The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

[stevekenson]

Saw it tonight. The short review: No Lord of the Rings, but better than I expected.

Truthfully, I was expecting not to like the film. All the hyping of the Christian allegory and the whole attempt to market it toward Christian groups kind of soured me, plus more than a few fantasy geeks nitpicked their way through points they didn't like in online summaries and reviews. I went in with something of an "impress me" attitude and, I've got to say, ultimately, it did.

It's still a charming fairy-tale story. The wonder of the kids and the gentle nobility of Aslan really make it work. I'll admit I choked up at a few points and ultimately felt it was time and money well-spent.

Comments

[e-falki.livejournal.com]

"....Truthfully, I was expecting not to like the film."

I felt the same, actually. Especially with all of the fundamentalist Chrisitan hype which the film got. But like with you, I was very pleasantly surprised at the film and enjoyed it. I especially loved the actress who played the White Witch; she was the perfect choice for the role.

[oakthorne.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

Honestly, it struck me, as I was watching the film, that those who claim that this is a staunchly Christian bit of allegory have never really had much experience with other Sacrificial King mythology. It really wasn't Christian - it's simply a worthy addition to the archetype of the Sacrifical King, of which the mythos of the Christos is another.

That, and I love the fact that apparently, on set, Tilda Swinson, the actress who played the White Witch, had them blare Marilyn Manson's remake of "Reach Out and Touch Faith" for the scene where she comes riding in on her chariot. She felt it had the necessary "Nazi feel" to it, apparently.

That woman has style; she also bitched out the director who wanted her to not fraternize with the children actors, afraid that their personal like for her would make their acting job of being afraid of her too difficult. She claimed it was insulting to their ability and intelligence.

Joe

[xomec.livejournal.com]

It really wasn't Christian - it's simply a worthy addition to the archetype of the Sacrifical King

Yeah, I agree entirely. Aslan's line on "the true nature of sacrifice" and how the White Witch was unable to understand such things (being so completely selfish) sounded very pagan to my ears. I think a lot of the story is so archetypal that differenet people can get different things from it, and isn't that what a good story should be?

[e-falki.livejournal.com]

Yes, Tilda is a wonderful actress! I've enjoyed her characters in a number of other films too. She does have style, and she rocks!

[garan-du.livejournal.com]

I probably will not go see it. Truthfully, I read all of the books in high school and just wasn't that enamored with the story (I read LotR 7 times by the end of college, however). Couple that with the producer's blatant attempts to market to the fundies and I just decided that I didn't want to give them my money. So I won't.

[anaka.livejournal.com]

I found the whole "It's a Christian movie!" thing to be really amusing actually. I for one remember when it was big on the banned books list because it had magic in it and might be Satanic.

[stiobhanrune.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm afraid that my friend Random said it best when he said that the movie, like the books, failed miserably as a Christian indoctrination tool. It certainly does a great deal for teaching morality to children, but it does very poorly when teaching them to believe in Jesus.

In fact, with all the references by Aslan toward 'the old magics' and connections to old mythology, like Father Christmas not being Jesus, but looking VERY old Germanic, and the dryads and fauns and such, it really acts as a very attractive magnet toward Paganism!

I think the funniest thing about C.S. Lewis is that the only people who see his work as being effective and Christian are really staunch Christians. His non-fantasy books are so circular and flawed in logic, they are very unlikely to ever bring anyone to Christianity from outside, and really only act as an almost useless faith reinforcement for Christians from the old school. They can't even use his books in argument effectively, because they're not really useful that way, as more than opinions.

Poor Lewis... he never did anything right, but he still managed to do very well... I doubt he'd see it that way though... Did you know his best friend was a well known homosexual?

*chuckles* He's very amusing, very amusing indeed.