Posted on 05/17/2008 3:52:14 AM PDT by paudio
HOLLYWOOD seems to have concluded that war movies don't sell. But "Prince Caspian" seems likely to prove the opposite.
"Caspian," the new Narnia film from Walden Media based on the CS Lewis classic, is expected to do quite well. The secret: It's not anti-war.
Flicks like "Stop-Loss," "Lions for Lambs," "In the Valley of Elah" and "Rendition" have bombed because they're painfully anti-war - and the heavy-handed ideology makes for artistic as well as commercial failure.
"Caspian" is a fantasy, of course - but also a war story. Indeed, it's the tale of a just war: Prince Caspian's fight to return Narnia to its natural, Aslan-given order by driving the tyrant Miraz from power and bringing back and restoring the rights of talking animals, fauns, dwarves and other magical beings.
The tale is full of military events, councils, knights. Aslan gives a great war cry to summon and inspire his troops ("The Lion Roars"). Miraz is defeated in single combat, after which "full battle" is joined.
In fact, "Caspian" is centered on the theme of Mars, god of war.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Don't be fooled with the genre. Yes, it is a fantasy movie, but it's also a Christian, war, and dramatic movie!
Thanks for the post. My son and I saw it yesterday afternoon, and loved it. You describe it well, and the contrast with LWW. So glad we saw it, & highly recommend it!
I’m looking forward to it! Love C.S. Lewis!
I saw it yesterday with my kids. You’re correct, a very powerful message about faith in the face of hopeless odds- specifically, faith in a seemingly absent Savior, even when things fall apart.
I read the series several times as a kid, but it’s been so long that I don’t remember them very clearly. It was great to be reminded of Lewis’s genius.
I saw it last night and liked it. I didn’t like the song at the end, but otherwise, it was really well done and the kids all clapped at the end of it.
The liberal press was all over this, saying it sucked, that nobody should go watch it.
My guess: The first Narnia movie took them by complete surprise, that awful Golden Compass (that nobody saw) was their riposte, and now they want the second flick to fail so they can claim GC’s failure was due to anything BUT the original material it’s based off of.
From what I hear, it is an excellent film, and I plan to go see it soon.
Yahoo news put out an article stating that kids should not attend due to extreme violence...True???
I believe there are two songs at the end. I dont really care about the 1st, but the very last one, This is Home by Switchfoot is great. What I like is not exactly the music but the lyrics. It fits well with the movie. Oh yeah, one other message from the movie is this: live your life in the world where you are now with lessons you learned from Narnia. Peter seems to have hangover about Narnia in the one year he lives in London. He doesn't live in his own world (that's why now the fighting scene really makes sense), and Aslan reminds him about it at the end.
It’s not ‘extreme’, but yes, it might be a bit tense for little kids.
Liberal reviewer on CH. 5 (Bangor, Maine) shrugged his shoulders and said it was too bad that it just was not that good and gave it a “5 out of 10” rating.
Going to surely see it now!
The other message, if I recall correctly, that “Prince Caspian “ delivers is simple and just as powerful:
Never be afraid to fight for what is right, even against what seems to be overwhelming odds - because with the help of Divine Providence, you *can* win.
Such a contrast between that and some of the groupthink garbage that’s been coming out of Hollyweird lately, the stuff that tries to insulate kids against the reality of the world, or those that attempt to terrorize kids into doing what is popular instead of what is right. I think here is a good time to quote C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on that sort of “kid proofing the world”:
“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the…atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”
Sounds like just what we need at this time.
Yeah, we’re seeing the same suppression techniques that they tried against “The Passion”.
That didn’t work out so well for them last time - especially since there’s no end of adults who *will* take their kids (or like me, go by ourselves) to see this movie. Disney somehow managed to not screw up a precious childhood memory for millions.
This is the *only* thing I could think of that would allow Disney to stave off the Harry Potter juggernaut - because, while interesting and engaging, Rowling can’t hold a candle to Lewis. Lewis’ works all teach lessons in addition to being great literature. Rowling’s stuff teaches no lessons and isn’t nearly as good.
Of course not. Please don’t take advice from Yahoo news.
Rowling wishes she was in the same league as Tolkein and Lewis. All she’s doing is filling a humanist niche in the genre, and making a buck along the way.
In 100 years, people will still be reading the inklings, and Rowling will be forgotten.
Note: Yahoo is calling Prince Caspian’s violence ‘extreme’, yes. Note that they also called 300’s violence a mere ‘graphic’ and Passion Of The Christ’s violence ‘unbelievably disgusting’ (iirc).
You might want to avoid Yahoo for extreme bias.
Thanks for the recommendation of Prince Caspian.
What age child would be appropriate to take to this movie?
And I do need to know if there is much “bloodshed” or not....I won’t take a child to see that kind of stuff.
The rest of what you describe sounds tremendous.
How Disney managed to do this movie without messing it up - well that’s a miracle right there.
Cannot wait to see it.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, since, after all, that’s exactly what her original goals were for the series.
But it’s not great literature. And the series isn’t exactly great children’s lit, either. I mean, basically the entire thing is how things just get progressively worse and worse for Potter & Co and in the end they sort of pull it all out.
It’s good stuff, but it’s not *great* stuff.
If they are old enough to read and actually comprehend the book, I can’t imagine that the movie would be too much more graphic. My guess - 10-14 years old, same as the book.
