Saturday, December 24, 2005

7 historical innacuracies and one fundamental character change before the opening credits

So I went to see The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe tonight.

I thought it was almost perfect. There were a few directorial decisions I could quibble with (the entrance to the wardrobe should have been more casual, and he seemed to rely on music to create the mood at times when he could have toned back the music and trusted the actors and the atmosphere) and I didn't agree with some things that were cut (I really like the white witch turning the picnic to stone, and the sequence of bringing the statutes back to life was unncessarily truncated). My little sister said 'if anything could convert me to christianity that would' - I wouldn't go that far, but it was pretty cool.

So I'm sorry to disappoint people and not deliver on my promised political analysis. But right now all I can say is that Tilda Swanton was fantastic, and Lucy was almost as good if she had been played by me (if you'd given me a magic lamp aged 7 I probably would have wished to be in a movie version of Narnia).

4 comments:

  1. I doubt if I would've tweaked it was supposed to be about Christianity if I hadn't known; I know I didn't when I was a wee lass first reading it.

    I did enjoy it, although I thought the opening bit was Hollywoodish and unnecessary (do we really need to see the actual bombs dropping to know there's a war on? can't Edmund just be a preadolescent git who learns better without throwing in the business about he misses his dad more than anyone? oh well).

    Tilda Swinton--well, hubba, hubba, what else can one say...

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  2. "can't Edmund just be a preadolescent git who learns better without throwing in the business about he misses his dad more than anyone?"
    No Hollywood movie without psychobabble! These days, we even have to have a sequence added to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in which Willie Wonka gets lectured on the importance of family by Charlie and then makes things up with his estranged father. CS Lewis would most likely have only felt contempt for such additions, and Roald Dahl must be spinning in his grave...

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  3. I didn't mind the additions in theory. I thought putting it in thec context of the war in which it was set actually made it stronger. It's just the many historical inaccuracies which meant that sequence didn't work for me (and the heavy handedness of the picture - which was kind of unnecessary, and never really paid off).

    Although CS Lewis wasn't that strong on the chronology of the war either. In Voyage of teh Dawn Treader Edmund and Lucy are staying with their cousins because their parents are in America (I think - I may have remembed it wrong). This all seems like a tad unlikely since it's only a few years after they were evacuated.

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  4. Anonymous9:03 pm

    Glad you dug it Maia.
    I thought the bombing was an ok additition. It had the effect of shaking up my preconceptions. Yes, Lucy was cast and acted spot on and the White Witch was much more worthy of ruling the Queendom than that boring stuffed lion. She had style in spades. Just imagine her rising from the floor to contest the conference motion at the CTU bienial! Sigh.

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