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Talking Tolkien: The Elvish Craft of CGI

A conversation between film expert and Tolkien enthusiast, Mark Sinker, and CLE

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Abstract

Voted the greatest book of all time in several polls, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has been made into three films between 2001–2003 by New Zealand director Peter Jackson with the complete trilogy out on DVD in 2004. Prompted by the question: “What would Tolkien have made of them?” Mark Sinker discusses the films and the books by way of Tolkien’s inspiration William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts Movement’s notion of ‘‘right-making’’. Sinker contrasts the techniques of computer generated imagery (CGI) with Tolkien’s own ethic of the art and craft of writing, looking at Tolkien’s radical contribution to Fantasy as a genre for adults and how ‘right’ story-telling emerges into 21st century culture.

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References

  • J.R.R. Tolkien (1938) The Hobbit, London: Allen and Unwin, 1937 Houghton Mifflin Boston

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  • Tolkien, J. R. R., The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring 1954, The Two Towers, 1955, The Return of the King, 1956. London: Allen and Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

  • J.R.R. Tolkien (1965) “On fairy stories” in Tree and Leaf, London: Allen and Unwin, 1964 Houghton Mifflin Boston

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  • J.R.R. Tolkien (1977) The Silmarillion, London: Allen and Unwin, 1977 Houghton Mifflin Boston

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Authors
  1. Mark Sinker
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Additional information

A Contributing Editor to the film journal Sight & Sound, Mark Sinker also writes about culture and technology for the on-line magazine Freaky Trigger. He is currently researching a history of the politics of the Gothic in the popular arts, from 17th century garden design to present-day videogames, via 19th and early 20th century children’s literature.

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Sinker, M. Talking Tolkien: The Elvish Craft of CGI. Child Lit Educ 36, 41–54 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-004-2188-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-004-2188-8

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