Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

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  • Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

    I saw this tonight for the first time and then decided to dig the thread out to see what others thought. Just praise heaped upon praise from almost all you guys for this dreadful film. So many things bothered me about this film i don't even know where to begin. Given that almost nothing happened for close to an hour its unforgivable that these kids were so underdeveloped beyond a paper thin allusion to sibling rivalry and that they miss their father. Narnia itself was full of characters yet had absolutely no character, a land so bland it made me long for a train ride to Finchley.

    From the moment they stepped into Narnia it was abundantly clear that there was about as much chance of any of them getting genuinely hurt as a particularly tame pillow fight. This was compounded by giving one of the children a deus ex machina at the mid point that sucked any last remenants of drama from the picture. I fully expected it to be used to save one of the children, but when she then set about curing everyone else who got hurt during the battle...Wow, are then any consequences in this world at all? Aslan's speach to Peter about how there is a mystical divisive force that seperates right from wrong in all things (so he never has to think for himself about it). In todays world i think kids should be taught more than ever that the things they do matter and that they can't just trust that everything will work out by itself if they just truat to faith.
    Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

  • #2
    Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

    Um. The book (and the film) was a thinly veiled Christian sermon. You got that, right? So all the good and evil stuff, according to Christianity, is written. Done. No thought required. You just have to follow it.

    That was WHY the book was written - essentially to teach children Christian philosophy. (Or that's what many scholars and Lewis's contemporaries and descendants believed.)

    I haven't seen the film, so I won't proffer and opinion. But the above is the main reason. (I have read the stories from cover to cover though, as as a child, and most of them, later, as an adult.)
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    • #3
      Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

      Just praise heaped upon praise from almost all you guys for this dreadful film.
      Well, here's the only possible explanation for that: Everyone on this board is stupid except you.



      Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.
      It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
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      • #4
        Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

        Originally posted by Cycstorm View Post
        In todays world i think kids should be taught more than ever that the things they do matter and that they can't just trust that everything will work out by itself if they just truat to faith.
        I know I'm new around here, but in my opinion, if we are expecting movies to teach our children about life, then we've got problems.

        It's a movie. I don't think the author of the original book or the producers of the film intended it to teach important life lessons.

        Jackass 2 is for that.

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        • #5
          Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

          Originally posted by Plan9 View Post
          I know I'm new around here, but in my opinion, if we are expecting movies to teach our children about life, then we've got problems.

          It's a movie. I don't think the author of the original book or the producers of the film intended it to teach important life lessons.

          Jackass 2 is for that.
          Actually, I just started thinking about what I said. Maybe they DID intend for it to teach life lessons, but I think my point is that if we are turning to movies for our the moral education of our kids, then consider us well on our way to Hell in a handbasket.

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          • #6
            Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

            Actually, I just started thinking about what I said. Maybe they DID intend for it to teach life lessons, but I think my point is that if we are turning to movies for our the moral education of our kids, then consider us well on our way to Hell in a handbasket.
            Movies shouldn't be the only education, moral or otherwise, that kids receive, but movies are a great learning tool.

            My parents did a fair job raising me, spending time, etc. but movies played a large part in my life education, along with school, peers and what not.

            Even Jackass teaches us what not to do.

            Plan9, I like that you quoted your own post and argued with yourself. What do you need us for?

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            • #7
              Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

              Any desire that I might have had to see this film was squelched when I heard a discussion of it on public radio or some other station on satellite radio one day. I have not read the book, either. I did have to read a Lewis novel (Till We Have Faces) in a previous life as an English major, and I found that work utterly offensive and revolting.

              What I heard on the radio about Narnia was that ...

              !!! POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT !!!









              .. the kids get killed in a train wreck, and they all go to heaven except for the oldest girl, who cannot go to heaven because she has begun to think about lipstick and stockings and going out on dates.

              WTF!

              I have this image of Lewis as that guy in the wheelchair in The Rocky Horror Picture Show who kicks off his blanket to reveal his transvestite self when he jumps up to dance to "Let's Do the Time Warp."

              What a tight-assed, dried-up old fuddy-duddy of a prude.

