...talk about fussy...I hear that there are many Christians being picky over the new CS Lewis movie and I'm here to say "STOP IT!"
Here's why...although I haven't read any critiques from the nay-sayers or any bad stuff from fellow Christians I, for one, LOVE the movie as much as the book. YES, there are a few things amiss with the movie, but certainly one cannot debate how FULL the movie is and how it takes right up from the book itself. CS Lewis would be proud if he were here today to see it.
I consider the LW&W book to be a very special book because it was with me during my whole childhood - I never knew there was a book prior to it and many after it making the Chronicles of Narnia...and I wish I did. Anyhow, this book was dear to my heart and I always pretended that my Godfather was writing it to ME and that I was Lucy. My real Godfather lived in Europe and so I pretended that HE wrote it just for me everytime I read it.
I read this book well into my teen years and into my adult life. My parents would purchase a copy from Scholastic books each year for Christmas due to the wear and tear the poor book would endure from my constant reading of it. I still retain ONE copy of that book with yellowed edges that crack off when one opened it to read it. It is now taped up with clear wrapping tape so I can at least hold it in my hand and smile remembering all the good times I had with that dear story in my hands as a child.
Back to the NEW movie. It's perfect. I love it. It's almost exactly the way I saw it in my little mind all those years (and I've got some imagination!!!). I used to love the BBC original production with the Witch with black hair and more evil - but grew to like the new Witch so much that I'm working on felting a gown to be her for Halloween this year - JP will be the Lion - for fun of course. I'm sure the local Baptist Church that has their Harvest Festival on the 31st will appreciate the costumes (they have huge posters up now promoting the LW&W movie).
Yeah, there are some errors in the movie (as in Father Christmas leaving out one of my favorite lines in the book about how fights and wars are ugly affairs when women are involved...they left out the 'women' part...how PC of Disney and Walden...) but beyond that, I was mouthing most of the lines from the book and was rather pleased. I especially loved the beginning of the film which SHOWED the bombing of the country and WHY the children needed to go to the Professors in the first place. As a child I never could figure this out.
That opening scene brought me to tears seeing the mothers lovingly sending their children off on trains with hundreds of other kids to safety. Being a mother I would have done the same thing, and it would have broken my heart. Those scenes were so real, so well acted that I almost forgot I was watching a film. Now, that's perfection.
I tell everyone with kids at ANY age to see this film. Before CP and I brought JP, we explained how the Lion represented Christ and how there would be a scene in the movie when the Lion would have to give himself up to save one of the children. He got it and understands the connections at four years old.
Now, he loves the film as much as I do and was so joyful when he saw Father Christmas in the film that I know it will stay with him forever.
I'm first in line at the next installment of this series and will say to all the folks not happy with this film to go watch it again through the eyes of a child, when they first read the book.
Wait, maybe that's their problem, they didn't read the book as a young child, like Lucy's age.
Call me childlike, but I think that's the root of their problem. You must hold on to that wonder and pull to believe in order to see and feel the magic.
Bless you, CS Lewis, for your wonderful writings for children and for us adults. You were a true gift from God. Memory Eternal!
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