I saw it yesterday too. I think that it stays faithful to the books themes(I am rereading the book to check it out.
Extreme violence? No. Many battle scenes, and they do not shrink from what has to be done in war(kill the enemy without a second thought) which I found refreshing(too many times movies try to disarm the bad guy, etc.)
I also like that it shows the imperfection of the heroes(temptation to using evil power to winning the good fight, pride, etc.).
Great movie that needs to be supported. I will go see it again.
Yes, I thought the message was excellent. Also, while it was clear, they didn’t hit you over the head with it, so it didn’t come across as preachy.
There are many scenes where the boys swing their swords to their enemies, and Susan shoots her arrows. Also the dwarf looks bloody after being tortured. As I mentioned, it is a quite tense movie. As for age, I think depend on what other movies your kids watched, but I would say it’s appropriate for children age 6-7.
There are battle scenes, but they aren’t gory like Braveheart, with blood splattering around. It’s somewhat sanitized. People get wounded and killed, but it’s done in such a way that you know it happened without dwelling on it.
It’s a real war flick- this isn’t unicorns tiptoeing through the daisies, mind you- but I’d take kids as young as 3rd grade or so. My youngest is 11, she loved it.
There’s a lot of fighting and obviously a lot of people getting killed, but the movie doesn’t dwell on gruesome shots. However, a lot of the movie is about having the courage to do what you know you have to do if you want to stay true to the calling, so the violence isn’t just thrown in for the heck of it, but is part of the story. The fight scenes are very good, but if the child is very small and hasn’t read (or been read) a lot of books where this is a feature, the child might be a little unnerved.
As I said, the kids in the theater were all clapping and cheering at the end, so I guess they got it! But if you’re worried, you might want to see it first by yourself.
Ok - good to know - thanks.
Thanks for the added details - 11 year old loved it - good recommendation....
The dwarf looks bloody after being tortured????
Hope that part is brief....
Just to clarify....anti-American war movies don’t sell.
I wonder if they put out such warnings re: Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter??
I don't remember any. But then, their understanding of "violence" may mean "having a moral, religious theme"
I thought the song at the end was terrible. Didn't fit in with any of the musical score. Hope they change it for the DVD release.
Next week, Indiana Jones 4.......
Got the 3 previous Indy movies on wide screen last night. The kids - and I, are working our way through them this weekend to get ready for next week.
I have the older Indy set, and have been watching them when I have time. I have heard that the John Williams score is some of his best work (CD comes out on Tuesday). Critics will tear the film apart, since they have an agenda to do so out of spite. But I'm going, and I hope it is very successful!
bttt
You sure there is no subplot where Aslan and Prince Caspian run off and become gay cowboys?
now that prince caspian is off and running, i hope they start work on my absolute favorite, “voyage of the dawn treader.”
step it up, disney!
I believe they have started the production of Voyage already.
He has a fresh scrape on his forehead and a cut on his cheek. He’s clearly wounded, but don’t imagine it as a horrifying sight.
IMO, the only part that a little kid (like a 3 year-old) might not like is the scene with the werewolf and the hag, but if you’ve seen the sacrifice scene in the first one, it’s no worse than that.
I want to see The Magician’s Nephew. That’s a cool book.
Gonna see it tomorrow. Date with the wife and daughter.
My Christian friend took her 6 yr old and 9 yr old—said the violence was pretty bloodless—she said a sword was withdrawn from someone’s side at one point and it looked like it had just been polished!
I will take my 9 yr old and my 11 yr old, not my 5 yr old.
In all my years of reading C.S. Lewis, this is the first time I've ever heard this. It's probably another delusion dreamed up by Walter Hooper and finally "discovered" amongst the mythical pile of Lewisiana rescued by the noble Hooper from Warnie's bonfire.Lewis wrote the Narnia Chronicles so that they would express the qualities of the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos, which he deemed "spiritual symbols of permanent value." "Caspian" was his Mars book.
Learn something new every day . . .
I took on the research; Wikipedia directed my attention to the above book. Like I say, learn something new . . .Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Michael Ward (Hardcover - Jan 15, 2008) Product Description
For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as "spiritual symbols of permanent value" and "especially worthwhile in our own generation".
Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains connaitre knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody.
Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance.
My friend took her four children to see it and they LOVED it. The youngest was a little girl, 3. The oldest was 9. They weren’t disturbed or scared and my friend is very protective of them. Even the 3-year-old was spellbound and clapped at the end. My friend said it was the best movie she saw all year and she goes at least 2-3 times a month.
Very appreciative of that information.
Have a four year old great niece - but not sure this would be good for her or not.
I am going to see it tonight with some friends - adults - and will decide about appropriateness for the four year old. Maybe wait on it for her.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this review thread.
I'd never heard that before! I know C. S. Lewis wrote a Space Trilogy, the first two books of which concentrating on Mars and Venus, I haven't read the third one, so I'm not sure about it.
It's rated PG. Our kids went to see it yesterday, and our son said there was a lot of stabbing, slashing, but no blood. There was a decapitation, but it was sort of assumed, with the sword coming down, and the guy's head looking a little off to the side, but not too gory. I'd think that kids 8 and up would be OK with it.
There are battle scenes, but no bloodshed; fantasy violence. I'd think it would be OK for 8 years olds and up, especially if the parents attended too, and could talk about it later with the kids.
earth, its about earth
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