People try to obtain the "history" of biographical characters through biographical movies. If they refuse to use facts to verify and correct, then this "history" is nothing more than an over-interpreted and imagined "history." For most movie viewers who don’t care about the details of the facts, the behaviors of biographical characters often only need to follow the narrative logic inside the film and the biographical introduction on the encyclopedia. No matter how good a biographical movie, such as "Beautiful Mind" , it will list even the facts of Jiheng's rank and the rare person 's appearance ( " That movie is very good, I like it very much, they shaped me like a Matrix In front of Smith" -John Nash), it became riddled with holes, not to mention making the movie itself seem banal and ridiculous. The two protagonists both died in car accidents in their elder years.
It is not difficult for people to be psychologically prepared for the gap between the biographical film and the facts, but this does not mean that the facts of the biographical characters can be distorted in order to take care of the narrative logic of the film; this is exactly what happened in the film "Tolkien" Things. Although Chen Zhuo , the translator of the book "Tolkien and the War of the World", gave the film a good review , it was interesting and somewhat ironic (the word 10,000% has nothing to do with Mr. Chen Zhuo, but only related to this film) What's more, I have read the book "Tolkien and the War of the World" thoroughly, and then I understand why this movie is a failure, and where are the details that made it fail.
The structure of the film is actually very simple: Tolkien, who suffered from trench fever in the Battle of the Somme in World War I, recalls the friendship and love of his youth in the hallucinations caused by the high fever. Let's not talk about the second half of Tolkien's almost completely omitted life; the film's interpretation of Tolkien's first half of his life, especially the interpretation of Tolkien's love with his wife Edith, is almost inconsistent with the facts, and these are not consistent. The interpretation of facts is only to satisfy the narrative logic of the film itself .
Although Tolkien's life before the war was not the focus of the book "Tolkien and the World War", the facts mentioned in this book are sufficient to prove that most of the plots of the film are false. One of the most distorted facts in the plot of the movie is the passage "Tolkien was indulged in love with Edith and wasted his studies, so that he failed to apply for a scholarship at Oxford University, and the two broke up temporarily after the guardian Father Francis persuaded the two to break up." . Any reader of Tolkien’s biography knows the fact that Tolkien’s guardian Father Francis banned Tolkien from dating Edith before he became an adult to concentrate on his studies; it is also true that Tolkien had failed to apply for an Oxford scholarship; but the two The combination is incredibly absurd. In other words, this is a classic example of distorting and even discrediting biographical characters in order to satisfy the narrative logic of the film. Those who are driven and even determined by the surrounding environment are those who follow the trend; this is completely contrary to Tolkien in reality.
The fact that should be clarified here is: Tolkien's first relationship with Edith occurred only within a year of 1909, and was subsequently banned by Father Francis. The reader can imagine whether this has something to do with his failure to apply for an Oxford University scholarship in 1910 (the second year, that is, the second successful application in 1911); but what is certain is that this is related to the "Tor" shown in the film. Kim failed to apply for a scholarship when he was at Oxford University. "It's completely different. When Tolkien studied at Oxford University in 1913, there was indeed a scholarship crisis-however, it was very ironic for the film, and also very touching in fact, that was the result of his active pursuit . In this year, at the age of 21, Tolkien, who was allowed to fall in love freely, regained contact with Edith, only to find that Edith, who had been unable to communicate for three years, was preparing to be engaged with someone else. So "Tolkien (leaving Oxford) immediately rushed to Edith and persuaded her to marry him within a week." In the end, the lover finally got married. And his "abandoned studies", in fact, he left his professional classics (Latin and Greek) for a whole year, and indulged in the world of ancient Germanic languages; his attainments and displays of the latter overflowed Talent is enough to open up his enlightened classics teacher network, not only helped him keep the scholarship, but also helped him transfer to the school of Professor Wright, whom Tolkien admired since his middle school years, who appeared in the film and worked at the school. Under the franchise, "Don't touch the English after Shakespeare", from then on meticulously study the historical connection between X! Old English and ancient Germanic. In other words, Tolkien’s “scholarship crisis caused by abandonment of studies” in the film should be the result of Tolkien choosing to be loyal to love and the cause he loves. From here, we can find that Under the film's narrative logic, the facts have been cut and changed, distorted to what extent. If the reader has not found the plot disgusting yet, I can add that Tolkien and Edith in the film formally made their love when they eavesdropped on Wagner's "The Ring" in the theater underground-this is simply disgusting Thor. King himself and his most loyal son Christopher and his son are two generations.
