{"id":30599,"date":"2019-05-14T15:55:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=30599"},"modified":"2019-05-14T15:55:38","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:55:38","slug":"tolkien-the-back-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2019\/05\/14\/tolkien-the-back-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien— The Back Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tolkien Trailer #2 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QjBKkkjcL0Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\nI must first say that this movie is a joy to watch. It\u2019s very well done. Even the flashbacks are not off-putting. And the two main actors in the story are truly excellent, as is the supporting cast. Nicholas Holt as J.R.R. in his high school and college and war years, and beyond, is excellent, as is Lily Collins as Edith Bratt, his true love. Further, Professor Wright the philologist at Oxford, with whom Tolkien studied, is beautifully played by Derek Jacobi of Cadfael and Claudius fame. The movie is only 111 minutes and like most truly excellent movies\u2013 it left me wanting more. Though this film was not authorized by the Tolkien trust, I cannot imagine Christopher, the son who published the Silmarillion<\/em> and other of Tolkien\u2019s works and manages the estate, would be displeased with this fine offering. My only complaint is that the movie does not really deal at all with Tolkien\u2019s Catholic faith, which is a pity since he was a very committed Catholic. <\/p>\nHere is the official summary about the film\u2014-\u201cTOLKIEN explores the formative years of the renowned author\u2019s life as he finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists at school. Their brotherhood strengthens as they grow up and weather love and loss together, including Tolkien\u2019s tumultuous courtship of his beloved Edith Bratt, until the outbreak of the First World War which threatens to tear their fellowship apart. All of these experiences would later inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-earth novels.\u201d<\/p>\nIt is clear that Tolkien\u2019s deeply disturbing experiences in WWI at the Somme deeply influenced the way he wrote about good and evil (see also the poetry of WWI chaplain Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy, especially his poem \u2018The Sorrow of God\u2019), and the necessity to fight the latter. <\/p>\nEven those of us who\u2019ve read almost everything Tolkien wrote, and his biography, and even have made the pilgrimage to Middle Earth, by which I mean the two great islands of New Zealand (including a visit to the official site of Hobbiton) learned much from this film. The film does not delve into the very early part of Tolkien\u2019s life in Bloemfontein in South Africa, but rather begins with the family\u2019s life in England in Birmingham, and does not explain what happened to Tolkien\u2019s father. What it does explain, to the surprise of many, is that Tolkien and his brother were orphaned in their teenage years by the untimely death of their mother, and ended up in a large home where, Edith Bratt was also \u2018under care\u2019 as an orphan. The film focuses on their budding relationship, and also the friendship Tolkien made with three other young men before and after they went off to college (in Tolkien\u2019s case Oxford). The movie is beautifully filmed, and has a lovely soundtrack as well from Thomas Newman. <\/p>\nI would heartily recommend this film to any and all lovers of the Inklings, as it fills in some gaps in our knowledge of what it was that prompted the remarkable Hobbit<\/em> and Lord of the Rings<\/em> novels (partly influenced of course by Wagner\u2019s Ring cycle). Fair warning\u2014 this movie will make you both laugh and cry, or at least it did me. Enjoy the pathos. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I must first say that this movie is a joy to watch. It\u2019s very well done. Even the flashbacks are not off-putting. And the two main actors in the story are truly excellent, as is the supporting cast. Nicholas Holt as J.R.R. in his high school and college and war years, and beyond, is excellent, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Tolkien--- The Back Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zRmscXowX2U https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QjBKkkjcL0Y I must first say that this movie is a joy to watch. 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