Are you seriously asking that question?
“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun!”
"Hhhhey baby… You lookin FINE. What’s a sweet thang like you doin’ in a place like this? We met before? Folks 'round here call me Bane. How 'bout we go back to my place, and I show you my Blade of Fire?"
“YOU… SHALL NOT… MAKE A PASS!”
He’s a witch king. He could be the king of all witches, not a witch himself. It’s that whole ghost pirate/pirate ghost dilemma.
I fancy Tolkien had some sort of issue with sex. First thought when I saw Mordor in the movie was …that ain’t the Eye of Sauron it’s the Gash of Doom!
The visual representation of Sauron in the movie has nothing at all to do with Tolkien’s problems with sex. Book-Sauron has a corporeal form, not the silly giant fireball of suck.
They already had one of those, in the books. If you want an evil counterpart to Galadriel, just put Beruthiel into the movie.
It can work, but only if you make her significantly and noticeably cooler than most or all of the other characters.
Harder to do with Wormtongue…but hey, since we’re hypocritically perverting the movies already, we’ll just go whole hog and have her portrayed by Marlene Dietrich, with changes to characterization to match.
(Also, either someone needs to pony up a few extra million to Weta to add a new CGI character, or we’ll need to get some shovels, fishing line, and a whoooole lot of concealer…)
Yes. The Evil Lesbian is a pulp staple. Sure, it’s not PC, but then, this thread’s starting premise (that every affectionate same-sex friendship has to be homosexual) is hardly PC either
While J R R certainly had nothing to do with the Sauron’s look in the movie, everything I’ve seen in the print versions show The Lidless Eye as having a slit pupil – it’s even on stamped on the cover of my H - M three volume edition. I have to say, I never thought of flaming vaginas until the movie either. Likely its a case of seeing the thing move rather than in your imagination that evoked that response. Or it’s deliberate on the art director’s part, who knows?
I didn’t say that every affectionate same-sex friendship has to be homosexual. I said that Kim and Cinderella made a drinking game out of that claim. I think that Wood & Astin may have played it that way deliberately, whereas Bloom & Rhys-Davies did not (and I would say that Legolas & Gimli loved one another no less than than Frodo & Sam).
I hit submit too soon and was then distracted by work while editing. Stupid work. 
Anyway, I wanted to add this:
I think it would be a horrible idea to have the only unequivocally homosexual character in the movie be a lesbian. The movie’s already fraught with issues such as the fact that every single major character is played by a white person (with the possible exception of the Orcs, who are so made up you simply can’t tell). I’m not objecting to that; it would have bothered me if they had shoehorned in actors of African, East Asian, Polynesian, or other such ancestry. But it would be distracting for no good reason. I wouldn’t make Grima a predatory lesbian unless I had a compensating and unambiguous gay or lesbian couple in the story.
Why? There’s pochillions of movies and series where the only unequivocally homosexual character is a gay dude! Same-sex orientation equality or something, no?
See the post above yours.
See, that would piss me off - it’s like that dumb DnD alignment idea of TN people having to commit evil and good acts that balance each other out. Like you said, the movie is already not PC with regards to race, why should it be so in terms of sexual politics?
I wouldn’t find an Evil Lesbian distracting, because, like I said, it’s a pulp staple. I expect evil sorceresses and queens to be either sluts or dykes.
But hey, if it makes it better, make Faramir a girl too (I know it breaks the one-conversion-per-movie rule). Then Faramira/Eowyn is a positive lesbian 'ship that would counterbalance nicely.
Interesting thread. I’d go with:
Fellowship: Frodo. This would add a much more interesting angle to Sam’s role as Frodo’s guardian angel, and make their separation at the end more poignant. Frodo virtually never wields his sword anyway, and is always a damsel in distress. How many times is Frodo captured, attacked, waylaid, and later rescued? If he’s going to break a heel every time he runs from danger we might as well cast appropriately. (We can dispense with the Sam & Rosie subplot.)
Two Towers: Faramir. Although I like the big-brother-little-brother dynamic of Faramir and Boromir, I also like the idea of Gondor being at such an extremity that they defend themselves with men and women, every able warrior they can field. Since Faramir, like Frodo, spends a great deal of time incapacitated, being female certainly would give him a bit more sympathy with the audience. It would certainly complicate the Faramir-Eowyn romance later on, but hell, Faramir could fall in love with Eomer instead, and Eowyn can go on being a warrior chick in comfortable shoes. Problem solved.
Return of the King: Mouth of Sauron. Since I’ve already femmed Faramir, I don’t want Denethor as well; the Witch King is, at best, androgynous; and the Orc leader has no lines of consequence. Since the Mouth of Sauron’s role is to persuade the heroes to give up, I think Sauron should’ve sent out a sexy femme fatale instead of the Gyro Captain in a silly hat.
I think both Faramir and Eowyn’s stories only make sense if they are the genders Tolkien assigned them.
For the first film, I’d turn Boromir female. It would add to Denethor’s distaste for Faramir - “You’re not even as good as your sister!” - and neatly twist the corruption.
In the second film, I’d go with Wormtongue. No, not the evil lesbian cliche: make her middle-aged and attractive with a grown son of her own whom she wants on the throne, and his marriage to Eowyn is the means of achieving it.
In the third, I’m not sure. Denethor as a man-hater would work well. Again, her dislike of Aragorn and Faramir would fit well.