Tolkien on Screen
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- Start Date: 15 Sep 2025End Date: 20 Oct 2025Mon (Evening): 18:30 - 20:30OnlineLocation: OnlineDuration: 6 sessions (over -6 weeks)Course Code: HF407Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00
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What is the course about?
The story of Tolkien on Film will be told chronologically, examining the challenge and stakes involved in adapting his works, and exploring the solutions filmmakers have found.
What will we cover?
Week one will focus on Tolkien himself, exploring not only his literary writings but his academic work on fantasy fiction. We will use this to examine some of the earliest attempts to adapt The Lord of the Rings and the troubles they highlight in adapting Tolkien’s works, including a 1955 BBC radio adaptation which Tolkien was reported to have hated.
Week two will consider the first animated adaptations of Tolkien from the 1970s, including Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings (1978) and the Rankin/Bass adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1979).
Week three will focus on the European adaptations of Tolkien’s works that followed in the 1980s, including the soviet-produced The Fabulous Adventures of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (1985).
Week Four will examine Peter Jackson’s New Line movie trilogy (2001-2003) and consider the reasons why it succeeded whether others were perceived to have failed.
Weeks 5 and 6 will examine more recent attempts to adapt Tolkien’s works, including The Hobbit (2012-2014) and Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-).
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Appreciate Tolkien’s theory and practice of fantasy writing, and the ways in which filmmakers have adapted these ideas to the big screen
- Understand a chronological history of adaptations of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, and how these films intersected with social and cultural developments of their time.
- Examine the differing ways Tolkien has been adapted to cinema, and evaluate which function as successful adaptations of the original literary works that inspired them.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is available for anyone with an interest in Tolkien’s writings or the films that inspired them. No specialist knowledge is required.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Articles and extracts from the films will be provided to you. The class will be structured around a combination of PowerPoint presentations, extended film clips and class discussions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You will require a pen and paper (or laptop/device) but the tutor will provide all other materials such as handouts. The tutor will show extracts from films and you do not have to obtain them.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Please look also for other Film Studies courses under History Culture and Writing/Film Studies at www.citylit.ac.uk.