Thursday, May 22, 2008

Return to Narnia


It seems like 1300 years since I last blogged on the Chronicles. I will have to see Prince Caspian again, as I have an unsettled view of the film at this point. The effects were good, and the storyline was mainly consistent with the original.

Where it departs for me is the presence of a grand theme of essense versus presence. What something is, overriding what something is made of. The theme of mythos is underplayed in the movie for a different vision of grand battle scenes we have seen the like of before. It is like the director thought that the "deep magic" would be too deep for the audience. There is no hint of substantive mythological content- no Bacchus to dance with. More disturbing, there is very little sign of Aslan to dance with.Myth becomes fact but there seems to be little longing for it.

And Susan sure killed a bunch of Telmarines with that bow- wonder what Lewis would have thought of that? Apparently Doug Gresham didn't think much of it.

Here is a significant quote from the CT movie review that is very instructive.

"In the film, Aslan tells Lucy, "Every year you grow, so shall I." In the book, Aslan says, "Every year you grow, you will find me bigger." Is this a significant change? In another scene, the film version of Aslan tells Lucy, "We can never know what would have happened." In the book, he says, "Nobody is ever told that." Is this a significant change? Do changes like these affect our understanding of Aslan's divinity? If so, how? If not, why not?"

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