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Fordim Hedgethistle · 11-01-2004, 01:59 PM

I never saw this thread before, so I'm so glad it's been bumped.

I thought that PJ was really rather coy and smart with the whole sex issue. He did what film-makers of the 40s and 50s would do when they wanted to hint at sex without stating absolutely that it had happened -- he goes to black or to another scene just as things heat up between Arwen and Aragorn (after the kiss on the bridge, for example).

The other trick he used is Arwen's legs. After she gets up from the bed/couch where she had been reclining with Aragorn (and that sure looks like morning to me. . .) she is backlit and we can see the outline of her legs through the dress: right up to the thigh. That was a classic way so 'sex-up' a scene.

I think he did it this way so the viewer could decide for him or herself what happened. For those of us of a more adult (or salacious) frame of mind, we are free to imagine that Arwen and Aragorn have a mature, healthy sexual relationship; for those of us of a more adult (but less salacious) frame of mind, they are free to imagine the relationship as Tolkien clearly did. And for kids, whose minds aren't yet in the gutter, it just looks like a boyfriend and a girlfriend having a chat. . .hurry up and get to the Balrog!!

11-01-2004, 01:59 PM	#2
Fordim Hedgethistle Gibbering Gibbet Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Beyond cloud nine Posts: 1,844	I never saw this thread before, so I'm so glad it's been bumped. I thought that PJ was really rather coy and smart with the whole sex issue. He did what film-makers of the 40s and 50s would do when they wanted to hint at sex without stating absolutely that it had happened -- he goes to black or to another scene just as things heat up between Arwen and Aragorn (after the kiss on the bridge, for example). The other trick he used is Arwen's legs. After she gets up from the bed/couch where she had been reclining with Aragorn (and that sure looks like morning to me. . .) she is backlit and we can see the outline of her legs through the dress: right up to the thigh. That was a classic way so 'sex-up' a scene. I think he did it this way so the viewer could decide for him or herself what happened. For those of us of a more adult (or salacious) frame of mind, we are free to imagine that Arwen and Aragorn have a mature, healthy sexual relationship; for those of us of a more adult (but less salacious) frame of mind, they are free to imagine the relationship as Tolkien clearly did. And for kids, whose minds aren't yet in the gutter, it just looks like a boyfriend and a girlfriend having a chat. . .hurry up and get to the Balrog!! __________________ Scribbling scrabbling.