05-15-02: Is 'Two Towers' Title Insensitive?

MSNBC
May 15, 2002

Is 'Two Towers' Title Insensitive?
Ashley Pearson

Some movie fans are blasting the next "Lord of the Rings" flick, charging that it exploits the World Trade Center tragedy. The next installment in the series is called "The Two Towers," and a group calling itself Those Affected by September 11 is petitioning director Peter Jackson and studio New Line Cinema to change the name "to something less offensive."

"THE TITLE IS clearly meant to refer to the attacks on The World Trade Center," notes the petition posted at petitiononline.com and signed by more than 1,200 people. "It is unforgivable that this should be allowed to happen."

The title is actually the name of the second book in the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy on which the films are based, but even when this was pointed out to the petitioners, they maintained that the title of the film should still be changed.

Some people, however, left comments on the petition suggesting that they believe the petitioners are overreacting. "I think they should rename New York too, because every time I hear "New York" it makes me think of that day and it makes me cry," noted one. "That and the words 'world,' 'trade,' and 'center' should be removed from our language as well."

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