December 9, 2010

Concessions

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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As a little godless baby, I loved The Chronicles of Narnia. I read each book over and over (except for The Last Battle—depressing, boring, chimpy), because I was enchanted by C. S. Lewis's eerie, stately prose; talking beavers; interdimensional rings; embattled princes; and especially sea voyages into the unknown. The heavy-handed Christian allegory didn't bother me a bit. How could I even know it was there? What did I know about resurrection and sin and redemption and sons and fathers and the one true king? That shit was as magical and mysterious as a talking warrior beaver fighting a dwarf. If C. S. Lewis was aiming for indoctrination, he failed spectacularly. All I learned from Narnia is that the Bible is just another fairy tale.

In the first two recent Narnia adaptations, the filmmakers kept the Christian stuff cautiously under wraps. Yeah, Aslan was martyred and came back to life or whatever, but he's a MAGIC LION. What's the point of being a magic lion with sorcery breath if you can't regenerate to lead your Minotaurs into battle? But with the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they seem to be making up for lost time.

Stranger Personals

The film opens in Cambridge. Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are cooped up with their miserable aunt and uncle, the Scrubbs. Their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter's blustery little performance makes the film) is a whining, covetous, nonbelieving blowhard who teases them about Aslan when he's not waxing scientific about his bug collection. Fortunately for his eternal soul, Eustace gets the science drilled right out of him when the three fall through a magic painting and find themselves bobbing in the Narnian seas.

Turns out, they "have to" help King Caspian collect seven magic swords from seven lost lords (wait, why again?) and deliver them to Aslan's all-you-can-eat fruit buffet at the end of the world. This is the only way to defeat an evil green mist that is creeping around Narnia, and which may or may not have something to do with Tilda Swinton (a movie needs a villain, after all). Along the way, Lucy decides she's super ugly and won't stop crying, Edmund goes BONKERS FOR GOLD, the talking mouse never shuts up, and every 12 seconds someone says something like "To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness inside yourselves."

Which brings us to the Jesus stuff. The film is loaded with overt lessons about faith and prayer ("You just have to have faith about these things—Aslan will help us"), and Eustace's eventual conversion is straight out of a Chick tract. In the film's final moments, the kids weep on the shores of Aslan's country and ask if they will ever see their magic lion savior again. "In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it." Ohhh right, your other name. What was it again? Dumbledore? Bilbo Baggins? Obama? I just can't keep this fairy-tale shit straight.

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Sounds annoying, makes me think of Del Toro's "The Orphanage" which I watched recently, which had a similar anti-science feel to it in parts that I was a bit disappointed to see. Also, maybe allegories don't work in film (I'm thinking Avatar).

Posted by CitKeane on December 8, 2010 at 3:59 PM · Report

Lindy... I'm confused.. on your review of that steaming piece of crap Harry Potter movie you were like, look, I know this is shit, but I loved the books so... and this Narnia crap... like if it's sci-fi and you liked the books you don't slam it totally... what is it???

Posted by nicedavid on December 8, 2010 at 9:40 PM · Report

i also loved the books as a kid (and still re-read them once in a while), and despite growing up in a pretty churchy house, the jesus stuff went right over my head. i felt that the first two movies handled the jesus story very like the books: the similarities to the gospel are there, if you want to see them, but the story is perfectly whole without the connection to the bible. the dawn treader was less like gospel story, though, and more like a series of parables (don't be so vain or greedy or mean you are no good to the other people in this world). and isn't that a huge part of children's stories? teaching them lessons about how to be a decent human being? i haven't seen the movie yet, but as long as they're not all like, "jesus died for your sins, so say this magic prayer, and you'll get to live with him in heaven after you die," and the bit about knowing aslan by another name is loose enough that it can be interpreted to mean jesus, or the earth mother, or hard work and family love, or whatever, i think that's just fine.

Posted by AmyC on December 9, 2010 at 8:15 AM · Report

CS Lewis also wrote a great Science Fiction/Fantasy trilogy "Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, that had some religious overtones, but worked them in without being annoying. I actually liked the trilogy more than the Narnia books.

Posted by Bilbonia on December 10, 2010 at 11:53 AM · Report

i also loved the books when i was a kid, and continued to like them even after the christian symbolism (and dissing islam in his portrayal of calormen) became apparent to me.

many years later i realized that as much as c.s. lewis was trying to be christian, he also had a pagan streak -- magick, tree and river spirits, fauns dancing in the moonlight, intelligent animals.....

Posted by syrinx on December 10, 2010 at 3:06 PM · Report

Many children's books are allegories for other things and usually that comparison is lost on the young. For example, Alice in Wonderland was an allegory to teach algebraic concepts. The great children's stories (HP, Narnia and Alice included) teach the moral lessons that exist in all cultures, incite imagination and aren't so heavy handed that they break the storybook world illusion. What was wrong with this movie (and what I don't remember from the book) is what Lindy was referring to, the heavy handedness of the message. (Clearly it was intended as Lewis wrote tracts which are for purchase in every Church of England outlet, Cathedrals and the like) I went to the movie with 2 10 year olds and and 8 year old. They liked it. They weren't amazed, but entertained throughout. They didn't catch the overdone message, they mostly liked the magical characters and battles. Adults have a very different experience.

Posted by Diane on December 12, 2010 at 8:06 PM · Report

I'll take the BBC adaptation, thank you. Hoaky, eighties-cartoon special effects, ridiculous costumes and excellent, earnest acting without the need for splashy CGI or overt Christiness.

Posted by Mischa Vainburg

on December 13, 2010 at 5:46 PM · Report

"If C. S. Lewis was aiming for indoctrination, he failed spectacularly. All I learned from Narnia is that the Bible is just another fairy tale."

He was, and you're right. This is the main reason that C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had a major falling out. Tolkien was against using fantasy as a christian allegory because he was afraid that would happen.

It did.

Long live Lord of the Rings!

Posted by CornsilkSW on December 14, 2010 at 4:35 PM · Report

As a kid, I only got as far as this book, and quit the series with this one because it was so boring. All I remember is a lot of wistful staring over he ship's rail down at the water, going on for pages and pages and pages...

Also, what's the lady from the Eurythmics doing acting? When did that start?

Posted by Knat on December 14, 2010 at 9:56 PM · Report