Even if you don't talk about love, how does the film "Tolkien" present friendship? Not to mention the fact that there are actually more than four people in TCBS (the abbreviation of "Tea Club and Barrow Society") (one of the important members died before going to university due to frailty). Show that it does not exceed the average category of various movies that have portrayed the life of British public schools (those who are interested can compare the difference between the four generational predators and the four TCBS in HP movies); when chatting and laughing with TCBS members His youthful vigor is more than portrayed, but his talent, wisdom and potential are far from insufficient. Whether it is Gilson, Wiseman or GB Smith, if there is no world war, with their ambitions and skills, they are all characters who are as capable as Tolkien to leave a name in the history of literature or art. But looking at the whole film, the audience could not see how the four TCBS in the campus life of King Edward’s College and Cambridge Oxford are outstanding and outstanding in the language field they like and are good at; they can make Tolkien reminisce for a lifetime. The enlightened and brilliant controversy among close friends was also lost; how Tolkien himself became interested in northern myths and epics such as Sakya, Edda, Beowulf, and Kalevala, and influenced his friends From the beginning of the earliest literary and artistic creations and even the accumulation of settings for the Silmarillion, this key process is also missing ; instead, the only more weighty but superficial plot is how the president of King’s College Gilson is in friends Dialogue with the father on an equal footing with support. What is even more disastrous is the chaotic entry of the love line: Edith (!) actually broke into TCBS. You must know that until she was engaged to Tolkien, Tolkien took a little bit of "friends" with trepidation. "Guilty" introduced his fiancée to a friend. In general, the friendship line can only be said to be a passing level, but this passing level is far from explaining the pain that Tolkien brought to Tolkien in the death of a TCBS close friend in reality, and it also made Tolkien in the film in the first battle. The act of finding friends is not so much friendship as it is delirium in trench fever.
But even as the background and climax of the movie's narrative battle, the treatment of the film is still hasty and perfunctory. Begin with another disgusting scene: Tolkien reunites with Edith through a kiss and farewell before boarding the ship and heading to the Western Front. The real scene is infinitely close to Arwen and Aragorn, who exchanged heartfelt complaints in Rivendell on the eve of the Ring of War, but it is even more heartbreaking: Tolkien and Edith were married on March 22, 1916, and both were mortals. They are the trivial creatures in the tsunami of the World War. Less than a month after marriage, Edith personally sent her husband to the barracks and battlefield. During training in the barracks, the legend of Elder and Quenya gradually took shape in Tolkien's mind; TCBS no longer had the opportunity to reunite in this life, but in the trenches of the Somme, even in the last moments of their lives, they They are still passing poetry to each other, telling each other the fear and comfort (no hope) in their hearts . The World War I scene in the film perfectly avoided all the above details with third-rate visual effects, and then a soldier named Sam rescued Tolkien. The screenwriter tried to remind the audience through this clever way that this is still a biographical film about the author of "The Lord of the Rings"; however, fans who respect Tolkien's original work and life will inevitably sneer at this, and reunited with his father in heaven not long ago. Christopher would not even have any interest in mentioning it with his parents and his friends.
In the end, I want to comment on an important plot related to Tolkien's life, but in the film it was processed into an insignificant footage. Before the movie was released, I made the following promise in my "Want to Watch": Edith, played by Lily, does not dance in the woods and has one star directly . On the radio , I gave a totally intuitive reason ("Because this matter is too important, just like Hawking suddenly fell on the stairs") , and because this plot appeared in the film, I will fulfill my promise Don't give this movie a star. What I want to explain here is: The narrative of "Tolkien and the World War" confirms my intuition, that is, the weight of this matter in Tolkien's personal life. After Edith’s death, in the last days of Tolkien’s life, Tolkien personally mentioned this to his son Christopher in a letter: “At the beginning, she had dark hair, smooth skin, singing and dancing, and her eyes were bright. You never saw it. Passed.” And the moment this happened was not when he first met Edith. This is definitely not the flirty romantic love between boys and girls in the movie. It was in the spring of 1917. Tolkien was finally sent back to his country due to repeated high fevers, and he took the reserve service in the Humber River, which flows into the North Sea. After the rest of his life, he and Edith were finally reunited, and they often took a walk in the nearby woods. Just in the shade of this tree, the white flowers of poison celery bloomed in spring; just in this sea of flowers, Edith sang ballads and danced gracefully. Let us come to Tolkien’s point of view to see all this: he lost his father, he lost his mother, he gained friends, and after the war, he lost his friends again, they are forever young, only he is no longer young . Except for his lover, like a goddess in the forest, he greeted him returning from the wanderings of the battlefield with beautiful dances. At this moment, he has nothing.Although there are no words to show what kind of understanding Edith had about the world Tolkien created (perhaps this belongs to the eternal secret of the Tolkien family), I believe that Edith knew she was Tolkien herself. The beginning of the most cherished story is also the beginning of the word Eucatastrophe ( translated as "good disaster" in "Lord of the Rings and Philosophy" ) created by Tolkien : Belen lost a hand, but proved His courage and love for Lucian; Tolkien lost almost all his friends in the war (the only remaining Wiseman was also traumatized physically and mentally, and he rarely communicated with Tolkien afterwards), but Edith’s dance Reawakened his life. At this moment, although he has nothing, he will never be alone.
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