Are women just bored of the rings?

[Abraxas]

Originally Posted by Elf Witch
I noticed that in this thread someone had to bring up Titantic which is one of my favorite films and a lot of people loved it as well but I do remember it was the in movie to cut down.

That was me, I didn't have to, but I chose to .
I was just wondering out loud (so to speak) if the author of the article made the same type of comment about Titanic - whether or not she liked it. The comment in her article seems to be an attempt to say "I'm hip because I'm smart enough to realize how bad this movie the masses like really is." I think its silly, if you don't like a movie say what and why you don't like, but don't try to elevate your opinion.
(I could tell you why I dislike Titanic, but that would be a hijack)

 

[Iron Sheep]

SO. My question is, given that most geeky/int./lit. type females, will, for one reason or another, be a fan of the LoTR movies- what about the females who aren't one of the above? Does anyone on EnWorld have female friends with completely dissimilar interests, who might better reflect your more "standard" populace?

Though I'm guessing they'll still like it, if only because they can perv on Viggo & Orlando .

I can give two data points to for discussion:

Firstly, at the trilogy tuesday here in Las Vegas, almost half the audience were women. My wife (who is definitely a geeky/intellectual/literary type) and I were expecting a much lower proportion. So I guess this shows that amongst people who really like the movies, there are almost as many women as men.

Secondly, my wife works as an environmental/liberal activist, and the women in that community, although intellectual/literary (but not geeky for the most part), have almost no interest in the movies. Some of them have seen them, but it seems that they did it more from social pressure than anything else ("Everyone else is seeing the movie, so I thought I'd go have a look"). But then the men in that community seem to have a very similar attitude about Lord of the Rings to the women, so I'm not sure that its a gender issue.

A wild hypothesis here (and women who are posting in this thread might like to comment on this), but I suspect that Eowyn may be a huge part of the reason that LotR has a following amongst women. She's about the only woman in the books whose character is developed to any great extent, but she's a very strong character, and she definitely got huge cheers from the audience in the third movie (the line "I am no man!" in particular got most of the women cheering). Is Eowyn a role model for geeky/intellectual/literary women?

Just some thoughts.

Corran

 

[Elf Witch]

That was me, I didn't have to, but I chose to .
I was just wondering out loud (so to speak) if the author of the article made the same type of comment about Titanic - whether or not she liked it. The comment in her article seems to be an attempt to say "I'm hip because I'm smart enough to realize how bad this movie the masses like really is." I think its silly, if you don't like a movie say what and why you don't like, but don't try to elevate your opinion.
(I could tell you why I dislike Titanic, but that would be a hijack)

I was not trying to imply that you were being a snob for not liking Titanic just wanted to make that very clear.

I have noticed that certain types pf people and some of them happen to be reviewers often like to take pot shots at popular movies. I have seen them do it to Star Wars and ET and other big films.

It is one thing I cannot stand is snobs. Who can only feel good about themselves by looking down their noses at other people's taste of entertainment.
And making this about gender just makes it worse in my book. Both the times I saw the Return of the King I would say the audience was about equal.

 

[Elf Witch]

I can give two data points to for discussion:

Firstly, at the trilogy tuesday here in Las Vegas, almost half the audience were women. My wife (who is definitely a geeky/intellectual/literary type) and I were expecting a much lower proportion. So I guess this shows that amongst people who really like the movies, there are almost as many women as men.

Secondly, my wife works as an environmental/liberal activist, and the women in that community, although intellectual/literary (but not geeky for the most part), have almost no interest in the movies. Some of them have seen them, but it seems that they did it more from social pressure than anything else ("Everyone else is seeing the movie, so I thought I'd go have a look"). But then the men in that community seem to have a very similar attitude about Lord of the Rings to the women, so I'm not sure that its a gender issue.

A wild hypothesis here (and women who are posting in this thread might like to comment on this), but I suspect that Eowyn may be a huge part of the reason that LotR has a following amongst women. She's about the only woman in the books whose character is developed to any great extent, but she's a very strong character, and she definitely got huge cheers from the audience in the third movie (the line "I am no man!" in particular got most of the women cheering). Is Eowyn a role model for geeky/intellectual/literary women?

Just some thoughts.

Corran

Speaking for myself I am a geeky/intellectural/literary woman and the fact that Eowyn is a strong female was not the main reason that I love these films. I loved the grand story and the bonds of friendship between the characters. I will admit that a small part of the appeal is the fantastic looking men in this movie. I have a friend who is really not a geek does not read fantasy she loves these movies because Orlando Bloom is hot. And she has been hooked on the story. As for Eoywn her reaction whenever she ia on scren is to hiss and when she is near Aragorn her reaction is "back off B**CH"

 

[Shadowdancer]

Well, there is at least one female movie reviewer who liked LotR. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave top ratings and positive reviews to all three LotR films. She also picked RotK as the top film of 2003, the second time in the last three years she named a LotR film as the top film of the year; the other was FotR in 2001. TTT was in her top 10 for 2002, just not the No. 1 film.

