[Nevvasaiel]

I found a similar article on the internet... although the article of this one seems to be somewhat ignorant in terms of Tolkien and LotR fans, (and egocentric) and disregards any opinion except for his own!

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In the Mix[up in arms over Tolkien]
By: Dan Deluca

Viggo Mortensen is all bent out of shape, and who can blame him?

The hunky half-Danish actor, who plays Aragorn, son of Arathorn, in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is agitated because the wildly popular dungeons-and-dragons movie that's making him a star is being used by pundits and agitators to further their own political agendas.

Last month, Mortensen went on Charlie Rose wearing a homemade "No Blood For Oil" T-shirt, ticked off because people keep telling him that The Two Towers, which took in more than $200 million in its first 10 days of release, makes a case for a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"I don't think that The Two Towers or Tolkien's writing or our work has anything to do with the United States' foreign ventures at this time," he told the PBS talk-show host with the uncombed hair. Fellow actor Elijah Wood, who plays ring-bearer Frodo Baggins, chimed in: "People say it's a pro-war movie, which I also have a problem with."

Oxford don J.R.R. Tolkien always denied that his Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was published nearly 50 years ago, was loaded with allegory or topical symbolism. And unless Tolkien was Nostradamus, he couldn't have intended evil wizard Saruman (who sends a genetically engineered army of Uruk-Hai to crush the good guys at Helm's Deep) to be a stand-in for evildoer Saddam Hussein (who's alleged to be a collector of chemical weapons of mass destruction).

What's more, plenty of Lord of the Rings lovers will tell you that Tolkien's books are actually shot through with antiwar and environmental themes.

Hairy-footed hobbits, after all, are peaceful creatures, and Mr. Frodo's trek to the fiery pits of Mordor to destroy the all-powerful ring has been interpreted as really being about nuclear disarmament. And the ents, those molasses-mouthed talking trees, get geared up to take on Saruman when they learn that the white-haired wizard has clear-cut large swaths of Fangorn Forest.(Wouldn't that be environmental protection?)

But while that's all well and good, it's also immaterial. Nowadays, a movie or record or book exists and is interpreted in the historical moment when it is unleashed on the world. So, even though the Lord of the Rings books were published in the mid-'50s, we're experiencing The Two Towers in this cultural nanosecond. And it is the audience, rather than Tolkien or even director Peter Jackson, that decides just what the fantastic saga means.

And whenever a product gets as wildly popular as The Two Towers, any nuances the artist might have intended are likely to be missed.

Consider this: Bruce Springsteen may have written "Born in the U.S.A." as a critique of the treatment of Vietnam veterans, but Ronald Reagan appropriated it, and the song was widely seen as a jingoistic anthem.

Randy Newman may have meant "Short People" to point out the stupidity of discrimination, but people thought the songwriter hated short people himself.

And the Harry Potter books may seem like charmingly magical coming-of-age stories, but there are those who believe they are diabolical tales of devil worship.

So it goes.

With impending war with Iraq the lead story around the world, it's inevitable that The Two Towers would be seen as applicable to today's geopolitical situation. Perhaps after The Return of the King comes out next Christmas, the "War is hell" vision of Tolkien, who fought in the trenches in World War I, will reestablish itself.

Never mind that The Two Towers is a movie about a king who needs to get over his reluctance to fight and about countries that must band together to stop the relentless forces of absolute evil (which just happen to be subhuman, and thus easier to kill with a clear conscience).

"There's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for," says hobbit Samwise Gamgee.

It doesn't matter what Tolkien meant or what Viggo Mortensen thinks. In the here and now, The Two Towers is a powerful piece of war propaganda.

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Grrrrrrr... I HATE it when someone misinterprets Lord of the Rings, although i have to admit, LotR IS being used quite a lot in references to the war on terrorism.