One of the many great things about The Lord of the Rings is the extreme depth of characters you will find. For some collectors their favorite character may just fall into a secondary character status. Our friends at Weta Workshop know this and aren’t afraid to tackle someone who didn’t get a lot of screen time. Today’s review is a perfect example of this with Haldir. While Haldir didn’t get a lot of screen time his impact on the story shouldn’t be thought of as minor. This statue was done right and fans of Haldir should be proud to own him. You can still get him for $399 from the US and EU warehouses and with an edition of 750 there aren’t going to be too many of him left.
Appropriately, there are a lot of complex emotions and thoughts to unpack after watching the latest film to tackle Middle-earth, TOLKIEN.
Let’s get this out of the way: If you have more than a passing interest in J.R.R. Tolkien or his works, you should view the film. You should view it in theaters and you should view it without knowing too much of what is going to unfold — and I will do my best to withhold spoilers, but some are inevitable if I am going to offer fair commentary on the film.
Let’s also get this out of the way: The next person who says “It’s not a documentary,” to me or anyone else with criticisms of the film’s portrayal of Tolkien’s life can go straight to Angband. This quip attempts to dismiss completely valid, rational views of the film, most often the assumed position that someone is about to say film isn’t accurate. Feel free to disagree with criticism, but don’t insult the discussion with a patronizing deflection or insinuate that there were two choices: either documentary accuracy or giving up all hope of accuracy and accepting anything.
Watching TOLKIEN was a powerful emotional experience. As J.R.R. has done for so many, he has profoundly influenced my own life. His words touch us on a deep level. His works laid the foundation of so much else that came after, most definitely including the biggest fantasy property on the block at the moment, GAME OF THRONES on HBO, that is something of a reply to Tolkien from George R.R. Martin. STAR WARS would certainly not exist as we know it without Tolkien. Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons and so much else grew from the field he plowed. The Professor is a giant that looms above us all.
So when Nicholas Hoult and Harry Gilby combine to portray Tolkien as a child and as a young man, it was unexpectedly moving; just the simple act of putting Tolkien on screen was powerful. It is a reminder that the nearly mythical professor was scared, lonely, insecure, sad, frustrated, desperate, drunk, charming, combative and impulsive.
Not only does Tolkien live before our eyes but his best mates from his young years, the boys essential to him during his formative era, all live and walk and breathe before our very eyes. In fact the film makes all of them immortal in a way, a reality that I imagine would have tickled Tollers.
And all of this is entertaining and beautiful but …
Watching TOLKIEN was a frustrating, and in some moments, an agonizing experience and I don’t mean in the midst of the drama lost in the story and characters but rather outside the drama and about the drama. And yes, I do get it. Screenwriting is hard. Putting a powerful, emotionally relevant story on screen is hard. The story of J.R.R. Tolkien is hard. Story telling about an period with less data about the man is hard.
But Tolkien was a real life person. Some living now, knew him then, and he left behind letters and notes, video, audio recordings and war and school records. So when the film’s writers David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, and director Dome Karukoski, chose to tell the story in a way that ignores those records and turns instead to fantasy, it is troubling at the least, distracting and frustrating.
SPOILER but (seriously, film spoiler ahead) the film chooses to depict Tolkien going for something of a walk in the midst of fierce fighting during the Battle of the Somme. He is obsessed, if not crazed, with the idea of finding his friend.
In reality 2nd Lt. Tolkien didn’t abandon his fellow soldiers and instead fulfilled his duty as a signaler for a battalion of infantry, sending instructions and trying to help communication in the chaos of fighting and dying across no man’s land.
Soon after he contracted trench fever — typically via lice — and was taken off the front. One of the most common symptoms of the ailment is leg pain — not quite the disease to inspire tench walking.
This isn’t a small shift in a man’s history, this is a massive, unneeded change about important characterization in the man and developments in the myth he created. There was already drama, conflict and characterization present in the actual history. If only the filmmakers had trusted the story of J.R.R. Tolkien instead of needing to make a fantasy story to replace it.
The film suggests Tolkien had a sort of fever dream during this walk and had visions of his future stories. Some will shrug this off, and he did start writing as he was away from the front, but a hallucinating Tolkien instead of a crafting Tolkien, especially when there was a set-up for it, is less effective. Yes, this can all be viewed as metaphorical, but it can also be viewed as a bad trip that became a good story.
Those aren’t the only inaccuracies; we are treated to a wildly different start of some important writing, that is definitely not an improvement (and from a filmmaking only viewpoint, it feels glued on at the end.) But it also avoids the opportunity to depict The Professor being the a professor. We are robbed of a very on-the-record Tolkien moment of inspiration that changed everything, only to have it replaced by a weakened moment, of problematic motivation.