              Anyhow, I know I will end up watching the film on cable. I always watch these things on cable, even though I would not think about seeing them otherwise. So maybe I will change my opinion, and if so, I will report back.

              "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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              • #8
                Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                Egads, comic. Shadowlands was about Lewis. He was as human as anyone else. Yes, he was a Christian apologist and his children's stories (and sci-fi series) hold to Christian philosophy, but that doesn't make him any less worth reading than anyone else. All writers come at their writing from some particular world view. You don't have to agree with it to enjoy the writing.

                I readily admitted in that thread and here that my feelings about the books and the movie are colored by my having experienced them for the first time when my age was still in single digits. I didn't know sh!tall about character development or turning points or deus ex machina. I just knew those stories transported me someplace I'd never been. And the movie managed to take me back to those childhood memories. That's priceless in my book.
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                • #9
                  Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                  Originally posted by nic.h View Post
                  Um. The book (and the film) was a thinly veiled Christian sermon. You got that, right? So all the good and evil stuff, according to Christianity, is written. Done. No thought required. You just have to follow it.

                  That was WHY the book was written - essentially to teach children Christian philosophy. (Or that's what many scholars and Lewis's contemporaries and descendants believed.)

                  I haven't seen the film, so I won't proffer and opinion. But the above is the main reason. (I have read the stories from cover to cover though, as as a child, and most of them, later, as an adult.)
                  For someone who hasn't seen the film ... you seem spectacularly able to render a verdict on the film.

                  I saw the film.
                  Cool film, really. Meant for kids with youth's still-vital imaginations, but still a fantasy adventure most adults can enjoy (also an opinion, but at least I've seen the film)

                  But since you've already formed your verdict (film unseen) ...

                  ComicBent, though it has Christological images and symbolism, much of that is far from merely 'thinly veiled' ... and it is very very far indeed from being a 'Christian sermon'

                  It's more obviously 'Christian' than LORD OF THE RINGS, yes ... but if you bought into nic.h's position you shouldn't watch LOTR either: it too has "Judeo-Christian" symbolic underpaintings! (pseudo-Angelic beings, Unfallen Beings, Fallen Angels, Demons, etc)

                  All meant to brainwash you into CHRISTIANITY? No.

                  Ignore NARNIA as a "Christianity" sermon and take it as a movie rich in the myth and fantasy of many Western cultures.

                  The thing that struck ME about it wasn't the Christ imagery but in fact the depth and beauty of its PAGAN IMAGERY.

                  That's one seriously creepy scene where the Lion goes to die at the Celtic temple ... and it's based not in "Christian" faith but rather in PAGAN MAGIC.

                  The scene where the Faun drugs and pretty much lays on a pedophilliac seduction vibe onto the little girl ... gives CS LEWIS a fairly dark and ominous undertone that runs counter to your characterization of him as
                  What a tight-assed, dried-up old fuddy-duddy of a prude.
                  (Though to say he's not a prude because he has a weird faun and girl scene isn't quite a reassuring observation on my part)

                  Now, I think you're mostly right about
                  they all go to heaven except for the oldest girl, who cannot go to heaven because she has begun to think about lipstick and stockings and going out on dates.
                  That's (I think) far later in the series and not in NARNIA the movie.

                  Anyway: NARNIA is a pretty fun fantasy adventure movie with ethical depths and symbolism if one cares to go there ... but the 'there' is far from a reason to avoid the movie imo!

                  Originally posted by nic.h
                  So all the good and evil stuff, according to Christianity, is written. Done. No thought required. You just have to follow it.
                  And that statement, nic.h, demonstrates a very simplistic understandng of Christianity, I'd say.

                  No need to have another angry debate about religion HERE.

                  I'd just point your statement out as being a VERY TYPICAL EXAMPLE of someone making a "religious" statement here ... and if I did bother to counter it with a reply ... several others here would probably climb on their soap boxes and blame me for instigating another "religion" argument.


                  People (in general, not necessarily you in this case) like to spout their ideas ... but too often become children and throw tantrums when anyone dares challenge them on it.

