Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings

by Janet Brennan Croft (Editor)

This collection of essays addresses various aspects of Peter Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings including scriptwriting and the creative process, the place of the films in cinematic history, gender roles in the films and the books, wisdom and councils, hobbits and heroism, fan culture and fanfic, the use of Tolkien's languages in the films, and other issues.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tolkien on Film is a collection of essays on the Peter Jackson films by Tolkien experts. They're not all throwing out the welcome mat for the trilogy (one essay very amusingly states that Jackson has a nine-year old's understanding of LOTR), but the essays cover a great scope of opinions on the films and changes made for adaptation's sake.

If you are a fan of the movies that believe they possess no flaws, Peter Jackson can do no wrong and/or that Jackson told the story of the Ring better than those smelly old books by Tolkien, this isn't the book for you. You won't get far before you're throwing it away from you in disgust. But it does really depend on the reader as how they view the films and criticism of the films to how they receive the book.

Personally, I found all but a couple of essays very interesting, even if I didn't entirely agree with some of the arguments made or the opinions expressed. Some were even quite entertaining. I also enjoyed that neither one of the two essays on Tolkien fanfiction never explored the question of fandom and fanfiction in negative terms. I very much hope that there will be a second volume, focusing on Jackson's Hobbit trilogy.

[Lucille Chavez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Such great insight into the Lord of the Rings.