The Chronicles of Nausea?
Paula Toynbee at The Guardian, a British newspaper, detested the film. You can see her scathing review here. The irony is really quite unmistakable for anyone who has read the Chronicles. When a person encounters Aslan, their perception of him is profoundly colored by who they are. Good people generally see him as kind, loving, strong and worthy of worship. People who are rotten tend to either cower in terror, expecting to be eaten, or they simply loathe him and want to kill him or flee from him. They think him a tyrant or a horror. A person’s reaction to Aslan, in Lewis' Narnia, is a sort of measuring rod for the heart.
Ms. Toynbee has simply proven Lewis to be correct.
posted by Chris at 9:17 PM
8 Comments:
Ouch! This post is terribly brutal; alas, it is also terribly fair.
Have you seen the movie yet?
Yes. Have you? I enjoyed it, but it was no Lord of the Rings. I didn't do a "review" of the film here, since I don't feel qualified as a film critic.
I have not seen it and likely will not. You know how it is when you have a toddler. I enjoyed the animated version I saw many years ago. Regarding the review you cited, that person seemed more comcerned with the marketing than the actual film. Was the movie true to the book? Was anything done to make it a more mainstream film or mask its allusion to Christianity?
joel
It is hard to get out at that stage. We are blessed with some great babysitters. Concerning the movie -- yes, it was true to the book, and no, there was no attempt to make it less "Christian," as far as I could tell. I think Toynbee's real problem is not with the movie, but rather with Christianity itself. Her movie review was a thinly veiled rant against religion.
Not to drag you into an argument, but I don't think Toynbee's review was a thinly veiled rant against religion. It appeared to be a rather blatant one. In fact, the only thing I came away with after reading her review was information suggesting she really didn't care for religion. I would be hard pressed to tell you what she thought about the movie. That's why I was wondering your opinion on it. Plus, it was the only topic on here in the past few entries on which I felt I could comment/converse. I must say, most of this is way above my pragmatic understanding of Christianity.
Joel
I think you may be right. It really wasn't veiled.
Sorry to get so technical lately. Maybe I should do a post on psychology? Any ideas? I have an interesting article on I.D. psychology vs. evolutionary psychology.
No apologies necessary. It is interesting to read, even if I don't contribute with comments. It's your blog, steer it where you will.
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