                  Others go around hunting and baiting for an excuse to throw a tantrum.

                  The ICE WITCH is always there to tempt them with a sweet in her evil sleigh! (That, to me, was one of the annoying things in the NARNIA movie; that and FATHER CHRISTMAS?! And yet ... we must recall the pagan origins of St. Nick too)
                  Last edited by tabula rasa; 10-15-2006, 12:30 AM.
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                  that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
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                  • #10
                    Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                    Fair enough. I haven't seen the film. But I read plenty of articles talking about this aspect of the film - the heavy-handed Christian sermonising - not to mention his grandson's take (or great nephew? Someone like that) and as I'd been overwhelmed by this same approach in the books (the second time around, reading them to my kids - I was oblivious as a child), I assumed they'd kept much to the original storyline.

                    Having said that, I didn't actively avoid the film. Just didn't get around to seeing it. I probably will (on cable) but I'll admit to having been coloured by the commentary surrounding it. Probably my mistake. But I took what I'd learned from the books and loaded the film with similar assumptions. If the film isn't trying to propagate Christianity, then I take it all back. But given how soundly and roundly the film was backed by conservative Christians (they even took Disney off the blacklist in direct response to Narnia's release) I'd say it's a safe call.

                    My understanding of religion is kind of hard to gauge - particularly from another country. Needless to say, I've seen enough (and lived enough) of different religions in different cultures to feel as qualified as most to form an opinion. But it's a messy place to muck in, and I'm happy to leave it alone to avoid having this thread locked.
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                    • #11
                      Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                      And just to finish off, I was being deliberately glib re my summary of good and evil in religion, for no reason other than time and space conservation. But thanks for reading my post in such detail.
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                      • #12
                        Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                        Thanks for the added insights. No one should take my comments to go any further than this: I'd seen the NARNIA movie and thought that your suggestions (not having seen it) might give readers an askew idea about the movie. (Once you see it, you still might have quite different ideas than mine, no problema)

                        And I didn't mean to say your entire concepts of "religion" are one thing or another. But your statement which I quoted reflects (I think most would agree) a rather limited picture of Christianity, a spiritual path which varies according to one's own levels of understanding and evolution.

                        I suppose there are SHALLOW, UNTHINKING folks who you've described; there are also DEEPLY SPIRITUAL, DEEPLY THOUGHTFUL Christians who your description
                        So all the good and evil stuff, according to Christianity, is written. Done. No thought required. You just have to follow it.
                        vastly mis-represents and to whom your statement is simply untrue.

                        There are both shallow and deep human souls in all walks of Life.

                        Sometimes we forget that in our hurry to make our point.

                        It's always good and wise to see and express that distinction, and not paint all people with a single brush or label.

                        Sometimes people believe I am "lecturing" when what I mean to be doing is "reminding" even myself of that!
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                        "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -
                        that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
                        -Mahatma Gandhi.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                          Have to agree with Cycstorm. I thought the movie thin and unsatisfying like pigging out on a Chinese meal and feeling hungry half an hour after eating it.

                          I really looked forward to this movie, and then felt cheated of any real meaning. Yes, of course I got the Christianity messianic thing, but somehow it lacked resonance for me as an adult, though kids might have got something more from it. That was probably part of the problem -- it was a child's LOTR that sanitised death and robbed the viewer of any real sense of consequence. Unlike say Shrek, I felt it was unable to connect with its adult audience.

                          Watching it reminded me why I was never able to read the series when I was a child. I just couldn't stand all that King Peter stuff at the end. It felt undeserved to me even then.

                          V
                          Last edited by Virginwriter; 10-15-2006, 03:56 AM.
                          Si vis me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi
                          If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                            I think it's great period. Though I do understand how cynical hearts would be dismissive of it.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Just read the Narnia thread, has everyone gone insane?

                              Originally posted by haunted View Post
                              Well, here's the only possible explanation for that: Everyone on this board is stupid except you.
                              more plausible is the fact that people have a problem differentiating between what they like and what is well-made. narnia is mediocre at it's very best.

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