The Lord of the Rings: Not For Children Under 16

The second part of the trilogy Lord of the Rings will start showing in Russian cinemas on January 23.

The sequel is called Lord of the Rings. Two Towers. The following actors acted in the film by Peter Jackson: Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood.

The sequel has already broken the record of the first part of the trilogy: within the first week-end of its demonstration in the USA it returned over 60 million of dollars; but at the same time, the film gave rise to a scandal in Great Britain. The British Board of Film Classification declared that the sequel isn’t recommended for little children. The Two Towers characters are too scaring and the film is abundant with violence scenes. That is why parents must decide, whether their children may watch it or not.

The Two Towers was classified as a 12A film, which means that children can watch the movie in the cinema accompanied with adults only. However, representatives of the company dealing with the marketing of The Two Towers merchandising use the “children aspect” more aggressively than they did with the first part of the trilogy. The symbols of the film will soon appear on children’s slippers, pajamas and blanket covers. It is expected that The Two Towers merchandising will bring about 100 million pounds of profit in Great Britain.

However, not sellers of slippers are believed to derive great profits from the new film. As was expected long ago, the new film gave rise to a great scandal in the USA. The scandal is about the name of the second part of the trilogy. At the time when the title The Two Towers can be translated into Russian in several ways, there is only one variant for the English language. Some people believe that the name of the film, based on the book with the same title and written about 50 years ago, may insult the memory of those who were killed in the 9/11 terrorism attack when the WTC buildings were destroyed. Over three thousand people joined an Internet petition blaming producers of the film of an attempt to make a fortune out of the tragedy. They say “the title of the film will awake emotions connected with the tragic event that shocked the people so strongly.”

Producer Peter Jackson confessed that at the very beginning of the work he even planned to change the title. However, he says it is impossible as the book, on which the film is based, has become the classics already. The members of the British Tolkien Society also say that the anxiety of the activists is ungrounded, as the WTC towers were traditionally called Twin Towers, not Two Towers. Nevertheless, the film will be demonstrated in Russia under the title, which can be translated into English as The Two Fortresses.

Peter Jackson says that hobbits will have to fight with the dark force alone. Tokien’s fans are indignant at the changes the producer made with the plot of the author. The sequel contains a real love triangle, at the time when nothing of the kind is mentioned in the book by Tolkien. Aragorn is in the center of the triangle. He fell in love with Arven already in the first part of the movie. But she has got a rival in the second film. As it turned out, sexual charms of the two women in the struggle for Aragorn are taking a considerable part in The Two Towers. This is probably the influence of Hollywood producers, who cannot do without traditional American movie stereotypes.

The third, the last film of the trilogy called The Return of the King is expected to appear on the eve of the Christmas in 2003. As the two previous films, the third one will be produced by Peter Jackson in New Zealand.

Before filming of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson was famous as the producer of trash-films. His first film, Bad Taste, is one of the world’s cheapest, while The Lord of the Rings is one of the most expensive ones. Actual fans of Tolkien will go to cinemas to watch the film only to see it on a wide screen, as the film and the translation into Russian are available on the Internet already.

Yelena Kiseleva PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva