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Blogcutter at the Movies
May. 15th, 2019 02:35 pmYesterday we went to see "Tolkien" at South Keys. We haven't been moviegoing on a weekly or regular basis lately, for various reasons. And since we last went to that venue, my Scene points have been devalued so that I no longer had two free movies available on my Scene card (on the other hand, you now earn more points per movie, so perhaps eventually it will even out).
But as for Tolkien, we both found it to be an excellent film. Personally I would have given it a higher mark than Chris Knight did in the Citizen (he gave it 3.5 stars out of 5, whereas I would have gone up to 4.5 or even 5 stars). It's a lovely, lyrical tale of love and loss, of language and literature - and of leaving a legacy. And, moreover, of the importance of the arts in general to making life worthwhile, despite war and pestilence and disease and destruction and poverty.
The film deals with JRR Tolkien's early years, long before he wrote The Hobbit or the Rings trilogy. It begins with the death of his mother, at which point JRR and his younger brother are taken on by a benefactor who looks after their schooling, and moved to some sort of group living arrangement. Living in the same home is Edith Bratt, a musically gifted companion/caregiver-to-elderly-woman who eventually becomes Tolkien's girlfriend.
Tolkien eventually is admitted to Oxford, where he becomes part of a group of four young men, all of them interested in the arts, who meet regularly for tea and conversation. Then the Great War (a.k.a. World War I, The "war to end all wars") breaks out and Tolkien goes to war. Two of the four young men perish; Tolkien, as we now know, survives. Edith (ably portrayed by Lily Collins) waits patiently by his bedside and they eventually marry and have four children, for whom The Hobbit was first told.
But if all this sounds very trite as I write about it, it was not that way on screen. Just go see it. You'll be glad you did!
I'm now re-reading The Hobbit.
But as for Tolkien, we both found it to be an excellent film. Personally I would have given it a higher mark than Chris Knight did in the Citizen (he gave it 3.5 stars out of 5, whereas I would have gone up to 4.5 or even 5 stars). It's a lovely, lyrical tale of love and loss, of language and literature - and of leaving a legacy. And, moreover, of the importance of the arts in general to making life worthwhile, despite war and pestilence and disease and destruction and poverty.
The film deals with JRR Tolkien's early years, long before he wrote The Hobbit or the Rings trilogy. It begins with the death of his mother, at which point JRR and his younger brother are taken on by a benefactor who looks after their schooling, and moved to some sort of group living arrangement. Living in the same home is Edith Bratt, a musically gifted companion/caregiver-to-elderly-woman who eventually becomes Tolkien's girlfriend.
Tolkien eventually is admitted to Oxford, where he becomes part of a group of four young men, all of them interested in the arts, who meet regularly for tea and conversation. Then the Great War (a.k.a. World War I, The "war to end all wars") breaks out and Tolkien goes to war. Two of the four young men perish; Tolkien, as we now know, survives. Edith (ably portrayed by Lily Collins) waits patiently by his bedside and they eventually marry and have four children, for whom The Hobbit was first told.
But if all this sounds very trite as I write about it, it was not that way on screen. Just go see it. You'll be glad you did!
I'm now re-reading The Hobbit.
