The Ring Trilogy on Christmas
Posted by andreasherrel on December 26, 2010
Christmas Eve is always a busy day, but on Christmas day my family relaxes. This year instead of heading out of the house , or getting out of our pajamas, we decided to indulge in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
These films always pull me in. I can watch them over and over again, and except for Frodo Baggins – thank God for Samwise Gumgee – I love all of the characters.
Yet, as much as I enjoy the series there’s always one thing that catches my attention. Why are there absolutely no people of color? And I don’t mean that in a call the NAACP kind of way, I’m really curious as to the line of thought involved. Isn’t it harder to NOT employ people of color when you have such a massive project?
It is entirely possible that many of the Orcs and other horrible creatures were of color, but there were hundreds of extras fighting on the side of Good…and none of them could be of color? What difference would it have made to the story to have men of Rohan, Morder, or the Elf kingdom be of color? No conversation or explanation would be needed, they would just be a part of the atmosphere. It seems to me that you have to make a conscious decision to have absolutely no people of color on screen in such an epic, and I just wonder why in 2010 it’s still such an obvious omission.
Phyre said
So, it is my understanding that there are Polynesian people in New Zealand. I wonder if the reason for not casting any people of color was due to where it was filmed. I would hope that even if they were not on the camera that they were behind the camera helping with the mass production of these films. It is true, these are great films and done very well. However, the question is, and probably will continue, is where were the people of color as already noted. I will have to read the books to see if there is any mention of what kind of characters there were, and how they were described. Good question…
Walter said
I completely agree about the lack of people of color in these films. As i recently traveled to New Zealand, the indigenous people are of what we call polynesian decent. So they come from the pacific islands all around. As we know these people are clearly “of color” and are at times “darker” than african americans.
The following article talks about the casting director for the new movie the Hobbit and the decision to not hire people of color.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/hobbit-casting-director-fired-turning-away-dark-skinned-actors
I think it is absolutely absurd that in this century we still have to have this discussion. It hurts nothing in a film of this magnitude and story to visually see people of color in the crowd and not as inference of evil (Orcs).
I don’t know how we got away from fighting this cause and how we get back to it as a whole.