Sean and Cody set out on an epic quest through Middle Earth in this, the most nerd-tastic episode of Green Screen yet. In the 2002 fantasy epic The Two Towers, part of the Lord of the Rings saga, mild-mannered hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and his gardener and possible boyfriend Samwise (Sean Astin) are on a long walk to pitch a magic ring off a short pier into the fiery lava chasm of Mt. Doom in an attempt to bring an end the disagreeable and environmentally unfriendly Sauron administration. Meanwhile, a CGI special effect with a split personality (Andy Serkis) plots to take the ring for himself. And there’s a huge battle scene. And orcs. Environmental issues discussed include the ecological vision of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the source material; the “Black Country” of late 19th century England and its despoliation by coal mining; the linkage between power and environmental destruction, embodied by the history of oil and climate change; and the early theories of ecology that were developing at the time the Lord of the Rings books came out in the 1950s.
How did Tolkien’s upbringing and his experiences on the Western Front in World War I shape his expansive environmental vision? Was Peter Jackson faithful to that vision when he made these films? Of all the Lord of the Rings books, why was this one the most difficult to turn into a movie? How did New Line Cinema manage to flush the billions of dollars it made on these pictures right down the toilet? Is Sauruman an employee of the Koch brothers? What’s the fastest way to reverse climate change? Could this movie have been made in 1939? What does this film have to do with The Thief of Baghdad? Why is Ralph Bakshi ticked off at Peter Jackson? How many different ways can Maggie Smith pronounce the words “Mary McGregor”? All these questions and more are ready to be cast into the fiery chasms of Mt. Doom in this fantastical episode of Green Screen.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) at Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-two-towers/
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