Shadowlands

Even though the Hopkins and Winger version had a larger budget, the BBC TV version is just as good. Even though we the issue of cancer is dealt with longer in the TV version, Hopkin portrays C.S. Lewis in more of, may I say, an American way. Both films portray C.S. Lewis with a British actor, but here, we actually forget from time to time that this is not C.S. Lewis and actually I an actor portraying him. This version mentions more about the Magician's Nephew and not the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe more like Hopkin's version. Both include the crying moment between Lewis and his step son up in the attic. Both are powerful and very different. Each is enjoyable if you are a fan of C.S. Lewis.

Clives Staples Lewis (known as "Jack" to his friends) was a truly brilliant Oxford Don who brought Christianity (at least in a general way) into the educated forums. While one can regret his not having embraced the Gospel quite as fully as did his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, he nevertheless contributed enough to be of genuine value even so. The beauty of this version (in comparison to the other) is how one truly gains a far better view of who he is, what makes him tick, and also not only who he was but who the others in his life were, not only Joy but also his brother Warnie, and his circle of friends, the "Inklings." The relative accuracy of this version adds substantially to the emotional depth of the loss. Though the particulars of each person's grief varies, it is ironically in those particulars that each person's grief is most united to everyone else's particular griefs. There is a moment when, looking at the two boys facing their own grief in losing their mother, he looks at Warnie standing next to him and comments on how the two of them now is a repeat of what it had been for himself and Warnie so many years previous when their own mother was lost and they were of a similar age.

You just can't get moments like that in a movie that doesn't even bother to show that Joy had two sons instead of merely one. In this version, he really is C. S. Lewis, the great writer not only of the fanciful Narnia Chronicles, but also of many brilliant essays on Christian moral and even doctrinal concerns, someone who has made serious thought about important things actually interesting, someone who tells his readers things they never thought of before and are now all the richer for now knowing, and yet he is also someone on the verge of having to eat all of his own brilliant words in the face of this suffering. He had written most beautifully about the Love of God; but where was that love now in his wife's sickness, suffering, and death? Even the small-budget atmosphere of the BBC production actually adds to its weight. Despite his being well-known, he lived a "small" life which revolved around his academic profession, his friends, his writing, his Faith, his family, and his wife. A vast Hollywood budget would have only brought in distractions and destroyed the focus. The movie, by contrast, has practically nothing to do with C. S. Lewis at all. The casting of Anthony Hopkins as C. S. Lewis is just plain wrong, like casting Peter Lorre as Abraham Lincoln, and the lines given him are full of vague New Age aphorisms instead of the precise Christian expositions which defined C. S. Lewis' entire existence and fundamental being. Unlike this BBC version, the film presents a generic anonymous character who could be just about anyone, blubbering over his wife in her sickness and death.

This movie was recommended to me by the same person that blessed me with a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. Shadowlands is one of the most amazing screenplays ever written. It is well executed, acted and directed. The cinematography is a bit dark for my taste but I'm sure it was intended to be so. The screenplay is like poetry in portions of the movie, through out the movie I found myself taking pause to reflect on the comments just made on screen. This is a wonderful piece of cinema and I can only hope that more people will run across it and add reviews. Fair warning though this was a 6 tissue movie for me. Very touching. Very Heartfelt performances.

This was a very faithful presentation of Lewis's life in the mid-50's. The dialogue on theology and the banter with his follow colleagues was exceptionally good. Michael White's book, "C.S. Lewis: Creator of Narnia" deals with this time frame in a very parallel way. Joss Ackland's acting was superb in catching the unemotional Lewis. The movie took great pains to be presented in an accurate English setting. The development of a strong bond between "Jack" (his preferred name) Lewis and Douglas Gresham, Joy's son from her previous marriage, was enjoyable to watch. The movie did avoid the distasteful element of "Warnie" Lewis's (Jack's older brother) drinking problem, but it would not have moved the story on, so it is best left out.

Lewis wrote that his marriage to Joy brought him a new appreciation of the body and of physical pleasures. He emphasized this pleasure, in fact. Apparently, Joy and her love removed all traces of his prudish inhibitions. The BBC film glosses over this theme almost entirely. We get the impression that the couple only played Scrabble. The film also shortchanges the theological exertions that Lewis underwent to regain his faith after Joy's death. Otherwise, I must say, a splendid film in its acting and photography. It has my enthusiastic, if limited, recommendation!