"Tolkien" Topic

I saw this tonight and it was awful. It was boring and all over the place. I don't know enough about the life of Tolien to comment on whether or not it was an accurate biopic, but I know enough about movies to tell you that it was one of the worst I've ever seen.

I don't even know how I would have improved it, it was so bad.

It had a budget of 20 million and so far I think it has brought in about 3 million.

I can't not recommend it enough.
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I looked through the movies topics and didn't see another thread on this so I suppose others have either been wiser than I in their movie picking decisions or the discussion was on the Fantasy Media board.

Interesting. I've seen criticism that the movie omits Tolkien's religiosity, even though it was an important influence on his writing. Would you agree?

More than likely bad editing but I was not planning on watching it anyway.

I would agree that it leaves out his Catholicism almost entirely. The only real reference to it is that he is being raised by a priest sort-of and that priest mentions that his future wife is not even catholic. Without that you might not know and just think the priest a family friend or something.

'7' on IMDB, 50% on Rotten Tomatoes

Interesting. I've seen criticism that the movie omits Tolkien's religiosity, even though it was an important influence on his writing. Would you agree?

Colm Meaney's ever present Priest is enough of a reference I think to give the idea of the religious background.

I didn't enjoy the film much. I did worry it was going to turn into Riot Club at one point when Tolkien and his gang pick up Oxford girls. They were also pretty objectionable at every opportunity to the members of the "lower classes" – scenes that I think were supposed to come across as sweet/cute/life-affirming actually came across as creepy and/or objectionable behaviour by the over-privileged.

Oh – and the only people who can act are the pretty good Colm Meaney and the superb Derek Jacobi – his scenes showed how poor the rest of the film was.

The battle scenes were quite laughable as well – as The troops jump out of the trenches and go over the top, they are supported by cavalry (really?) and are inspired by a bagpiper. Basically every WWI trope is flung in for a really unbelievable depiction of the battlefields of 1916.

I pretty much hated it as a film. And I went wanting to like it – I was definitely positively inclined to enjoy it, but didn't.

The trailers really turned me off going to see this. I will probably watch it when it comes out on some free (well, not free, but I have already paid for) media.

The trailers made it look like Tolkien was in some mystic haze about a fantasy world. He was really an English language nerd. He worked on the OED, where he "learned more in those two years than in any other equal period of my life".

His magnum opus works were really based in his feeling that the Anglo-Saxon community didn't have a Wagnerian, Beowulf, or Gilgamesh like story. So he made one up. And nerdily made up a whole slew of languages … did I mention that he worked on the OED? And he was one of the Inklings, a literary fiction-writing club.

I happen to love his works and I even like the Silmarillion (didn't say love). But it really came from hard work and passion for the English language and its heritage, not from daydreaming and hallucination (which is what appeared in the trailers).

I don't think hours and hours and hours (and hours) of sitting around and working out the lexicography of several fictional languages would be fun to watch. I fear what the film makers think would be fun to watch.

Did the film give any mention of Tolkien's concept of Mythopoeia? If neither the word or the idea appeared, then the movie-makers knew nothing of Tolkien, and I wouldn't go see it. His love of myth and his love of Christ are essential to who the man was and to what he wrote. Without these, you do not have the man.

as The troops jump out of the trenches and go over the top, they are supported by cavalry (really?)

Actually, yes they were but it did prove to be costly.

link

link

Definitely wasn't an Indian regiment…..

…..and cavalry in penny packets of one man ?

But thanks for the links : interesting!

Too bad, as I had high hopes for this movie. WW1 surely shaped Tolkien and that looks dramatic on film, but to ignore the more philosophical and religious aspects of his life makes little sense. We want to know what how he was influenced to write his works.

Actually, yes…….

I don't think that there is any question about cavalry taking part in the 1st WW. The question is that they were not front line troops once the war bogged down to trench warfare. If cavalry supported infantry who just left their trench to attack another trench, can someone give a reference to the battle?