Tolkien Biopic
Well, every blogger is writing about the recent Tolkien biopic, so I might as well get in on the action. I really wanted to like it, especially as several reviews of the film by other Tolkienists have been suspiciously harsh. And there were parts of it that I certainly did enjoy. All the parts with the TCBS, both young actors and older ones, were well written -- funny, witty, charming, precisely the sort of good male companionship I imagine Tolkien cherished.
Everything else . . . well, not so much.
Most of the problem is simply how hard it is to portray literature and literary men on the silver screen. In order to capture audience attention, you need some sort of physical action or correlate to show, but it's really hard to depict language invention dramatically. There was a dining scene between Tolkien and Edith where the writers and director sure do their darnest to make a discussion of language come alive, and other places as well. For example, Tolkien's mother reads a story of Norse legends to John Ronald and Hilary as boys, but I always wince when film actors do "dramatic" readings of literature as if it were a high-budget stage production. Readings just don't happen that way, and it's pretentious if one tries. There was another scene with a professor of Gothic instructing young Tolkien in the power of language, but this was another cinematic case where an actor's Deep and Sonorous voice was leaned upon heavily by the writers to produce an emotional effect that should have emerged naturally from the writing itself.
In general, I truly wonder how many readers not intimately acquainted with Tolkien picked up on that (though my wife did thoroughly like the film).
Only two things I exceptionally hated, though. It's hard to tell, but the movie makes it seem as if both Rob Gilson and G. B. Smith died within the first few days of the Somme -- Gilson did, but Smith died about five months later. Well, the film shows Tolkien, frantic over Smith's condition, race to the Front, accompanied by his faithful batman "Sam," and actually goes over the top in his mad desire to see Smith, where he apparently sees visions of Mordor and dragons and I don't know what else. Artistically, sure, I know what they were doing, but this scene, which assuredly never happened anywhere on the front, makes Tolkien seem -- rather than a devoted friend -- like a deranged lunatic. (And a deranged lunatic who disobeys orders and neglects his other military duties as well, incidentally.) And then of course Tolkien spends most of the battle lying half-comatose in a pool of muddy water, being absolutely useless. Groan; wince.
Second thing I hated: the writers/director gave homosexual undertones to Smith's affection for Tolkien. It's all very understated, of course, but when Tolkien is distraught that Edith has become engaged, Geoffrey -- while looking longingly into Tolkien's eyes -- talks about the greatness of unrequited love. There's no hard evidence for any of this, of course, other than the common stereotypes and old jokes about the British public schooling system. But what I specifically object to is how much I suspect Smith and Tolkien himself would have despised such an insinuation -- would, in fact, have been deeply offended by it. The directer/writers obviously wanted Special Progressive Points for Diversity, which in itself is fine, but not at the cost of deeply offending the subjects of the biopic itself, in my view.
Overall, the film could have been much worse . . . but it's not nearly the masterpiece for which one might have hoped.
Everything else . . . well, not so much.
Most of the problem is simply how hard it is to portray literature and literary men on the silver screen. In order to capture audience attention, you need some sort of physical action or correlate to show, but it's really hard to depict language invention dramatically. There was a dining scene between Tolkien and Edith where the writers and director sure do their darnest to make a discussion of language come alive, and other places as well. For example, Tolkien's mother reads a story of Norse legends to John Ronald and Hilary as boys, but I always wince when film actors do "dramatic" readings of literature as if it were a high-budget stage production. Readings just don't happen that way, and it's pretentious if one tries. There was another scene with a professor of Gothic instructing young Tolkien in the power of language, but this was another cinematic case where an actor's Deep and Sonorous voice was leaned upon heavily by the writers to produce an emotional effect that should have emerged naturally from the writing itself.
In general, I truly wonder how many readers not intimately acquainted with Tolkien picked up on that (though my wife did thoroughly like the film).
Only two things I exceptionally hated, though. It's hard to tell, but the movie makes it seem as if both Rob Gilson and G. B. Smith died within the first few days of the Somme -- Gilson did, but Smith died about five months later. Well, the film shows Tolkien, frantic over Smith's condition, race to the Front, accompanied by his faithful batman "Sam," and actually goes over the top in his mad desire to see Smith, where he apparently sees visions of Mordor and dragons and I don't know what else. Artistically, sure, I know what they were doing, but this scene, which assuredly never happened anywhere on the front, makes Tolkien seem -- rather than a devoted friend -- like a deranged lunatic. (And a deranged lunatic who disobeys orders and neglects his other military duties as well, incidentally.) And then of course Tolkien spends most of the battle lying half-comatose in a pool of muddy water, being absolutely useless. Groan; wince.
Second thing I hated: the writers/director gave homosexual undertones to Smith's affection for Tolkien. It's all very understated, of course, but when Tolkien is distraught that Edith has become engaged, Geoffrey -- while looking longingly into Tolkien's eyes -- talks about the greatness of unrequited love. There's no hard evidence for any of this, of course, other than the common stereotypes and old jokes about the British public schooling system. But what I specifically object to is how much I suspect Smith and Tolkien himself would have despised such an insinuation -- would, in fact, have been deeply offended by it. The directer/writers obviously wanted Special Progressive Points for Diversity, which in itself is fine, but not at the cost of deeply offending the subjects of the biopic itself, in my view.
Overall, the film could have been much worse . . . but it's not nearly the masterpiece for which one might have hoped.
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