Frodo and Sam’s Bogus Journey

FILM 240
Research Project
Dimitri-Maximillian Larouche
Due: March 9th, 2018

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 Tolkien’s universe has played an important part in my formative years, entrancing me

since I was a child with the magic, courage, and beauty of Middle-Earth and its denizens. As a

child I read the books, watched the movies, and spent an embarrassing amount of time debating

friends on the finer details of who would really win in a duel between the Witch-King and

Gandalf the White. Lately, many news stories are focusing on the multiple accusations of

whitewashing within the movie industry. Whitewashing is when movies, which are often based

on pre-existing stories such as books, are using solely white actors for key roles, and sometimes

predominantly use white actors for all roles. A notable example of this surrounds the manga-

based movie Ghost in the Shell, where Scarlett Johansson received the lead role in a movie that

takes place in Japan. There is a very valid argument that this takes away the potential for persons

of colour to get roles, which they oftentimes already have difficulty in getting due to their

background, and also an argument that it is time to increase the diversity in Hollywood. Some

use this same line of thinking for the Lord of the Rings, citing the obvious lack of racial diversity

in the Lord of the Rings, which has also often been critiqued for its scarcity of meaningful

female characters. Tolkien never specifies the race of many characters and creatures throughout

his works, although some argue that they are almost exclusively white due to a combination of

his background, adjectives used within the books, and the fact that his stories are primarily taken

from Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Nordic myth.

This paper will primarily examine all three Lord of the Rings movies, The Fellowship of

the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, along with a quick examination of how

video game portrayals affect whitewashing. The paper will attempt to answer the research

question: Do Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings represent an

example of whitewashing, and if so, why is this significant? The Hobbit trilogy has also been

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criticized, however, including those movies would necessitate a paper far larger in size and scope

than the one envisioned. This project will argue that Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Tolkien’s the

Lord of the Rings do in fact represent whitewashing in the extreme, aided and abetted by the

racist and stereotypical overtones in Tolkien’s original works. This is important when one

considers that certain groups of people are not only being restricted from representing

themselves, but are actually being ‘Othered’ in the movie industry. This will be examined in

depth throughout the project itself.

This paper will be split into three sections, which will together serve to support the

overall thesis. The first section will discuss Tolkien’s original works, in order to give a

background of the story and to examine racist overtones in the original story itself. The summary

will be very basic, as this universe is so complex and fantastically detailed that there is no room

for a close look in this paper. The second section will look at examples of whitewashing within

the movies themselves, and will seek to demonstrate that they actually take away from the

accuracy to the book. The third section will be a discussion of impact of this whitewashing on

media culture, and how it affects certain groups within society.

Tolkien’s story of the Lord of the Rings centres around two main stories. The primary

storyline focuses on the Hobbit Frodo Baggins. Our protagonist leaves his comfortable hobbit-

hole in the Shire to travel to the dark land of Mordor, with the purpose of destroying the One

Ring of power in order to defeat the black lord Sauron once and for all. He begins this journey in

a group of nine; however, by the time he reaches the volcano he is alone apart from his faithful

manservant Samwise Gamgee (and Gollum). The secondary story, which in the opinion of many

steals the spotlight in the movie adaptations, covers the War of the Ring from the perspective of

Frodo’s former companions; this is the war fought by the free peoples of Middle-Earth (Men,

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Elves, and Dwarves) against Sauron’s vast legions of evil minions. In his article, Werber

describes how the evil ‘black’ forces were described as being evil, dumb, and traitorous, while

the elves were described as good and wise (232). This is a very self-explanatory surface

statement; black (orcs) is equated with bad and white (elves and men) is equated with good. He

also describes less overtly racist situations, such as how Gimli is the first dwarf to enter

Lothlorien in living memory, and other worrying examples of baseless discrimination throughout

the stories (Werber, 241). Although this does not focus on races as we know them, this blatant

example of peoples not liking each other simply due to what race they are a part of ties directly

in to the point that is being made in this paper. It should be noted that racism is being treated as a

catalyst for whitewashing. With these examples as evidence we may begin to concoct a notion of

a Middle-Earth that is very fragmented and discriminatory. At the most basic level, Tolkien

began telling his stories in a different time. It was a more racist time and his admittedly masterful

work reflects this time period, a fact which cannot simply be ignored. This inherent racism

within the very story itself does not bode well for persons of colour who wish to audition for

main roles. Supporting roles are a different case, which is a topic that will be examined in a later

section.

Young provides a contrast to Werber; she states that Tolkien was heavily influenced by

medieval literature while writing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a time period which valued

racial purity and had complex concepts of race in general (360). Although this contrast is an

interesting point of view, it does not excuse the racism in the original texts. The same argument

was used by those who defend Tolkien by stating that he was simply influenced by certain

cultures which valued whiteness, however this is no excuse for no representation of other races.

