Globalization seen through the Lord of the Rings

     My presentation discussed the Hollywood style films and how globalization has impacted them and how they have further globalized the world. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, original books written by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed and produced by Peter Jackson, is a prime example of the many impacts of globalization within the film industry including cultural imperialism, free flow of information and regionalization. The first point of my argument was that Hollywood style movies are made to be simply, entertaining and universal; these movies can be watched and liked by many different types of people. However, the high cost of producing such popular films has allowed for most of these films to be produced in the U.S. in comparison to other countries, thus promoted U.S. cultural imperialism. New Zealand, the country where much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, has been greatly affected by these films especially through film-induced tourism. One student asked, “How can we make movies that don’t misrepresent other cultures?” My answer was that, in this case we really can’t; New Zealand country and landscape was simply used for certain scenes in the film.