Although Marxist critics, including Frederic Jameson, have found little to admire about fantasy literature in general or J. R. R. Tolkien specifically, one of the prime qualities of Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937) is its instantiation of depth—the serious treatment of the conflict between the ancient world and modern. As such, works such as The Hobbit starkly contrast with postmodern depthlessness, which Jameson considers the dominant aesthetic of cultural production under late capitalism. The importance of such depth can be seen through a comparison with Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of Tolkien’s children’s classic, which eliminates that depth entirely. After articulating the nature of historical depth in The Hobbit, this article then outlines the major changes introduced by Jackson harmful of that depth.