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Tehran turmoil brings Lord of the Rings back into press spotlight
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Photo-montage: AP Photo, New Line
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Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is back in the news, after authorities in Iran aired the films, plus other American and European movies, in an effort to keep protesters off the streets.
Salon.com appears to have broken the story, in an article anonymously authored by someone in Iran, perhaps a foreign reporter. The article discusses the government's clumsy attempt to placate the Iranian public with televised movies and how this effort is backfiring, focusing particularly on the effect of the Lord of the Rings films.
Normally, Iranian state TV, which does not follow international copyright treaties, airs one or two Western movies a week. This week, as the “Green Revolution” enters its thirteenth day, stations are airing two or three films a day, according to the anonymous writer.
From the Salon article:
Gandalf the Gray returns to the Fellowship as Gandalf the White. He casts a blinding white light, and his face is hidden behind a halo. "Imam zaman e?!" someone in the room asks. Is it the Mahdi, the last imam and, according to Shia Islam, the savior of mankind?
Who picked this film? I start to suspect that there is a subversive soul manning the controls at Seda va Sima, AKA the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. It is way too easy to play with the film, to draw comparisons to what is happening in real life. There are the overt [opposition challenger] Mousavi themes: the unwanted quest and the risking of life in pursuit of an unanticipated destiny. Then there is the sly nod to [incumbent president] Ahmadinejad. …there are plenty of references to "kootoole," little person, the Farsi word used in the movie for hobbit and dwarf. "Kootoole," of course, was, is, the term used in many of the chants out on the street against President Ahmadinejad. He is the "little person." ("And whose side are you on?" Pippin asks the ancient, forest-dwelling giant named Treebeard. Those watching might think the answer is Mousavi, since Treebeard is decked out in green.)
Time Magazine has also picked up on the story, as have a number of web-only sources.
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