i rant and am "politically incorrect"
Dec. 24th, 2003 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amezri[contains spoilers up to the Extended Edition of Two Towers]
From this review of Andy Serkis' Gollum book by Anthony S Burdge:
In the extended version of The Two Towers it was offensive to see Gollum being kicked around by Faramir's Rangers. Peter Jackson dubbed this, Serkis tells us "The Clockwork Orange" scene. Why was it offensive? Because Men of the West do not do such things to their prisoners. ...[snip]... Being a New Yorker and witness to the events of 9/11, I find it hard to swallow when I am told that Serkis found inspiration in the "tortured" expression of a Taliban soldier on TV. Having been called over by a camera technician to watch the planes hit the World Trade Center on CNN on that fateful day, he tells us that the Northern Alliance captured a Taliban soldier, beat him, stripped him of his clothes, and paraded him in the streets. This event was documented on CNN. Perhaps an actor cannot determine or choose where he or she gets inspiration from. But, to say that Gollum is like a captured Taliban criminal is frankly outrageous. The Taliban are terrorists, and aims to destroy the West. They are not victims of oppression. They are the oppressors. How can inspiration be gleaned from them? ... but he is not a terrorist purposely plotting the harm of thousands of people. He killed to survive, to eat, to live. Whether the food consisted of babies, fish, game, or plant life, he killed to survive, rather than to plot the abstract destruction of a culture.
Okay. First of all. If there was a creepy homeless guy in your neighborhood stealing pets and babies to eat for food, I don't think you'd be too amused. I seriously doubt you'd shrug and say, "aw, poor guy, he's doing it to survive."
Why is it when they attack us it's terrorism but when we attack them it's war? Or justice. Or protection.
Back to my original beef with this piece of the review. Burdge says it was hard to watch Gollum being kicked around by the Rangers because "Men of the West do not do such things to their prisoners." Later, he says that Serkis tells us "that the Northern Alliance captured a Taliban soldier, beat him, stripped him of his clothes, and paraded him in the streets." Even without the CNN footage, I'd say it should be fairly obvious that "Men of the West" do torture their prisoners, or at least humiliate them. If I were captured by the enemy there's a certain standard of treatment I'd expect - from simple humiliation and being paraded like cattle to anything worse. It's war. Shit happens. Don't be a pansy.
But, to say that Gollum is like a captured Taliban criminal is frankly outrageous. The Taliban are terrorists, and aims to destroy the West.
Why is it so wrong for Andy Serkis to relate to a captured soldier being humiliated by his enemy? If Andy had drawn inspiration from an Alliance soldier in the hands of the Taliban, would that have been acceptable to Burdge?
People with double standards annoy me. People who can't see past their own ethnocentrism need a big smack to the head. With a lead pipe.
From this review of Andy Serkis' Gollum book by Anthony S Burdge:
In the extended version of The Two Towers it was offensive to see Gollum being kicked around by Faramir's Rangers. Peter Jackson dubbed this, Serkis tells us "The Clockwork Orange" scene. Why was it offensive? Because Men of the West do not do such things to their prisoners. ...[snip]... Being a New Yorker and witness to the events of 9/11, I find it hard to swallow when I am told that Serkis found inspiration in the "tortured" expression of a Taliban soldier on TV. Having been called over by a camera technician to watch the planes hit the World Trade Center on CNN on that fateful day, he tells us that the Northern Alliance captured a Taliban soldier, beat him, stripped him of his clothes, and paraded him in the streets. This event was documented on CNN. Perhaps an actor cannot determine or choose where he or she gets inspiration from. But, to say that Gollum is like a captured Taliban criminal is frankly outrageous. The Taliban are terrorists, and aims to destroy the West. They are not victims of oppression. They are the oppressors. How can inspiration be gleaned from them? ... but he is not a terrorist purposely plotting the harm of thousands of people. He killed to survive, to eat, to live. Whether the food consisted of babies, fish, game, or plant life, he killed to survive, rather than to plot the abstract destruction of a culture.
Okay. First of all. If there was a creepy homeless guy in your neighborhood stealing pets and babies to eat for food, I don't think you'd be too amused. I seriously doubt you'd shrug and say, "aw, poor guy, he's doing it to survive."
Why is it when they attack us it's terrorism but when we attack them it's war? Or justice. Or protection.
Back to my original beef with this piece of the review. Burdge says it was hard to watch Gollum being kicked around by the Rangers because "Men of the West do not do such things to their prisoners." Later, he says that Serkis tells us "that the Northern Alliance captured a Taliban soldier, beat him, stripped him of his clothes, and paraded him in the streets." Even without the CNN footage, I'd say it should be fairly obvious that "Men of the West" do torture their prisoners, or at least humiliate them. If I were captured by the enemy there's a certain standard of treatment I'd expect - from simple humiliation and being paraded like cattle to anything worse. It's war. Shit happens. Don't be a pansy.
But, to say that Gollum is like a captured Taliban criminal is frankly outrageous. The Taliban are terrorists, and aims to destroy the West.
Why is it so wrong for Andy Serkis to relate to a captured soldier being humiliated by his enemy? If Andy had drawn inspiration from an Alliance soldier in the hands of the Taliban, would that have been acceptable to Burdge?
People with double standards annoy me. People who can't see past their own ethnocentrism need a big smack to the head. With a lead pipe.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-24 06:30 pm (UTC)Anyway, way to go for breaking down that review! :)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 04:39 pm (UTC)I'm so sick of people, especially US media, calling the other side evil or terrorists. There is a rational for what they are doing and they're doing it becuase they feel we're destroying their way of life. Which.. you know... we sort of are.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-24 09:08 pm (UTC)Very true. And lets not forget what men of the west did to the people that lived on this land long before it was called Americia. They stole their land and killed quite a few of them. This guy is just full of crap.