'The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim' Actress Maligns Peter Jackson's Films With Feminism Attack: "Does Not Pass The Bechdel Test"
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim actress Gaia Wise maligned Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy with a tired feminist attack claiming the movies do not pass the Bechdel test.
In an interview with Total Film ahead of the film’s theatrical release, Total FIlm’s interviewer commented, “Obviously, in the original Lord of the Rings films there is only one scene where two female characters interact.” Wise interrupted, “Does not pass the Bechdel test.”
Ironically, Alison Bechdel, who the Bechdel Test is named for, has called the original test a joke and shared how dismayed she was about films taking shortcuts with “strong female characters.”
In an interview with The Guardian in July 2023, Bechdel said, “It was a joke. I didn’t ever intend for it to be the real gauge it has become and it’s hard to keep talking about it over and over, but it’s kind of cool.”
When asked what she thought about films failing the test, she replied, “What’s really dismaying now is the way so many movies cynically try to take shortcuts and feature strong female characters – but they just have a veneer of strength and they’re still not fully developed characters.”
Nevertheless, Wise trudged ahead in her interview attempting to promote the film from a feminist angle.
When asked how it felt to see how integral Hera and Olwyn’s relationship was, Wise said, “It made me really happy. It made me really happy that we’re finally telling the stories of especially the Shield Maidens because they sort of float around in the trilogy, but they are so important to the lore. And it also made me excited because hopefully there’ll be a generation of young girls who get to see this film and feel like they are seen and heard and empowered by it.”
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As for the shieldmaidens, like the unnamed daughter that Warner Bros. turned into Hera for War of the Rohirrim, they are hardly mentioned in Tolkien’s novels.
In The Return of the King Eowyn refers to herself as one during a heated conversation with Aragorn. She says, “But am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?”
However, later in the story she departs from that path, “I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren."
As for the film inspiring an entire generation of young girls, that will not come to pass either.
The-Numbers reports the film ha sonly grossed a global total of $18.2 million with just $8.7 million from the domestic box office and another $9.5 million internationally.
In its third weekend at the box office, the film only grossed $455,000 and was only present in 1,135 theaters. It had also already gone on sale on various digital stores such as Amazon Prime Video.
Box office analyst OMB Reviews predicted the film would likely lose Warner Bros. at least $31 million.
He noted the film would likely finish its box office run “somewhere between $21 and $30 million by the end of its run. And at a $30 million budget, yeah, that’s just not going to do it. $31 million estimated losses. That’s a 2.5x multiplier. We can imagine that it’s probably going to be closer to between $40 and $50 million when all is said and done though.”
“Not the biggest flop in the world, but definitely not, I think, what they were expecting for this movie. And had they actually focused on what was in the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, if they had actually given a story and a movie that fans wanted instead of taking a random side character who was unnamed and then making it entirely about her for the sake of some type of messaging then guess what people actually would have gone to see this and been going back to it see multiple times over,” he added.
What do you make of Wise’s comments and the eventual box office failure of this film?
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