Backwell Agency
Representation
P5 - Legal & Ethical Issues
As this film as a whole was so huge and such a success the creators of the film had to consider how they were going to represent what had been written by J R R Tolkien in the books. With this as a guide, they had a majority of the characters' age, gender and race supplied for them which were already quite varied. However, with some characters they're race characteristics were not in the book so the film makers had to decide how they were to cast the actors. Gender is also represented well in this series as, even though the main characters are male, there are strong female characters throughout the book and film, like the elves, who can be seen as a good role model for the audiences. Social Class is represented through the amount of wealth each group of charcters attained and how much land they have over thrown. Poeple like the greedy Dwarfs who over take the dragons palace just for gold represnet the greed of governement. Poeple within the film and book always vote on whether they should attack but look up at their royality for the final desition representing there is always someone in power.
Outlining The Issues
Sex and Nudity
0/10
No sex or nudity in the film.
Profanity
1/10
'Balls' is said once, however, it is said for laughs
Violance & Gore
9/10
Many lengthy battle scenes, without much blood splatter but some slashing and dismembering.
Azog the Orc has had his forearm cut off in one of the flashbacks. Later in the movie he is shown wearing a primitive prosthesis - a construction of hooks attached to the stump by piercing the flesh.
A severed head is brandished and thrown.
An extremely large pile of corpses is shown as the aftermath of a battle.
A non-human character's belly is sliced open with a sword. He says something humorous then his throat is sliced as the scene cuts
A few heads are (non-gorily) cut off on-screen.
A non-human character is stabbed through the throat and thrown to be eaten (offscreen but heard) by wolf-like animals.
A non-human character is killed by repeated smashing in the head with a rock, seen from a distance.
It is implied that degenerated humanoid characters such as trolls or the creature Gollum might eat other human-like creatures like hobbits, dwarves or goblins.
A giant wolf-like animal is killed by stabbing with a sword.
A non-human character is killed by repeated stabbing and slashing with a sword.
Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking
6/10
Many characters smoke pipes full of "pipeweed". Reference is made to the calming effects of "pipeweed" (Tolkien was clear on the fact that pipeweed is tobacco, not cannabis although the expression on a characters face after having a puff may contradict that).
Ale and wine is drunk with a meal.
Gandalf the brown is described as crazy because he eats too many forest mushrooms, probably a reference to "shrooms".
Frightening/Intense Scences
5/10
Many lengthy intense battle scenes featuring scary-looking goblins, orcs, and wargs (wolf-like creatures). In the last half of the movie the main characters spend nearly all of their time being chased by, or in combat with, these creatures, and the cumulative effect may be too much for some younger viewers.
Gollum's appearance may scare younger viewers, especially when he screams in close-up.
Characters are almost thrown from a mountainside path and crushed by rocks.
There are some very emotional scenes between characters, especially Bilbo and Thorin.
There are quite a few scenes where a character or an animal is close to death or looks dead and someone cries in pain because of that. For instance when characters are separated during rock avalanche, when Thorin passes out during the battle or when an animal-loving wizard Radagast tries to save a little hedgehog suffering from an unknown disease.
Information found at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903624/parentalguide
The BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/DVDs since the video recording act was passed in 1984.
In order to preserve its independence, the BBFC's income is derived solely from the fees it charges for its services, calculated by measuring the running time of films, DVDs/videos and other works submitted for classification. The BBFC is not organised for profit, and its fees are adjusted only as required to cover its costs.
On 3rd December 2012 The Hobbit received a 12A certificate from the BBFC.
Permissions Agreed
Jackson's involvement in the making of a film version of The Hobbit has a long and chequered history. In November 2006, a letter from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh stated that due to an ongoing legal dispute between Wingnut Films (Jackson's production company) and New Line Cinema, Jackson would not be directing the film. New Line Cinema's head Robert Shaye commented that Jackson "...will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working at the company...".This prompted an online call for a boycott of New Line Cinema, and by August 2007 Shaye was trying to repair his working relationship. On 18 December 2007, it was announced that Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema had reached agreement to make two prequels, both based on The Hobbit, and to be released in 2012 and 2013 with Jackson as a writer and executive producer and Guillermo del Toro directing.
In early 2010, del Toro dropped out due to production delays and a month later Jackson was back in negotiations to direct The Hobbit; and on 15 October he was finalised as the director, with New Zealand confirmed as the location a couple of weeks later.
The film started production on 20 March 2011. On 30 July 2012, Jackson announced on his Facebook page that the two planned 'Hobbit' movies would be expanded into a trilogy. The third film will not act as a bridge between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films, but would continue to expand The Hobbit story by using material found in the Lord of the Rings Appendices.
Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, is a trading name for a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, located in Berkeley, California. The company owns the worldwide exclusive rights to certain elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's two most famous literary works: The Lord of the Ringsand The Hobbit. These elements include the titles of the works, the names of characters contained within as well as the names of places, objects and events within them, and certain short phrases and sayings from the works.
License Dispute
In March 2012, it was reported in various news services that The Hobbit, a public house in Southampton, UK, had been served with papers by Middle-earth Enterprises outlining breach of copyright over the name of the pub. The Hungry Hobbit café, located in Birmingham near where J. R. R. Tolkien grew up, was also threatened with legal action in 2011.
Please click on the link below to find out about licences and distabutions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_Enterprises#License_Disputes