Tolkien on Film

Did You Know?

• The book is not illustrated.
• The table of contents and ISBN were unchanged in the second printing.
• The second printing appeared in 2010 with a brief note by Croft.

Background

J. R. R. Tolkien, an English philologist and professor at the University of Oxford, published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes in 1954–55; sales have exceeded 150 million copies. Peter Jackson released a big-budget film trilogy of the work in 2001–2003, and his interpretation differed markedly from Tolkien's themes, provoking strong reactions. The essay collection Tolkien on Film, the first produced in response to the film trilogy, appeared in 2004. In a note to the Second Printing, Croft stated that the collection remains the most important gathering of criticism on the film from a literary studies perspective, as opposed to a film studies perspective. The essays are mostly by scholars, including David Bratman, Jane Chance, Amy H. Sturgis, and Diana Paxson, with J. E. Smyth as an exception.

Reception

Film scholar Kristin Thompson, reviewing the book for Tolkien Studies, wrote that it appeared before the special extended edition of the final film, making its publication seem hasty. She noted that several contributors dislike Jackson's trilogy and that few contributions are by film scholars, so many are not actually about Jackson's film as such. Thompson observed that some essays resemble lists of complaints rather than classic adaptation studies, and that the frequent denigration of Jackson would disappoint film fans. Janice Bogstad and Philip Kaveny, introducing their 2011 collection Picturing Tolkien, wrote that Croft's collection found Jackson's films wanting and that it speaks to and from the body of Tolkien scholars and enthusiasts who believe the film series did not succeed. Thompson added that a contributor on TheOneRing.net described the book as mostly con articles, and she compared the scholarly condescension toward the films to the disdain Tolkien's colleagues felt for his fiction.