I remember in her review for FotR she said she normally didn't like big, special-effects heavy, blockbuster-type movies, but that FotR won her over with its emphasis on strong acting and emotional storylines to go along with the FX.

 

[Skade]

Had it not been for the girl I am seeing, I would likely have only seen the movie once this week.

Let me describe this girl a bit. She's young, until recently never been appreciated as anything more than a pretty face, used to social situations that require alchohol as its facilitator, and one of the *cool* people.

The words geek, nerd and fan-boy (girl) don't apply here in the least. Yet, this is the girl who begged me to take her to see it twice in as many days, who asked me questions about plot and character and even the technology in making the movie. She loves them, so does her roommate, who is much like her. I asked her about the idea of this being a geek movie, or for guys and she thought that was just silly.

She loved the fantasy, the break from this world and the ability it had to draw you in to something wholly real, with all the terror and joy it was capable of. What more could anyone want from a movie?

Admittedly, her favorite scene was Aragorn and Arwen "hooking up" but, hell, I wanted to see that kiss.

 

[Darrin Drader]

By all rights, I should have been more geeked about this trilogy than I was. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED LotR, from Fellowship to King, but my wife, well, she's gone a little bit nuts over the whole thing. We had to get LotR Risk, re-purchase the priginal books and re-read them, and hey, why don't we get the pewter minis and the Star of Arwen while we're at it (I managed to talk her out of the latter two items).

When it comes to appreciating these movies, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm at a about a 9 where my wife is clearly an 11 or 12.

 

[Spatula]

Let's not kid ourselves here. The books are solidly in the camp of boy's adverture, which doesn't preclude women from liking it, but does make it less likely. The characters are all male, barring two minor ones. The themes are guy-oriented themes (undying friendship, sacrifice, courage, honor - strip out the fantasy and you have a war story). Jackson fleshed out Arwen and gave Galadriel more screen time, but the core is still there. There's no shame in that. It is what it is. It's not as likely to appeal to women as it is to men. That doesn't mean that it's not good, or that it can't appeal to women.

No matter how much you love a work of art, there are people out there that don't share your opinion. Attacking them because they don't share your tastes is silly and a little childish IMO.

And attacking an opinion column for not being a review is also rather silly. The NYT's ROTK review can be found here:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/movies/16RING.html

 

[Buttercup]

Re: linking the LotR movies because of Eowyn, that's not it for me, at least.

The books changed my life. Exageration, you say? Nope. I didn't read them until high school. Hadn't ever heard of them before that in fact. Some girl in my political science class was reading The Hobbit, and I asked her what it was about. She couldn't describe it, but said it was really neat, so I picked up a copy. I was instantly hooked, because I had never read anything like it.

After reading LotR for the first time, I immediately re-read it. And then again. I was completely fascinated. So I started reading about Tolkien, from whence I found out about his influences. I found out that runes were a real, historical alphabet, albeit somewhat different from the ones he uses in the book. I found out the source for his dwarf names, and had to investigate that. I got interested in celtic and scandinavian mythology, history and culture. I got interested in English history, mythology and literature. I had to learn Anglo-Saxon so I could read Beowulf in the original. Years later, I woke up to find I had acquired a degree in Medieval English Literature while I had been chasing Tolkien.

Right, ok, but that tells you why I like the books. What of the movie? Well, I'll admit that I was really worried about them. My husband really had to work to convince me to see Fellowship. I feared major suckage would take place. But what I found was a movie that, while not a word for word rendition of the book, was obviously done by someone who loved and respected the text as a work of art and wanted to do it justice.

Finally, Spatula, do you really believe this?

The themes are guy-oriented themes (undying friendship, sacrifice, courage, honor ....

Why do you think women don't care about these things? I think they're universal.

 

[TiQuinn]

The characters are all male, barring two minor ones. The themes are guy-oriented themes (undying friendship, sacrifice, courage, honor - strip out the fantasy and you have a war story).

I don't think this is a very fair assessment. I've found that a lot of women are drawn to movies that have these themes. In fact, it's silly to say "It's guy-oriented" vs. "It's a chick flick". These themes are, like Buttercup said, pretty much universal, and a well written, well acted is always going to have broad appeal.

Jackson fleshed out Arwen and gave Galadriel more screen time, but the core is still there.

And yet, the amount of screen time given to Eowyn, Arwen, and Galadriel is relatively insignificant. I somewhat doubt that is the film's sole appeal to women.

You know, in the end, the article is essentially trying to turn what is a difference of personal opinion and likes/dislikes into a gender gap, which from what I've seen, isn't the case. :shrug: