Narnia Comes Out of the Closet

Many (many, many...) years ago, I was a 10-year-old attending school in Northern England. We were going to do a class reading, and the teacher picked 3 books for us to choose between. I thought The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis sounded good, but the mutton-headed majority picked something else. After school, I went to the school library and got my choice out to read myself. That was my first visit to Narnia -- no wardrobe required. I have been there many times since. This was a relatively new book then, and had not yet become the beloved literary children's classic it is today.

Of course, I was so young then, I never realized that the Narnia books were religious allegory. When I was older, I realized that they were. Then, when I was older still, I realized that they were not. While these books are certainly based on strong Christian themes, they are not truly allegory since they do not parallel any particular storyline. Instead they concern themes, like betrayal, redemption and forgiveness.

When the movie of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe first came out, Disney lost no time in spreading the word through the churches. I don't know if this was a serious attempt to ride the coattails of The Passion of the Christ or just to offset the protests about witchcraft and magic that have accompanied the Harry Potter movies. Of course, this could have backfired and kept non-Christian parents away so, in a doublethink tactic more in line with 1984, Disney did not publicize their religious publicity. In any case, it is all moot. The movie is based on firm moral principles, rather than uniquely Christian ones, so there is no reason for parents of any religion to keep children away.

Another thing that never occurred to me back then, was that it would ever be possible to make this into a movie other than by animation. I mean, with talking animals and all. Of course, that was long before the magic of CGI came along.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first Narnia book written and published back in 1950. Lewis wrote six more, some sequels and some prequels, finishing in 1956. So, while not the first book in Narnia chronology, it is the logical place to start when making a movie. It is also arguably the most popular of the Narnia series, although personally, I prefer Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair.

The story begins during the blitz in London. Four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent away to a huge house in the country to escape the bombing. While playing hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest, discovers a magical wardrobe that acts as a gateway to the land of Narnia. In Narnia, magic works and some animals can speak. Currently, an evil witch has kept the land in the icy grip of a 100 year winter. However, a prophesy says that her reign will be ended when four humans come to Narnia.

The movie itself is a lush, detailed, 135 minute epic that is exceptionally true to the book it is based on. It does, perhaps, overemphasize the battle sequences, but battles work so much better on film than they do in books. The production qualities, the sets, both period England and Narnia, are incredibly well done. The CGI animation is exceptional, allowing you to accept talking animals and other wonders without question.

The human parts are well cast, and everyone plays their parts believably. The effects are seamless. The score is fantastic. This is a slap up top notch job on all fronts. As an adult, I had no problem maintaining my interest through a very long movie. However, younger children may find it a trifle too long. While this is certainly a children's story, it like Harry Potter, is fully accessible by adults too, so you do not need to borrow your nieces and nephews to watch it.

This is certainly one the best adaptations of a book to the screen that you will ever see, in part because of a wonderful production crew, and in part because the material was perfect for adaptation. Even if I was not a Narnia fan, I would have rated this movie highly. Five Fantastic Stars. Hopefully six wonderful sequels will follow.


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DVD:

The edition I have comes as a two disk set, one disk with the full screen movie, and the other with tons of extra features. The DVD quality of the movie is first rate. The extras are, for the most part, rather dry repackaging of movie segments. These is one short showing what went into a single scene -- about ten sets of various sizes shot in six different countries, which was very interesting.

Obvious attempts were made to make the second disk somewhat interactive, rather like a Computer/Internet experience. However, this proved very buggy on my DVD player. It failed to reset the screen properly, with various screen elements carrying over into the menus. It was very jerky and slow, and twice it hung up completely and forced us to reload the disk. There was no way back to where we left off without reviewing. This rather had the feel of a nice idea that was rushed too quickly into production.


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Rating:

Well it was rated PG for violence and some themes. I think it is probably a bit much for young children, with some scary bits and its extreme length. I would let kids 10 and older watch it. Be prepared for some interesting conversations afterwards. This movie does not club you over the head with its message, but it does have one. At 10, I did not notice but others might. Parents could draw a line between its themes and Christianity, or they could simply address it on non-sectarian moral grounds. Either way, there are many worthwhile lessons to be learned.


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Narnia Bibliography:

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and his Boy (1954)
The Magician's Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)


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Trivea:

Notable is the voice of Douglas Gresham, C. S. Lewis's step-son as the voice of the BBC radio announcer.


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Mini-bio of C. S. Lewis:


Clive Staples Lewis (November 19, 1898 – November, 22 1963) was born in Belfast. He took the name Jack from the family dog Jacksie, who died in a car accident when Lewis was four, and the name stuck all his life. He was of mixed Irish, English, and Welsh ancestry. He was educated mostly in England after his mother died of cancer in 1908.

He qualified for Oxford, but took time off to fight in World War I, where he was injured. He returned to Oxford after the war, got lots of degrees, and became an Oxford Don, a job he held most of his life, until he became Chair of English at Cambridge in his fifties. He was mostly known for his scholarly papers, religious treatises and poetry. However he wrote a very odd SF trilogy as part of a bet with his close friend J. R. R. Tolkien. He also wrote a novel called the Screwtape Letters, based on a series of correspondence between two demons.

Lewis was raised Christian but broke with his faith in his adolescence, a break which he later described as being angry with God. He converted back to Christianity as an adult, in a large part because of the influence of Tolkien, an ardent Roman Catholic. Lewis however, chose Church of England, and became one of the foremost religious writers of his time.

During army training, he roomed with another cadet, "Paddy" Moore. He met and became friendly with Moore's mother, Jane King Moore. He promised Moore he would take care of his mother, a promise he was called upon to keep when Moore died in battle in 1918. He was true to his word, and moved in with Jane Moore after the war. In 1930 he formed a household with himself, his older brother Warren, and Jane Moore at The Kilns near Oxford. "They" remained there until Warren, the last survivor, died in 1973.

Jane Moore, who was 27 years older than Lewis, lived in The Kilns until her final years, when she had dementia, and had to go to a nursing home. Lewis visited her there every day until she died, in 1951. Lewis was always circumspect concerning his relationship with Jane. It seems likely that during their early years they were lovers, but later in the relationship, he described her as his mother. This annoyed her, but they still remained close all their lives.

In 1952, Lewis met American poet Joy Gresham. They formed a friendship, and after she was divorced, they married in 1956. Unfortunately, they were hardly wed when she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She died in 1960. Their relationship is romanticized in the movie Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. After her death, Lewis fell into ill health, and died three years later. Since his passing coincided with the death of Aldous Huxley and the assassination of JFK, it was largely overlooked by the media.

Narnia was by far Lewis's most successful creation. While as a child he had been influenced by Beatrix Potter into writing talking animal stories for fun, the question is why he waited until his fifties to actually write one. In part, this may have been a response to his friend Tolkien's work on LOTR. It is, however, also notable that his Narnia years 1950-1956 coincide with the lack of a female figure in his life. Jane had already passed into dementia, and his marriage was, at first, a marriage of convenience. Perhaps a psychologist could find some connection between that and his mother's death during his childhood. Who can say? In any case, with 100 million copies in print, and the movie gathering even more fans, it looks like those seven brief years will form his legacy.


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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Directed by Andrew Adamson

Written by:
C.S. Lewis (Book)
Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Screenplay)

Cast:
Georgie Henley - Lucy Pevensie
Skandar Keynes - Edmund Pevensie
William Moseley - Peter Pevensie
Anna Popplewell - Susan Pevensie
Tilda Swinton - White Witch
James McAvoy - Mr. Tumnus, the Faun
Jim Broadbent - Professor Kirke
Kiran Shah - Ginarrbrik
James Cosmo - Father Christmas
Judy McIntosh - Mrs. Pevensie
Elizabeth Hawthorne - Mrs. MacReady

Voice Cast:
Liam Neeson - Aslan
Ray Winstone - Mr. Beaver
Dawn French - Mrs. Beaver
Rupert Everett - Fox
Douglas Gresham - Radio Announcer
Michael Madsen - Maugrim


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