No, the movie wasn’t like the book, and I think some of the original intent was lost by obscuring it in more introspective and mature themes. But taken as a story alone it had merit to rightly excite the imagination on some points. Perhaps some will read the book who would not have otherwise.
I can hardly believe that I have seen two movies in the movie house in less than one month. It is amazing on several fronts. I could comment on several aspects and themes within the movie but one theme and two scenes most caught my attention. Both scenes involve the subway station. The first one, escaping out of that gray world of immature fights and flirts, was the most visually striking of the two, but it was the later that forced the deeper message on me. In that instant just before passing between the tree trunks from Narnia to the railway tunnel in London, knowing what bliss and purpose you have, to understand what mundane and ridiculous existence you return to is so stark a contrast. Then to be a moment later clothed not in royal attire, feared and loved by all, but eyeing fellow travelers with suspicion and disdain at their sad attempts. But wait. This is a narrow view of the transition. You now have a newer, higher perspective on your mundane existence. You are a king, a queen, and a son of the Most High. You are looking into this difficult world with eyes of confidence in your calling, pity for those unknown by the Most High, hope for your future, and purpose in your every choice and action. For this reason the interpretation of Susan kissing the handsome Caspian and then being accosted by the schoolboy is only half correct. For whatever distractions C.S. Lewis has Susan falling to later on, she is fully enamored of Aslan when in Narnia. In the mundane, out of control world you serve the Most High, not thoughts of blissful relationships. As Lewis said in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory” concerning “beauty, the memory of our own past [of a blissful moment]”, “they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited…we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy…For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world.” But what does Lewis say attracts us to that world? “To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son-it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.” He goes on to describe a second sense of glory, “to shine as the sun”. “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words-to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” And how does that effect our everyday? Lewis says, “A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.” Ah, the retreating walls of the subway into Narnia, heaven. But no! Narnia in all the stories is not heaven. The new Narnia beyond the thatched, stable door in “The Last Battle” represents heaven. So what is Narnia and when am I going to answer my last question? Narnia is a higher plane we live on like the Promised Land (more on that another day), closer to the Savior, more attuned to our position and purpose. In the everyday existence, Lewis reminds, we must “remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” We await total heaven but let us live in the higher plane of His presence looking in on the our everyday lives with new eyes of seriousness and relaxed confidence.
I urge you to read “The Weight of Glory” by C.S. Lewis. It is easily found online.
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