with the Jackson-Tolkien tradition of strong king being blinded by stubbornness and an innate belief in their own infallibility – think another king of Rohan, Thoeden (played in The Two Towers and The Return of the King by the late Bernard Hill). The main villain, Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), could have been more of a tragic figure had the film decided to lean in that direction but The War of the Rohirrim instead opts to avoid too many shades of gray. His childhood friendship with Hera is mentioned (and even shown briefly in flashbacks) but becomes little more than an afterthought.

Just what does he mean? The princess is a lovely lady, but again, it wouldn't be shocking if that did rate a big no-no with some of the people who panned it. That the tales of a leftist like Miyazaki served as "inspiration" is decidedly another troubling factor. But maybe the most eyebrow-raising review of all is what Laramie Movie Scope reveals:

This may be a coincidence, but there are some similarities between this story and certain political events now unfolding. There are similarities between Helm and Joe Biden, between Héra and Kamala Harris and between Donald Trump and Wulf. That puts a whole new spin on the story, doesn't it? This movie rates a C.

Well, I guess that says all you need to know something's terribly wrong here. And in turn, it says quite a bit about where Jackson's been going too. If he wouldn't leave his politics at the door, and draw up a far better metaphor for more challenging issues like Islamic terrorism, then again, animation's not seeing its potential realized in ways that focus on more serious subjects. Even director Kamiyama may have to shoulder responsibility for the lethargic political angles seen here, and a valid point can be made that Japanimation's no more immune to leftism than anywhere else. So, why must anybody be surprised he too could take up such a project yet not maintain any proper creative license to realize it in a way that's healthy? If this cartoon's a failure, it's because there's now whole generations who refuse to leave their leftist beliefs at the door and just focus on merit-based entertainment. And the whole medium's suffered another injustice again. For all we know, War of the Rohhirim might close the door on more LOTR-based projects, and if that's it takes to keep Tolkien's legacy from being tainted any further, it's for the best.

Labels: animation, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, politics, violence