July 7, 2003

Gollum Acceptance Speach
Danny

I agree that the Gollum Acceptance speach was greatly out of line for what LOTR is and what the film should maintain. I detest obscene language, but that is not the real issue here even though I don't like it. Tolkien always feared his work would be "vulgarized." There have been discussions about what exactly he meant when he wrote that in one of his letters, but I think that acceptance speach does fall under that description under almost any interpetation. I must admit, I laughed as much from shock as anything when I saw the Gollum acceptance speach, but it immediately struck me as wrong. I should have expected as much from MTV. No offense intended, but MTV tends to drag everything they touch to the gutter. Too bad the teanage audience seems to prefer that to most things thought provoking or of real substance. Anyway, I will stop ranting about MTV in particular, but not about my frustration that theymade an effort to drag LOTR down to the mire as well.