In reality stories told by those cultures featured prominent characters of different races that were

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strong and powerful, although they were usually portrayed as evil. Some may use this line of

thinking to argue that Sauron himself is an example of a person of colour being a prominent,

albeit evil character. However, you cannot use Sauron as an example of this as he is a god, and is

portrayed as Caucasian underneath his mask in earlier works such as The Silmarillion. The

following section will examine how Peter Jackson had the opportunity to feature persons of

colour in the movies.

Peter Jackson’s adaptations, like all movies based on pre-existing novels, do not represent

an exact retelling of the books in movie form. This is often done because the director has a

different notion of what the audience would enjoy than what is presented in the book. In this

case, Tolkien’s often dry storytelling was revamped by Jackson in order to make it more action-

packed and exciting for the viewer (Chance, 80). These changes makes it clear that Jackson has

the chance to offer more representation than we had in Tolkien’s works, and it is telling that

Jackson does not take this opportunity. On the other hand Jackson also misses the opportunity for

representation when it would be more accurate to the story, such as having characters like the

Southrons and Easterlings played by actors of Asian descent. It is also interesting to note that

Jackson takes the implicit racism within the books and makes it explicit; notably the contrast

between the evil, spiteful goblins in the Mines of Moria who are incapable of coherent language,

and the beautiful, pale elves (Chance, 82). Some argue that Jackson’s adaptations only appear

more stereotypical than Tolkien’s because the movie portrayal is much more blunt and obvious;

it is explicit, not implicit. The movies depict the White Wizard Gandalf leading the Men of the

West to protect the White City of Minas Tirith against Sauron the Black and the Black

Riders/Ringwraiths, with legions of slant-eyed and multi-coloured servants at their command

(Kim, 876-877). This is very telling; not only is there next to no representation of non-white

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actors in the trilogy, the symbols in the movies and books demonstrate overt racism within the

story itself. This is significant because it has an impact on real people, something which is often

forgotten.

Video games are a different subject matter to movies, however Young’s second piece

provides an interesting examination of how whitewashing affects people. Its insight into the

video game industry, albeit compelling, will not be analyzed as it does not find a place within

this paper. Young analyzes how the poor representation of race within Lord of the Rings media

in general showcases a horrifying degree of Otherness (350). This is significant because when

one is Othered it is as if they are being pushed to the margins of society; their opinion and

identity are not as important as someone who is part of the mainstream, which in this case

involves being a white person. She also notes how two Maori warriors were used to play the

Uruk-Hai captain, Lurtz, and how this demonstrates the representation of the Uruk-Hai as having

Maori traits (Young, 350). This can be harmful because people look up to celebrities who they

can identify with, for example on the basis of race, and when they see that they are only ‘good

enough’ to play the villain that can lead to changes in how they view their own identity.

Whitewashing is a very complex issue, and its effects reflect this complexity. It is dangerous

because it leads people to believe that white is what is good and what is normal, and it relates to

the Othering of those non-represented groups. In a paper of this size it is impossible to grasp the

scope of these effects, however, suffice to say that it is a relevant issue that needs to be more

seriously addressed by everyone, especially those who have the power to enact change.

This paper sought to demonstrate that there is whitewashing within Peter Jackson’s

movie adaptations of Tolkien’s stories, along with problematic tones within the original works

themselves. More than the presence of whitewashing, the reasons why it is there and why it is

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significant need to be examined through concepts such as Othering. At this moment, the world is

in a period of change for the better. The focus is on diversity and inclusion, which are both long

overdue. There is a worrying pushback from those who seek the continued silence of many, and

this must be fought at all costs. This was seen at this very university only recently; the topic was

different, however again there were angry people on both sides seeking to have their voices

heard. Passions were enflamed, inevitably leading to violence; this path only leads to destruction.

There needs to be a civil discussion and understanding between both sides. This is exemplified

by the media coverage of the topic of whitewashing, which was mentioned earlier in this paper.

This author believes that the answer also lays within the world of academia, hence his topic

choice for this paper. This realm of peer review and civil display of ideas is being used to great

effect to discuss differing opinions. However, this by no means removes the need for peaceful

protest in order to enact change; instead, academia can be used as a tool to help bolster its efforts.

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 Bibliography

Chance, J. (2002). Is There a Text in this Hobbit? Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Literature/Film Quarterly, 30(2), p. 79-85.

Kim, S. (2004). Beyond Black and White: Race and Postmodernism in the Lord of the Rings
Films. Modern Fiction Studies, 50(4), p. 875-909.

Werber, N. (2005). Geo- and Biopolitics of Middle-Earth: A German’s Reading of Tolkien’s

“The Lord of the Rings”. New Literary History, 36(2), p. 227-246.

Young, H. (2010). Diversity and difference: cosmopolitanism and the Lord of the Rings. The
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 21(3), p. 351-365.

Young, H. (2015). Racial Logics, Franchising, and Video Game Genres: The Lord of the Rings.
Games and Culture, 11(4), p. 343-364.