I will resist the temptation, for spoiler’s sake, to say more and this essay isn’t the place to create a checklist of wrong history, but suffice it to say, some will.
To say that another way, just as big of a problem as being inaccurate about a real person’s story is that the inaccuracies — or straight up fantasy — robs us of getting to know the man, and the man is pretty interesting. The man didn’t need embellishing. And to be clear, I am not objecting to filling in some gaps and I credit the movie for doing that effectively in spots.
I object, as others will, to replacing the known record with storytelling fancy.
Others may legitimately raise concerns about structure or pacing, and while that isn’t something to be ignored, for me, those are forgivable.
None of this is to say there isn’t a fine story with a beautiful love-story in it. There is definitely that. And some dose of fancy or manufacturing of details is certainly inevitable and understandable. But manufacturing important things that contradict what is known is frustrating.
There is heart and abundant beauty present to be sure. In fact, there is a beautiful film here for you to catch in theaters, but it is too often a fantasy film about a real person as much as it is the story of that person.
Those knowing little about Tolkien will walk away “educated” and will perhaps find some emotional connection. Hopefully they will wish to learn more and pick up one of several great books about the man, which the director, a fan, has undoubtedly read. But this is TORn, not a collective that knows little about Tolkien.
Karukoski directed something beautiful. The acting is excellent. The lighting and shooting is beautiful. The music is wonderful. The tone is occasionally modern for a period piece but all of that is effective and emotional and there is much to praise.
But we aren’t going to get some other Tolkien biography anytime soon — this is it. We are rewarded with beauty and with pieces of Tokien and we are frustrated by the fantasy depiction of a man — and a story — that deserved greater purposeful fidelity.
Tolkien just opened in the UK this past Friday, and will be opening up nationwide here in the US on May 10. You can read Quickbeam’s review here, or remain completely spoiler free, as you see fit. Suffice it to say Tolkien is a beautifully made film, from the acting, music score and gorgeous settings.
Back in the day, when the LOTR films were coming out, TORn rolled out the idea of Line Parties, a way for fans to meet and interact while standing in line for the movies. Of course, this was long before theaters moved to reserved seating, which has taken some of the fun energy out of the theater going experience. But it doesn’t have to be that way, we all know that movies are better with friends, new and old. So, bring your Fellowship, or make a new Fellowship, and plan to attend opening weekend of Tolkien with fellow fans.
We have partnered up with Legion M, the first fan-owned entertainment company, to host fan Meetups/Line Parties/Moots on opening weekend of Tolkien. You can sign up to attend an existing Meetup here, and if there is none near you, register to host your own. If you decide to host a Meetup, you will need to fill out the form and wait for a Legion M admin to activate your event. Once activated, you will be able to share the link and encourage all of your friends and family to attend. The Meetups with at least 8 attendees RSVPed will earn collectible pins, but you will need to move quickly in order for those to arrive in time for the film screening. Of course, existing Meetups may have already qualified, so do check your area within a good 15-20 mile radius first.
One other enticement is that One Meetup will win a special prize of free movie tickets, with the added bonus of one Meetup leader and one Attendee earning a trip to a Legion M premiere at a city to be determined by Legion M, a 2 night hotel stay and a cash prize towards airfare. Please see the One Meetup to Rule them All contest page for details on this.
In a TORn exclusive, we’ve learned Amazon Prime intends to not just break new ground in its new Middle-earth TV show, but blow fantasy apart with a bold move in the offing.Viewers will be able to interact with the show and decide what choices key characters will make. The choose-your-own-adventure approach could provide up to five hours of viewing per episode in the 10-episode first season.
Our friends from Weta Workshop have delivered another hit, and another item that has been years in the making. Before Comic-Con this year, fans finally got a chance to order a character from Rohan, riding a horse; not just a random solider, but Eomer. Eomer had only been done as a bust in the original SSW line when the films were out, and fans have since been craving a proper statue. This statue lives up to the internal hype we’ve all been feeling since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Lucky fans can still order Eomer on Firefoot and then come chat with us about it in the TORn Collectors Club. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Eomer on Firefoot Review”
One of the many great things about The Lord of the Rings is the extreme depth of characters you will find. For some collectors their favorite character may just fall into a secondary character status. Our friends at Weta Workshop know this and aren’t afraid to tackle someone who didn’t get a lot of screen time. Today’s review is a perfect example of this with Haldir. While Haldir didn’t get a lot of screen time his impact on the story shouldn’t be thought of as minor. This statue was done right and fans of Haldir should be proud to own him. You can still get him for $399 from the US and EU warehouses and with an edition of 750 there aren’t going to be too many of him left.
