Themes of The Lord of the Rings This is, according to Shippey, a very modern, 20th-century theme, since in earlier, medieval times, power was considered to "reveal character", not alter it. Shippey mentions Lord Acton's famous statement in 1887, that ""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..."" He then goes on to point out authors that were dealing in the same themes of power and corruption at around the same time as Tolkien wrote his work. These authors include George Orwell with "Animal Farm" (1945), William Golding with "Lord of the Flies" (1954), and T. H. White with
Lord of the Flies (1963 film) a script of "Lord of the Flies" from Nigel Kneale, but Ealing Studios closed in 1959 before it could be produced. The novel was adapted into a movie for a second time in 1990; the 1963 film is generally considered more faithful to the novel than the 1990 adaptation. A group of British schoolboys are evacuated from England following the outbreak of an unidentified war. Their airliner is shot down by briefly-glimpsed fighter planes and ditches near a remote island. The main character, Ralph, is seen walking through a tropical forest. He meets an intelligent and chubby boy, who reveals