Roman Brock Baggaley Film 1070 8 August 2013 Races in Film: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Racism and racial concepts are portrayed very closely to what our society views race and racial concepts. This movie takes place in Middle-Earth, a place where magic, elves, dwarves, and many of Tolkien's creations exist. Throughout the entire movie, there is clear evidence of racism. Lord of the Rings does an excellent job of analyzing the racial concepts of our society through this movie. The elves are supposedly better than everybody, the hobbits are viewed like children, and humans are considered weak. The movie goes even further than that. The enemies are often dark skinned and are a different race. All of the heroes in the movie are white, but all of the villains are darker skinned. (THESIS) Lord of the Rings mirrors our societys racist tendencies and how biased people are to certain races. Lord of the Rings puts each race in its own category, which is similar to what we do in our modern society. Hobbits, for example, are viewed as children and are looked down on throughout the entire film. Gandalf, a very wise wizard, shows obvious discomfort all through the movie because Frodo, a hobbit, is tasked with destroying a ring. Gandalf knows the task is very dangerous and feels that Frodo isnt capable of completing the task because he is a hobbit. This is very much like our society. If we see a little person, we automatically assume they arent

as capable as normal people. They will often be discriminated against and seen as childish merely because they are shorter. There is also an abundance of elves during this movie. The elves bring about a new portrayal. They are the most graceful and powerful race in Middle-Earth. They are also immortal and are respected. The characters of Elrond and Legolas are elves. These two characters have immense wisdom and they speak as though they have an extremely high intelligence. Elves are comparable to all of the upper class celebrities and the wealthy. No matter what race you are in Middle-Earth, there is some respect that must be shown to them and we see that clearly in the movie. In our society we respect people because of money, but in Lord of the Rings respect is given because of wisdom. Humans are the only race which exists in the movie and in our society. First off, humans are considered very weak. They are easily corrupted and are very greedy. Despite all of their weaknesses, humans are the last remaining hope for Middle-Earth. As you would expect, humans are the valiant warriors of the movie and struggle with inner conflicts. Boromir, for example, tried to take the ring of power from Frodo. He was completely overtaken by the rings power and his greed went straight to his head. During that scene, he is viewed as very weak and helplessly greedy. It is interesting how you can relate humans in the film to humans of our modern day. In todays society, we are taught not to trust anyone and that people can be very greedy and corrupt. The humans in the movie are mirror images of how we perceive humans in society. The movie emphasizes the weaknesses and bad things about humans. Much like todays society, humans are merely tolerated in the film.

Another way to view racial mirrors in Lord of the Rings would be to look at the villains in comparison to the heroes of the movie. All of the heroes in the film are white, almost pale. Every good race is white as well. Dwarves, elves, hobbits, and men are all as white as can be. However, the evil races are all dark skinned. Orcs, goblins, and Uruk-hai are all very darkly skinned. In fact, the main villain, Sauron, is an elf that turned to darkness. He is white, but when he is seen in the movie, he is wearing all black. Not a single white part of Sauron is seen. He is dressed with a black mask, black shoes, leggings, armor, and gloves. This just goes to show that they did that purposefully. The only exception would be Saruman. At the beginning of the movie, he is allied with the white heroes. However, shortly into the movie he betrays them and allies with Sauron. Saruman, himself, is dressed in all white and is white. The place that Saruman conducts his acts of villainy is a huge black tower. Even the dirt around the tower is black when you see it from a distance in the movie. It is interesting to see how all of the heroes are white and villains are black or dark skinned. There are no white orcs and there are no black men throughout the movie. Lord of the Rings does an excellent job of portraying societys views of race. Maybe the director of the movie wanted to make us aware of our racial tendencies. For example, Frodo, the hobbit, is expected to be childish and incapable. However, he proves himself as very capable and mature during the film. In addition, men prove themselves at the end of the movie. Despite the fact that Boromir tried to take the ring from Frodo, he gives his life to save two other hobbits near the end of the movie. This movie very clearly points out the stereotypes associated with each race, but proves them wrong at some point in the movie. This movie was created with the intent of drawing attention to stereotypes and showing the viewers that these

stereotypes can often be false. Overall, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, is an excellent portrayal of how our society views races and forms stereotypes, but also how they can be overcome and proven wrong.

Works Cited Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom. New Line Cinema, 2001. DVD.