innumerable_stars | Tolkien (2019) Promo Post

Summary: This 2019 biopic explores the early life of J. R. R. Tolkien – the friendships he forged at school in Birmingham and later at Oxford, his romance with Edith Bratt, his experiences in the First World War, and of course the blossoming of his lifelong fascination with linguistics and mythology.

Why should I check out this canon? Let’s get this out of the way up front – opinions on the film were decidedly mixed when it came out. Yes, I admit, it does take a few liberties with the facts as we might know them from Humphrey Carpenter’s biography, the Letters, or John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War – but in terms of situating the man and his passions within the generation of doomed young men who went to war and came back irrevocably changed, if they came back at all? It nails it. The cast are wonderful, the score gorgeous, and there are some lovely nods to book-readers: the scene with Edith dancing in the woods, which famously inspired the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, is beautifully done. What makes this film for me, though, is Tolkien’s relationship with his school friends – especially with Geoffrey Bache Smith. (The queer subtext is very, very deliberate.)

Where can I get this? In the UK it’s available on Disney+, or to rent on Amazon Prime for £3.49. Availability in other geographies may vary. A quick Google suggests it’s not too tricky to get hold of on DVD or Blu-Ray so your local public library might be an option too.

What fanworks already exist? According to the AO3 tags there are 36 hosted there, although in reality it's fewer than that - Tolkien (2019) seems to have been adopted as an umbrella tag, which makes it harder to filter! If you scroll through, though, there are at least a dozen fics based on the film, ranging from tiny ficlets to novellas. Many involve Tolkien interacting with characters from his own legendarium.