Joni Parker's Blog - Posts Tagged "nicholas-hoult"
Movie Review: Tolkien
Despite the fact that I’m a fan of Tolkien, I knew very little about him. All I knew was that he was a linguistics professor at Oxford. I didn’t know he was born in South Africa and orphaned when he was in his teens and he was usually called Ronald (one of his two middle names). I also didn’t know that he served in World War I. What a devastating war that was.
The movie opens in the trenches of World War I where Tolkien is searching for his best friend, Geoffrey Smith. In a series of flashbacks, Tolkien’s story is revealed beginning with his childhood after the migration from South Africa to his mother’s death and his placement with a rich widow by the Catholic Church. He’s admitted to a private school where he meets three friends and become the TCBS, a fellowship that will take him to the war where two of his friends are killed. One survives but never truly recovers. Tolkien also survives but in his case, he thrives. However, his first book, “The Hobbit,” wasn’t published until 1937, many years after the war was over.
Nicholas Hoult stars as Tolkien and Lily Collins is the love of his life, Edith Bratt. I don’t know how accurate the film is, but I did enjoy it. He did live long enough to know that he had a major influence on fantasy literature and his books served as an inspiration for millions of us.
The movie opens in the trenches of World War I where Tolkien is searching for his best friend, Geoffrey Smith. In a series of flashbacks, Tolkien’s story is revealed beginning with his childhood after the migration from South Africa to his mother’s death and his placement with a rich widow by the Catholic Church. He’s admitted to a private school where he meets three friends and become the TCBS, a fellowship that will take him to the war where two of his friends are killed. One survives but never truly recovers. Tolkien also survives but in his case, he thrives. However, his first book, “The Hobbit,” wasn’t published until 1937, many years after the war was over.
Nicholas Hoult stars as Tolkien and Lily Collins is the love of his life, Edith Bratt. I don’t know how accurate the film is, but I did enjoy it. He did live long enough to know that he had a major influence on fantasy literature and his books served as an inspiration for millions of us.
Movie Review: The Current War
No, this movie is not about the ongoing wars in the Mideast. It refers to the war in the late 1800’s between Thomas Edison’s conviction that DC power was best and George Westinghouse’s view that AC power had to be used in order to power the cities of the U.S. The conflict was heated and the culmination of this war was the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892. Both men submitted proposals and whoever won the contract would win the war.
Lost in the conflict was Nikola Tesla, a brilliant man who found a way to use electricity to power machines. He also believed in AC power. Although he first worked for Edison, he quit and he sold his design for an electric motor to Westinghouse.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Thomas Edison. Edison was the big star of the conflict and his starpower overshadowed Westinghouse, who was played by Mike Shannon, even though Westinghouse’s use of AC power prevailed. All our homes are powered by it. Yet, Edison’s name always comes up. And up until recently, no one even mentioned Nikola Tesla, played by Nicholas Hoult. A brilliant man, Tesla’s ideas are only now being researched and examined. He died broke, by the way.
Overall, the movie depicted the conflict well, but I didn’t quite get into the movie at first. Maybe that was due to the lunch I was trying to eat at the time. I found this movie to be interesting because I didn’t know about it. Like most people, I thought Edison was the clever one, but he was only one of the three geniuses of that time period, working on this issue.
Lost in the conflict was Nikola Tesla, a brilliant man who found a way to use electricity to power machines. He also believed in AC power. Although he first worked for Edison, he quit and he sold his design for an electric motor to Westinghouse.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Thomas Edison. Edison was the big star of the conflict and his starpower overshadowed Westinghouse, who was played by Mike Shannon, even though Westinghouse’s use of AC power prevailed. All our homes are powered by it. Yet, Edison’s name always comes up. And up until recently, no one even mentioned Nikola Tesla, played by Nicholas Hoult. A brilliant man, Tesla’s ideas are only now being researched and examined. He died broke, by the way.
Overall, the movie depicted the conflict well, but I didn’t quite get into the movie at first. Maybe that was due to the lunch I was trying to eat at the time. I found this movie to be interesting because I didn’t know about it. Like most people, I thought Edison was the clever one, but he was only one of the three geniuses of that time period, working on this issue.
