Here’s a secret: I prepped these reposts all the way back in August. You are now reading this on October 10, per my clever scheduling a couple of months ago, and I’m enjoying my honeymoon! I’ll be back with my regular content in November, but for now, please continue enjoying a few of my movie and TV reviews. Today we’ll revisit my review of the Tolkien biopic.
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Raise your hand if you’re a Lord of the Rings Kid. Y’all raisin’ em? Good–I figured I had a few of you in my audience! Yes, guys and gals, we are the Lord of the Rings Kids, the millennials who grew up watching Peter Jackson’s iconic films
But here’s the question: do we, as Lord of the Rings Kids, take these stories–and the man who wrote them–for granted?
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a creative genius. Not only did he write an entire mythology, he invented multiple languages for that mythology. Not only that, but these languages are so well-developed, you can hold entire conversations in them. This is common knowledge at this point, of course; we’ve all eavesdropped on Aragorn and Arwen’s sweet nothings, and we all know the password for Moria’s front door. But I think we’ve forgotten, through the curse of familiarity, just how unusual this is…and how absolutely wild you’d have to be about languages in order to undertake such a project.
Thankfully, the new biopic Tolkien
If you’ve assumed this film follows the writing of his famous trilogy, think again. It actually follows his formative years: his impoverished boyhood, the friendships he formed at boarding school, his courtship with the beautiful Edith Bratt, and his life-changing experiences in World War I. Hints and whispers of The Lord of the Rings are everywhere, from Tolkien and Edith’s humorous brainstorming over the Elvish-sounding phrase “Cellar door” to his feverish whispers of “Hail Eärendil” in the trenches of the Somme. But not until the final scene, when he pens the famous opening lines of The Hobbit, does it all come together.
And that’s what so clever about this film: we expect it to be about The Lord of the Rings, but in reality it’s about everything that leads UP to Tolkien’s magnum opus.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. I think I can speak for writers everywhere when I say that we don’t just come up with random ideas: we’re inspired by what we see around us, what we love, and what we experience and endure. Consider Tolkien’s own life. His is the story of:
- an orphan whose mother, before she died, nourished him with tales of dragon-slayers
- a nature-loving schoolboy who, with three of his schoolmates, formed a fellowship that would be broken only by death
- an aspiring linguist who invented languages of his own…just for fun
- a young soldier and the love of his life who defied social boundaries and the objections of their guardians until they finally got their happily-ever-after.
These features of Tolkien’s life all ended up in his life’s work, and are major plot points of the biopic. Black-clad riders galloping through the trenches of his feverish imagination were a fine touch of artistic license, of course…but it isn’t much of a stretch to assume that Tolkien found inspiration in the utter despair and darkness he experienced in World War I.
(@ Google Images)
Unfortunately, the most influential element doesn’t get much focus in the biopic: Tolkien’s deeply personal, devoutly Catholic faith. This was the most common complaint I’d heard about the movie before seeing it, and I will readily admit it’s a valid criticism. Tolkien’s Christianity motivated his writing (something I’m keenly aware right now as I re-read The Silmarillion), yet in a glaring omission, the film barely touches on it.
Nevertheless, I do consider Tolkien
Maribeth Barber Albritton 