Quote:
Originally Posted by alatar
Not sure that this is the right thread, but it was announced that US President Barack Obama presented British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a gift of "25 classic American films," as can be read here. Obviously missing from the list is LotR, and so apologies to PM Brown.
"I went all the way to Washington DC and all I got were some DVDs?!?" |
Now would seem a good time to define "classic Amercian films" with the emphasis on
American. We might even develop a good discussion on what constitutes cultural citizenship for Tolkien, who was English (some may say, Old English) but whose books appear to transcend tribal/cultural divides. But let's keep this to the films now.
Let's see now.
LotR was filmed entirely in New Zealand, right? Where was the post-production work done?
Is Peter Jackson an American? Are the writers of LotR film Americans? And the Producers, the Cinematographers, the--well, everybody who goes into participating in and producing the films. Heck, even the coffee and sandwich caterers and the janitorial staff, because everyone plays a part in producing the final work. And were the teachers of these participants Americans? Were their parents American? And did clearly American works influence their aesthetic/artistic development?
Is New Line an American company? How about Time Warner and MGM?
How many of the actors in the trilogy films are Yanks? How many Brits or Kiwis or Auzs? Or Other European States?
How do the Awards community categorise LotR? How does the media? How does the European media as distinguished from the American media?
I could carry on, but I think my point is clear as mud. Or tax returns definitions.