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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Conversions of Imagination
By Gayle Thomas
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It all started, according to C.S. Lewis, with the incongruous vision of a faun holding an umbrella on a snowy day. Lewis’ fantasy of a parallel universe in need of a savior spun out from there. When I read this book at age eleven, I understood on an emotional level for the first time what it meant to die for someone who was truly wretched and unlovely. I didn’t think Edmund was worthy of Aslan’s sacrifice, which was, of course, the point of the whole book. I think the movie makes this same point just as well as the book. That fact alone gives it high marks on my rating scale.
The four child actors are well cast and directed. They are neither too cute nor too lovable to be believable. I had always thought Susan (who is supposed to be a prig!) was blond, but I can tolerate her dark haired incarnation. I am sure that one of the many reasons I loved this story as a child is that the female protagonists help to save a country, ride horses and become queens. Does it get any better than this? My favorite scene in this movie was seeing the children grown into royal adulthood in Narnia and comfortably carrying the mantle of leadership that had been given them.
One of the many things I love about Narnia is the way the passage of time there is unrelated to the passage of time here. When the young adult kings and queens tumble back into their uncle’s house at the end of the film, they resume their lives right where they left off. They remember their lives in Narnia and have matured greatly on the inside, but look just the same on the outside. I have always thought that our spiritual lives are like that. One can grow by leaps and bounds spiritually almost overnight while very little time passes here. No one can tell by looking at you how much you have changed inside.
No matter how good computer generated animation gets, it will never quite equal our imaginations. I feel badly for the children who may see this film before reading the book and never form their own images of the characters. In this cinematic adaptation, Aslan didn’t have quite the majesty and danger around him that I had imagined. Reading the book, I was never sure whether my imaginary Aslan was going to eat me or lick my face. I think he was quite a bit bigger, too. I remember asking my mother if Jesus would mind if I called him Aslan in my prayers. She discouraged this deviation from orthodoxy, but I did it privately anyway. I don’t think He minded.
Lewis claimed that he was converted in his imagination before he consciously decided to follow Christ. The source of his imagination’s conversion was, amazingly, Norse mythology. This awakened in him a capacity and desire to believe in Someone Greater. I believe that the Chronicles of Narnia have that same magical quality to inspire some to open their minds and hearts to Jesus’ sacrificial love, even if they don’t yet know what it is. This movie definitely retains Lewis’s vision for his redemptive mythology and will be a family staple for many in years to come.
Posted by Gayle Thomas at December 17, 2005 12:18 AM
Comments
There has been some talk about the color of the Witch's hair (it was described as dark in the book); I think the Witch was portrayed by the film producers as being blond in order to make her appear more 'Aryan'- a reference to the WWII back-drop of the story. Perhaps they changed the color of Susan's hair to juxtapose her with the Witch?
Posted by: Dennis_Mahon at December 17, 2005 2:12 PM
Perhaps the alteration was meant to magnify the witch's whiteness because of aesthetic and symbolic--not racial or cultural--reasons? As a truly pasty white witch, she seems much more cold, cruel, and heartless--less seductive--than she is in the book (or its prequel, _The Magician's Nephew_). In the movie, I don't think we believe for an instant that she is good, despite her faux kindness to Edmund at their first meeting. In the book, she is described as intensely beautiful, something which both troubles the reader's sense of her as evil (at least for a time) and explains why Edmund is so taken by her. The producers may not have wanted to suggest this kind of ambiguity due to the more conservative demographic they were targeting (??). If so, an odd choice. Evil may bare its fangs now and then, but more often it wags its tail.
Posted by: Paul M. at December 18, 2005 11:41 PM
Paul,
I agree with you whole-heartedly that the movie failed to capture the witch's inital beauty and seductiveness. Lewis was keenly aware of how often sin initially appears harmless, comfortable and attractive (reference The Screwtape Letters, Letters from a Senior Devil to a Junior Devil). Perhaps the moviemakers thought that level of ambiguity too complex for their young target audience. If so, they seriously underestimated them.
I also agree with Dennis that the witch looked very Aryan, something that nicely tied together the war in our world that threatened the children and the Narnian war into which they stumbled. I give kudos to Lewis for choosing a white witch (her title in the book is perhaps based more on her snowy method of imprisoning Narnia than her actual color) as the villain, rather than the usual European, stereotypical black villain. We Christians have adopted this black-is-evil symbolism and included it unthinkingly in our dogma. One of our traditional evangelism tools uses the five colors; black, red, white, green, and gold. The first color, black, stands for our sinful hearts. Red is the blood of Jesus that washes our hearts clean (white, of course). Green represents our growth as Christians and gold is our reward in heaven. This symbolism is not Biblical (the Bible says our sins are like scarlet, Isaiah 1:18) and perpetuates the myth of the superiority of the lighter complected, something the Nazis managed to base their entire worldview on. I don't know much about Lewis's views on race or complexion, so I can't say that this is what he intended to communicate with his white witch. I just appreciate his deviation from the usual symbolism.
Posted by: Gayle Thomas at December 20, 2005 9:56 AM
Oops, it was Lucy who had blond hair in the book. Susan's was black.
Posted by: Gayle Thomas at December 21, 2005 10:20 PM
Never in a movie have I wanted to stand up and cheer. Not even the first time I saw Remember the Titans when many of those around me were clapping throughout the film. One may find it strange that the Chronicles of Narnia would incite that emotion, but it did. The scene when Aslan returns from the dead gave me chills I cannot even begin to describe in words. I just pictured Jesus in his full Glory. I wanted to jump up with excitement and awe and praise. I wanted to exclaim that is my King, that is my Savior. Up until that moment I felt that the movie was just okay but that moment made it one of the best movies I have ever seen. I like to picture Jesus like he is depicted in Revelation, coming back and destroying evil. The moment of Aslan's return, I believe parallels Christ's return after the seven years of tribulation.
Posted by: Jon Kersting at November 27, 2006 5:05 PM