History Film / Tolkien

It is about the early life of English professor Creator/JRRTolkien (portrayed by Creator/NicholasHoult), the author who codified HighFantasy with ''Literature/TheHobbit'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', and ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and wrote notable academic works. It includes his time in the trenches of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and his courtship and marriage of Edith Bratt (Creator/LilyCollins).

* TheAce: When Tolkien a schoolboy, an English teacher attempts to dress him down by having the class read ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', and suggesting he can "follow along". To make matters worse, his classmates steal his copy so that he has nothing to read from. When Tolkien's turn to read out loud comes, he recites his passage from memory with perfect pronunciation.

It is about the early life of English professor Creator/JRRTolkien (portrayed by Creator/NicholasHoult), the author who codified HighFantasy with ''Literature/TheHobbit'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', and ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and wrote notable academic works. It includes his time in the trenches of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* TragicDream: Geoffrey says he wants to be a poet, but his father wants him to give it up for more sensible pursuits. [[spoiler:He dies in the war before his poems can be published, though Tolkien asks his mother for permission to do so and she eventually releases a book of fthem]].

It is about the early life of English professor Creator/JRRTolkien (portrayed by Creator/NicholasHoult), the author who codified HighFantasy with ''Literature/TheHobbit'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', and ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and wrote notable academic works.

''Tolkien'' is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed by Dome Karukoski and written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford. It is about the early life of English professor Creator/JRRTolkien, author of ''Literature/TheHobbit'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', and ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', as well as notable academic works.

The film stars Creator/NicholasHoult as Tolkien.

* SpotOfTea: The boys make Barrow's Teahouse their meetup spot, and they name their group the "Tea Club, Barrovian Society" - "TCBS" for short - after it. This group prefigured UsefulNotes/TheInklings, which formed after the war. Besides Tolkien the most famous Inkling today is Creator/CSLewis, who does not appear in the film since it's mostly set before they met.

** The expected {{Call Forward}}s to Tolkien's Middle-earth works are basically all about ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'', as much as the film can get away with while WritingAroundTrademarks. But he only wrote those books decades later. Instead, as a young man during [=WW1=] he began working on what would become ''The Silmarillion'', which takes place literal ages before the later books. He worked on it for the rest of his life with his more famous books being more like spin-offs, and it was only assembled and published in its current form after he died in his eighties. This is probably due to SmallReferencePools: ''The Silmarillion'' is yet unknown to the general public since it doesn't (and probably never will) have a blockbuster movie adaptation. Depicting the Fall of Gondolin (the very first part of the legendarium and openly inspired by his war experiences) would have been far more apt. Likewise, Sauron's final literary form was decades away, and the Dark Lord he created at the time was Morgoth[[note]]Sauron does turn up in his very earliest form in writings from this period - as Tevildo, lord of cats![[/note]].

* TheAce: When Tolkien a schoolboy, an English teacher attempts to dress him down by having the class read ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', and suggesting he can "follow along". When Tolkien's turn comes, he recites his passage from memory with perfect pronunciation.

* GilliganCut: While on a date at a fancy restaurant, Edith impulsively throws a sugar cube at a woman wearing a comically large hat, and after the woman fails to notice, encourages Tolkien to do the same. She goads him with "What's the worst that could happen?" Cut to the both of them being forcefully escorted out by a stern looking maître d'.

* DueToTheDead: Tolkien asks [[spoiler:Geoffrey's mother]] if he can publish a book of her son's poems.

* TookALevelInKindness: At the start of the movie, Geoffrey's mother is a stern parent who treats Tolkien as a ToxicFriendInfluence. When they have tea at the end, [[spoiler:she thanks Tolkien, who is OlderAndWiser, for bringing her to the spot where the boys met. She asks Tolkien desperately if Geoffrey was happy while he was friends]].
* TragicDream: Geoffrey says he wants to be a poet, but his father wants him to give it up for more sensible pursuits. [[spoiler:He dies in the war before his poems can be published, though Tolkien asks his mother for permission to do so]].

* ShellShockedVeteran: [[spoiler: Christopher is the only one of the TCBS other than Tolkien to survive, but he returns home a changed and broken man.]]

** The expected {{Call Forward}}s to Tolkien's Middle-earth works are basically all about ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'', as much as the film can get away with while WritingAroundTrademarks. But he only wrote those books decades later. Instead, as a young man during [=WW1=] he began working on what would become ''The Silmarillion'', which takes place literal ages before the later books. He worked on it for the rest of his life with his more famous books being more like spin-offs, and it was only assembled and published in its current form after he died in his eighties. This is probably due to SmallReferencePools: ''The Silmarillion'' is yet unknown to the general public since it doesn't (and probably never will) have a blockbuster movie adaptation yet, unlike the others. Depicting the Fall of Gondolin (openly inspired by his war experiences) would have been far more apt. Likewise, Sauron's final literary form was decades away, and the Dark Lord he created at the time was Morgoth.

** The expected {{Call Forward}}s to Tolkien's Middle-earth works are basically all about ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'', as much as the film can get away with while WritingAroundTrademarks. But he only wrote those books decades later. Instead, as a young man during [=WW1=] he began working on what would become ''The Silmarillion'', which takes place literal ages before the later books. He worked on it for the rest of his life with his more famous books being more like spin-offs, and it was only assembled and published in its current form after he died in his eighties. This is probably due to SmallReferencePools: ''The Silmarillion'' is yet unknown to the general public since it doesn't (and probably never will) have a blockbuster movie adaptation yet, unlike the others. Depicting the Fall of Gondolin (openly inspired by his war experiences) or the tale of Beren and Lúthien (which was heavily based on his own relationship with Edith) would have been far more apt.

** The expected {{Call Forward}}s to Tolkien's Middle-earth works are basically all about ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'', as much as the film can get away with while WritingAroundTrademarks. But he only wrote those books decades later. Instead, as a young man during [=WW1=] he would have begun working on what would become ''The Silmarillion'', which takes place literal ages before the later books. He worked on it for the rest of his life with his more famous books being more like spin-offs, and it was only assembled and published in its current form after he died in his eighties. This is probably due to SmallReferencePools: ''The Silmarillion'' is yet unknown to the general public since it doesn't have a blockbuster movie adaptation yet, unlike the others.

** Elements in Tolkien's life that helped inspire the story of [[Literature/TheSilmarillion Beren and Lúthien]] are depicted, but neither name is ever spoken or written.

* PeriodPiece: Takes place during Tolkien's childhood in the early 1900s, particularly focusing on his experiences during World War I.

* SpotOfTea: The boys make Barrow's Teahouse their meetup spot, and they name their group the "Tea Club, Barrovian Society" - "TCBS" for short - after it. This group prefigured Creator/TheInklings, which formed after the war. Besides Tolkien the most famous Inkling today is Creator/CSLewis, who does not appear in the film since it's mostly set before they met.