June 6, 2008
One of the more interesting author friendships was that of Chronicles of Narnia writer C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (the former’s name stood for Clive Staples and the latter John Ronald Reuel, so it was a sound call made by publishers to initialize the pair of them). Lewis was enthusiastic when Tolkien published his first Rings book, but when Lewis came out with “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, his buddy was nonplussed, saying, “Hey mate, read your book, it was shite, went too heavy on the religious allegory you did.” Or a cleaned up version of that said while smoking a pipe.
Tolkien was himself a deeply religious man; he is said to have been a major influence on C.S. Lewis’s conversion (and judging by his output in later life which consisted of volumes like “God in the Dock” and “The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses” the conversion took). Still though, he found the religious aspects of the Narnia books to be so obvious and pushy that he felt they would alienate the reader. Surely in the first film and book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, we get a dose of Lewis’s religious fervor that couldn’t have been any more obvious even if the creatures of Narnia had started seeing the face of Aslan in their breakfast burritos. The lion was clearly meant to represent Christ with some scenes lifted wholesale out of the bible.
The second film “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” does not contain any scenes as blatantly allegorical as the lionine crucifixion in part one, but it’s run through with the same themes. Lewis wrote in a letter that Caspian was a story of “the restoration of the true religion after a corruption” and we are given grim examples throughout the film of what supposedly happens to a country that loses its faith. The only truly happy person in the opening part of the film is Lucy because she is an innocent child and hasn’t lost her faith like everybody else. Losing your faith here means misery, unless you’re a heathen Telmarine and if so, well, now would be a good time to take out a life-insurance policy.
This may be unsettling for someone whose religious observances consist of thanking a deity when a pregnancy test comes back the right way, but can the Narnia series be enjoyed without looking through this Christian lens? The answer is yes and that’s because the best parts of both of these films are also the most universal. Adults who count the Narnia books as among the first they ever read (or remember reading) will not remember the clumsy religious symbolism with Aslan the Lion in the role of Christ, but the spirit of adventure that was invoked by the possibilities of another world existing beyond the hum-drum in which average kids – the Pevensky four of Peter (who looks like Prince William in what was surely an intentional bit of casting by the UK filmmakers), Edmund, Susan and Lucy – become knights, have sword fights, meet magical creatures, and are, well, movers and shakers just like the grown-ups.
The four return to Narnia after a surprisingly short time in the present day, but enough to establish the present day as a place that stinks – Peter and Edmund get in a fight in the stairs of a subway station, Susan must fend off a nerd – and that is enough. Shortly thereafter we go from the mundane to the magical. The Prince of Caspian is an undeniably good looking film, with lush exteriors that rely less on computer-generated effects (though the CG animators earned their pay in the battle scenes and with the Narnian creatures) and more on the natural beauty of the filming locations (among them New Zealand).
The four kids are dropped into a Narnia that is startlingly different from the one they left. The heathen Telmarine – who seem to be Spanish for some odd reason – have taken over the land and the Narnians have long ago been driven underground. Some of the animals have become downright uncivil – a bear tries to maul little Lucy who must have been thinking of all the high teas she used to enjoy with wild creatures in the good old days.
The title character, Prince Caspian is involved in a “getting back the throne that is rightfully mine” cookie-cutter plot, and his uncle, though played with a devilish glee is a stereotypical character found in countless films along these lines. He does though provides a possible love interest for Susan, whose romantic prospects have improved immeasurably since she was back in London and had a nerd hitting on her at the newsstand. But Prince Caspian himself is not that interesting – it’s as if Inigo Montoya, Mandy Patinkin’s character in the Princess Bride, fathered a really dull son.
For the most part the supporting characters, like a chivalrous and deadly squirrel, pass us by unnoticed. A key exception here is Peter Dinklage who plays Trumkin the dwarf who helps out the lead characters, but whose skills as an actor – watch his face as he’s in a boat staring down his Telmarine captors – shine. He was excellent in his star-making turn in “The Station Agent”, and he might just become the first dwarf actor regularly cast into roles that do not necessarily call for a dwarf because of his skill.
Caspian is not on the level of the first Narnia movie. The awe of a first-time discovery – finding the magical wardrobe – cannot, of course, be repeated. But it’s a faithful adaptation of Lewis’s classic tale, a fun swashbuckler and an escape from the tedium, which is when the Narnia tales, when they were at their best, were all about.
Noel, Bangkok
