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The Lord,
Without the Rings: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe In the dark days of World War II, four British city children are sent to a country house to escape the London bombings. During a game of hide and seek, the youngest slips into a mysterious wardrobe and enters Narnia, a parallel world of creatures from Greek mythology and medieval legend. Her siblings follow her, and the four find themselves forced to choose sides in another kind of war, for their lives and souls. Director Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is based on a book by British writer C. S. Lewis. A university professor, Lewis drew upon his extensive classical and medieval scholarship, and combined it with his Christian faith to produce works of light and dark fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. In addition to the Narnia books, Lewis wrote science fiction, and The Screwtape Letters, a concise, creepy correspondence between two devils on the art of tempting souls. Lewis’ works are usually relegated to the Christian or Inspirational racks at the bookstores. You may have heard this film similarly pigeonholed as a Christian film. Yes, it is. If you know even a little of the Bible, you will recognize that the film’s events and characters are indeed an allegory of the advent and passion of Christ. Scriptural images are everywhere, and the resolution follows a familiar line. If that puts you off, you should watch something else. If you like, you can try to ignore the Christianity aspect and just enjoy the pageantry and action. There’s plenty of both. The Pevensie children join the ranks of Aslan, voiced by Liam Neeson. Aslan is a lion, committed to ending the frozen rule of Jadis, the White Witch, played by Tilda Swinton. The children’s arrival fulfills an ancient prophecy of deliverance, but only after great struggle and suffering. This is a class production, with high quality animation and the considerable acting and vocal talents of Jim Broadbent, Jim McAvoy, James Cosmo, Rupert Everett, Ray Winstone, and Dawn French. The children, played by Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Mosely and Anna Popplewell, all manage both charm and spirit. There’s violence and battle, but, in the manner of old-time Hollywood film conflicts, the blood all seems to flow off screen. The fights have a video game quality to them, and I’m sure we will see Narnia games on the shelves, possibly in the inspirational game rack. Chronicles of Narnia can be considered simply as a more kid-friendly Lord of the Rings (Tolkien was a friend and colleague of Lewis), or even a low-tech Star Wars. While you’re doing that, consider just how thoroughly biblical themes and images permeate Western art and literature, including both of the above film series. Rivendell or far away galaxy, both were about good and evil, wounded worlds, and the sacrifice of the good for the salvation of all. So it is with Narnia. Bottom Line:
Worth a look, whatever your credo. |
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Syriana:
A Well of Political Dysfunction Syriana exhaustively covers several levels of society involved with or affected by the production of oil, from unemployed oil workers turned terrorists, to oilmen in Texas, to American politicians and CIA agents, to Middle Eastern royalty involved in power struggles, most of whom have very different ideas and goals, most of which cannot coexist. It’s a very large world to envelop within a single film, even one more than two hours long. Director and writer Stephen Gaghan has experience with this kind of story, having written Traffic, another extremely thorough film about corruption and money, and is more ambitious this time. Traffic was disorienting at times, but even early on in the film it gave a sense of how the different storylines would eventually come together. In Syriana, even toward the end of the film, there’s a sense of being lost. The scope of it helps to bridge any gaps—.“But how did he know to do that?” “Well, he knew those other people, and so they probably… told him to. Yeah.” Repeat viewings would probably help. Having a copy of See No Evil, the book by former CIA agent Bob Barnes upon which the film is based, and maybe a notepad, couldn’t hurt either. Syriana is not a film to like, not a popcorn film, but more like fiber or a large vitamin. It’s fine and detailed—a story to see and absorb—and maybe come away with a greater understanding of things, and perhaps a sense of guilt the next time you put gas in your car. It requires a lot of the viewer, most of all trust—it’s not easy to sit through a relatively long movie that spends most of its length depicting unfortunate things happening to unfortunate people, and less so when you don’t know why these things are happening or what they’re leading to. Mostly these things get explained, but like a complicated doctor’s visit, it’s best to bring a friend so that you can figure things out together afterwards, or at least to commiserate about how you were both so often lost. Unless, of course, you have a friend who is particularly well versed in the dealings between the Middle East and the United States since approximately 1984, in which case you’ll be just fine. It should be commended for making moviegoers work a bit to put things together, but at times the scattered stories grew too complicated. A book can be set aside for a moment’s research; in the theater, the viewer is entirely at the mercy of the film, and if the film is at times too stingy with the back story or the connective tissue, there’s nothing to be done for it except wait and hope for illumination. When characters have long, expository conversations, it can be very tiresome indeed, but the practice exists for a reason. Syriana could have used a few more brightened corners. Bottom line: a political maze with no exit. |
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