Posted on 10/16/2005 7:34:14 AM PDT by cloud8
As the UK prepares for a CS Lewis movie blockbuster this Christmas, a row has broken out about its Christian message.
To millions The Chronicles of Narnia are a childhood tale of wonder and triumph now made into a film that could inspire millions of children to read. To others, including the celebrated fantasy author Philip Pullman, they are stories of racism and thinly veiled religious propaganda that will corrupt children rather than inspiring them.
Either way, one thing is certain: this Christmas, and perhaps the next six, depending on sequels, everyone will be talking about Narnia. Disney is already in the middle of one of the biggest marketing campaigns in recent cinematic history. It is trying to lure both mainstream filmgoers and evangelical Christians, who will respond to CS Lewis's parallels between his characters and the Bible. HarperCollins is set to publish 170 Lewis-related books in more than 60 countries, many of them Christian-themed works. Disney has hired Christian marketing groups to handle the film.
For Pullman, who is an avowed atheist and a critic of Lewis, that is bad news. 'If the Disney Corporation wants to market this film as a great Christian story, they'll just have to tell lies about it,' Pullman told The Observer
Pullman believes that Lewis's books portray a version of Christianity that relies on martial combat, outdated fears of sexuality and women, and also portrays a religion that looks a lot like Islam in unashamedly racist terms.
'It's not the presence of Christian doctrine I object to so much as the absence of Christian virtue. The highest virtue, we have on the authority of the New Testament itself, is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books,' he said.
The Narnia books, Pullman said, contained '...a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice; but of love, of Christian charity, [there is] not a trace'.
Certainly that is not the view of Disney. Film executives are eagerly anticipating repeating the success last year of Mel Gibson's Jesus biopic The Passion of The Christ, which was shunned by mainstream studios and then picked up by the evangelical churches. The movie then stunned the film world by raking in hundreds of millions of dollars by tapping into the previously ignored Christian market.
Already American evangelicals are planning to use the Narnia film as a preaching tool. A group called Catholic Outreach has advertised for 150 co-ordinators across the country to help promote the film. It is also organising 'sneak peak' events at which trailers will be shown to church audiences and executives from the film will talk about the project.
Other Christian groups and study centres are getting behind the film too. 'We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,' said Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said that the film was an ideal way for a Christian message to be brought to people who would not otherwise go near a church. 'Here is yet another tool that many may find to be effective in communicating the message of Jesus to those who may not respond to other presentations,' he said.
As well as a huge potential force at the box office, the other possible benefit for Disney is to heal its long troubled relationship with America's evangelical community. Many Christian groups have often boycotted the company over such issues as holding special theme days for gays at Disneyland. But in the run-up to the Narnia release date on 9 December, evangelical leaders have been generous in their praise of the company they have often reviled.
But it is not all about God. The Chronicles of Narnia seems to offer a 'perfect storm' combination of factors. As well as having the Passion's appeal to Christians, it has the special effects and fantasy-laden appeal of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson's box-office hit that also netted numerous Oscars. That film was also seen as a huge risk at the time, but Jackson's achievement confounded the critics and proved that 'swords and sorcery' movies could strike cinematic gold.
Trailers for the first Narnia film, called The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe after the first book in the chronicles, have already drawn comparisons to The Lord of the Rings' style and cinema presentation. It has the same powerful themes of a new world, complete with fantastic creatures and sweeping battle scenes against a beautiful landscape.
The final crucial element in Disney's planning is turning the Narnia films into a money-spinning franchise like the Harry Potter series. Lewis wrote a total of seven Narnia books, and if the first one is a huge hit the sequels will be inevitable. That means a new Narnia film could be released at Christmas, complete with spin-off merchandising and toys, every year until 2012.
But while Disney has bet big on Narnia and now waits with bated breath, there is already one winner in the saga. The film, just like The Lord of the Rings, was shot in New Zealand, which then reaped a tourism windfall. Now local tour companies are already planning to show visitors around the spot where the Narnia film's climactic battle scene was shot.
Just imagine the critical uproar if they tried to make movies that were based on (and true to) some of the other OZ books that were written. P.C. is still alive and well.
We got the Narnia books for our kids when they were little. This will sound ridiculous, but in our Jewish household, the Christian part went right over our heads. The kids still liked them.
My very favorite Lewis book..."A Grief Observed"
I had the pleasure of hearing John Cleese read "The Screwtape Letters", too. What a hoot! CS Lewis' "Mere Christianity" was the biggest influence in my conversion. He's one of my favorite authors, too.
Aslan doesnt really make it plain that he is Jesus until the Last book. The christianity is there it just doesn't scream at you. It is more the attitude and morals that stand out.
They are classics, as far as I am concerned.
> Disney is da' Devil Bobby Boucher !!!
LOL No son of mine is gonna play any foos-ball!
My uncle introduced me to the Chronicles of Narnia when I was young. I have read the series more times than I can count. I still read them. Even as a child, I knew what the symbolism meant and loved it. Every time I read the books, I get something new from them.
My Dear Wormwood,
The most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. No more lavish promises of perpetual virtue, I gather; not even the expectation of an endowment of "grace" for life, but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation! This is very bad.
I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By jove! I'm being humble," and almost immediately pride- pride at his own humility- will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt- and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.
I love it!
> I LOVED the space trilogy...
I always liked that Ransom was a professor of philology, like Lewis and JRRT were. Tweed in Space!
This is just too, I dunno, something.
"thinly veiled" my Appalachian arse. Did this goof not read to the scene at the stone table? It is blatantly Christian.
Actually, I think the word I am looking for is "delicious." The Christian hating crowd in full song. These days, we are seeing clear lines being drawn between good and evil.
I'm sure that you have "used" boostores up there Sam. You will find a lot of his books there. Here in the Bible Belt, I have a Christian bookstore that has a used section, with a lot of C.S. titles.
Loads on info on the web, as well
Another play from the "Passion of the Christ" playbook. Any mainstream work that deals with Christianity and doesn't treat it with contempt is threatening to these people and must be attacked, usually as intolerant.
Let's see. Pullman vs. C.S. Lewis.
Easy choice from my POV. Bring on the movie.
"C.S. Lewis was a Pagan turned Protestant and made free and unabashed use of allegory"
A Pagan? Where do you get that from? Lewis grew up Christian then became an athiest, then got interested in occult phenomena, then converted to Christianity. Where does Pagan come in? Simply being interested in the paranormal does not make one a Pagan unless you have an extremely loose definition of Paganism.
I am much looking forward to the Narnai movie, provided Disney doesn't PC it to death.
Sam, you've hit the nail on the head. they're STORIES, and darn good ones. And while there may be allegories, etc within a work of fiction, more often than not it is not necessary to acknowledge belief in the second meaning, so to speak. In fact (as you point out), if you aren't concerning yourself with it - for whatever reason - it may not even jump out at you at all. And it sure isn't central to the work's quality.
Same applies to the Potter books, the Da Vinci code, etc.
To be sure, one can walk through life looking to nitpick anything into something blasphemous to them. But what a miserable way to live.
If you are living your life as you should, then reading a simple book isn't going to damn you to an afterlife of fire and brimstone. No matter what the hysterical group of the day would ram down your throat.
>like Lewis and JRRT were. Tweed in Space!<
LOL! That image is GREAT! My favorite is Perelandra BUT the best has to be That Hideous Strength. When I hear about Ward Churchill and these other liberal professors, I think of the scary professors and staff in That Hideous Strength.
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