I’m guessing you’ve seen The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis (2021). If not, put it on your list.
It was an adaptation of a one man stage play, turned into a movie conceived as an event movie for church groups and the Christian movie circuit. It got a one night wider release in theaters around the country. I don’t know what the marketing considerations were there, but this was still a one-off event movie kind of thing.
To the surprise of all concerned, it sold out around the country. The phone lines must have been pretty busy, but the theaters scrambled to add more viewings. The producers immediately realized that they had underestimated their audience, and they scrambled to produce more copies and arrange a much wider distribution.
It was still a specialty film, but the niche market turned out to be much larger than anticipated.
Most of the movie is a brisk biopic, but there are several scenes that are straightforward Christian apologetics that are clearly Mere Christianity translated to film.
But if you have seen it ... there is a sudden tonal shift at the end, in the scene in the church at Oxford as it is filling up with typical parishoners as they would have appeared in the 1950’s.
Suddenly the monologue — one man play, etc. — shifts entirely. What comes next is a highly polished rhetorical piece, the kind of thing that reminds you that movies are descended from theater, and sometimes a Shakespeare gets loose. I’ve always suspected that this monologue is a direct lift from one of C.S. Lewis’ other works, but I’ve never been able to pin it down. (Not that I’ve tried very hard.) If you’ve seen it, do you know the reference?
Those kinds of tonal shifts make me want to stand up and applaud. They are nakedly “theatrical” and they stand out in the current dreck that so much of the industry pumps out in the streaming era that tends to seek the least common demoninator. But they still happen when a writer or director actually has something to say and isn’t afraid to say it.
Due to being tied to a portable oxygen concentrator I wasn’t able to go see it.
Been wanting to get it on DVD.
I gave one of my closest friends the book Mere Christianity for his birthday since he enjoyed debating me about Christianity,,,he acted mad Everytime I visited him after that so apparently he decided we weren’t friends anymore.
Maybe I should have just bought him a pizza for his birthday, but I really cared for the guy and just wanted to see him saved and in heaven .
We were really close, and I always told him that what he liked about me was Jesus in me . But he took the book as a personal attack I guess, when in reality it was my last attempt to get him to review and reevaluate his reasons for rejecting Christianity and to prove it is completely rational and logical to know Jesus was real and Christianity was valid.
I completely enjoyed “The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis” from 2021.
I became a huge C.S. Lewis fan after I read “The Screwtape Letters” which really connected with me. I had never heard of the movie until a Freeper recommended it to me.