Fighting inequality in “The Hobbit”
The latest series from Peter Jackson left a lot to be desired on many grounds: That a comparatively short Tolkien book had to be split into a bloated trilogy at all. That the writing was cheesy (“Think of the children!”) and the action so over-the-top as to be laughable. (Let’s compare the made-for-amusement-park barrel-riding scene with the one where Legolas surfs an Oliphant in “Return of the King,” which was just kickassingly cool.) That they changed Legolas’ eyes from brown to blue, for some inexplicable reason. That the fate of the Arkenstone — the whole point of why the dwarves set out on the expedition in the first place — is ambiguous at best.
But what really caught me off guard is how Jackson, who had terrifically strong female characters in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (“I am no man” Eowyn, horse-riding champ Arwen), kind of threw that whole construct out the window in “The Hobbit” films.
(SPOILERS for “The Battle of the Five Armies” ahead!)
The elf Tauriel was not in any of Tolkien’s works, so she didn’t have to be in “The Desolation of Smaug” or “The Battle of the Five Armies.” She was invented by filmmakers to balance out an otherwise pretty-much all-male cast, apart from Cate Blanchett cameos. That’s not Jackson’s fault — the vast majority of characters in Tolkien’s works are dudes. Tauriel’s got lots of potential, until her character development in “Desolation” amounts to “I can fight, and I’m in a love triangle with an elf and a dwarf.”
In “Battle,” all her badassery disappears. She paddles a boat, runs after Legolas a lot, and takes out a few enemies. And then the Big Fight Scene: Tauriel tries to find Kili, who was doing fine fighting guys before she showed up, and gets into a spot of trouble with a Big, Evil Baddie. Kili, in the course of trying to rescue her, dies. Legolas, then, has to step in and also rescue her, very nearly dying in the process.
It’s not that Tauriel isn’t a great warrior — she proves herself to be one in “Desolation.” It’s problematic then that as soon as she starts fighting to save the guy she loves, she becomes incompetent, playing out the role of “damsel in distress who needs to be rescued.”
The theme the movie followed was “Don’t take a woman into battle because she’ll get in the way, and the guys will get distracted trying to protect her,” which is basically the argument employed for years against why women shouldn’t be allowed on the battlefield. At a time when women are finally being integrated into more combat positions within U.S. military forces, it would have felt more up-to-date if Tauriel had broken the mold and not needed a man to save her or if she had fought the Big Evil Baddies on par with Kili and Legolas. (I know, I know, book purists, Kili is supposed to die, but in “The Hobbit,” he dies in the thick of the main battle defending Thorin, so a faithful adaptation is out, anyway).
What happened here is that Jackson got, well, lazy on character development, along with other aspects of the series. Unfortunately, in films that have such a small female presence to start with, that’s when it’s all the more important to avoid stereotypes. These films were not the finale the original “Lord of the Rings” trilogy deserved.
When Eowyn killed the Witch King of Angmar in “Return of the King,” I remember thinking what a boss she was, and how, if I could be any movie character at that time, I’d be her. It’s too bad girls watching “The Hobbit” trilogy today don’t have as good a role model.
