Prince Caspian

At request of a dear friend of mine, here is my review from back when the movie came out.

In the book that Lewis wrote, each child, as well as Trumpkin, has in individual trial, test of faith, and then resulting deeper faith and trust in Aslan. In the book, Susan and Lucy are cast as women, in the more “homely” helpful, serving role of a woman. In the book, the decisions made are made because they will advance the “agenda” if you will, of Aslan, in Narnia. In the book, the children are fully supportive of King Caspian to help him regain the territory and kingship that has been long lost to Telmarine control. In the book, the hidden Narnians come out in force to help regain that which has been lost. The overall tone of the book is this: Aslan is sovereign in Narnia, he calls the children back to help and assist Caspian in regaining his throne, he uses the weakness of the children as an opportunity to make himself manifest, and to deepen their faith and trust in himself. It is a very Biblical worldview. It is a true allegory to how God works in our lives.

In the movie Lucy is the only one to have a real trial and resulting deeper faith. (Granted, Edmund is strong, but he does not grow. He plods along as he is.) In the movie, the decisions that are made are made by the kids, and Caspian, with their own end in mind (in several cases for their own perceived glory). They were not basing their decisions on the foundation of “”What is best for Narnia, and WWAslanD?” In the movie, Susan in particular is very much masculinized (is that a word?) The place for women is NOT in the thick of the battle doing a man’s fighting work. I don’t care if she does have a cool chain mail dress and outfit! That feminist twist was really disappointing. In the movie, Peter and Caspian are at odds with one another, fighting each for his own standing, position and honor. Peter does not support Caspian, but fights against him. He is not acting in a supporting role, as Aslan intended, but as an antagonist. In the movie, the Narnians come out of hiding, but in small number. They do not seem to rise with the expected amount of enthusiasm and support for Aslan and Narnia. The overall tone of the movie is this: The children are heroes, they came at the call of a Narnian to do there own thing to help Narnia, the weakness of the children costs lives but is never really results in growth of character, Aslan saves the day at the end.

In Lewis’ book, the story revolves around a faith battle. It revolves around the work of Aslan in the lives of the characters. The central theme is that of faith. When you take a story and remove the foundation, there is nothing that can happen beyond the crumbling of the rest of the story. When the producer of the film wrote his story, it was not the story of Prince Caspian as Lewis wrote it. He removed the key element of faith. With the change in the characters, the change in worldview and the lack of faith, the aspects of Lewis’ story that do remain cannot be fully understood. You do have to give the producer credit for writing a well paced action movie. What he did not do was make a movie with correct worldview. He did not make a Christian film. When non-christian directors take control of a film like this, we can expect little more than that the faith missing in the director will also be missing in the film. It is sad, but we should not be surprised. Since when did ripe fruit fall from a rotten tree?

So. Now I can tell you. I didn’t really like it. It was well done aesthetically. But when it comes to the meat, it was definitely lacking. It was GREAT for one thing: brain exercise! It took me a bit to get all my thoughts together regarding this film. Film is a media that can be incredibly dangerous. Bad worldview like this can be put in a pretty (or gory) wrapping and planted in our minds without our knowing it. Unless we are trained to LOOK for the flaws, and then take the time to actually do it, it can be damaging. Movies like this are great for analyzing! Daddy asks us why we have to pick movies apart. This is why. Once I was shown how much is “hidden” in films, I couldn’t sit there anymore knowing that bad stuff was being pumped into my head. I had to look for it. I wasn’t about to be left off my guard. In our culture, film is a media that is used for entertainment. The people producing the films are not stupid. They KNOW that the perversion and sin that is planted in the films is infiltrating the minds of the culture. It is not by accident. We cannot fall prey to the cultural mindset that movies are for fun. Okay, some are. This one is a kind of fun non-Christian action movie. But they have to be analyzed. If we accept them as just fun, we will be falling prey to what the world wants. As believers, as followers of Christ who are sent out to make a difference, we can’t do that. We are called to more. We are being held “accountable”. (don’t you just love the responsibility that comes with following Christ?!)