where are you, Prince Caspian?

On May 16, opening night, I curled up in a theatre chair in a row of friends and prepared to take in Prince Caspian, the movie adaptation of a children's classic.

I am not one to insist that a movie exactly mirror a book. I studied screenwriting for a little while and even tried penning a couple of screenplays, so I realize that these two radically different art forms take an entirely different approach to storytelling. I wouldn't have complained if the movie had simply approached the story differently.

I am complaining, however, because the movie wrote a whole new story! True, it features the same characters and (sort of) follows the same events. But the heart of Prince Caspian, as C.S. Lewis wrote it, was gone. I realized this but couldn't quite put my finger on the problem. I knew it had to do with faith and the centrality of Aslan to the whole story, but beyond that, I was left trying to figure out why the story I loved had disappeared.

My friend (and author of TorahBytes) Alan Gilman hit the nail on the head in his blog post, "Prince Caspian the Movie Misses the Mark":

"One of the things that make C.S. Lewis' writings as poignant as they are is that they effectively communicate God's truth within a society that has lost its spiritual moorings. As intellectuals redefined reality for the modern world, pushing it away from a biblical understanding of God and life, Lewis calls us back to the old stories.

"The movie version of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe gave us hope that Lewis' legacy was being preserved for a new generation, that the biblical world view would at least be part of the contemporary discussion. The movie version of Prince Caspian, on the other hand, reminds us that Hollywood cannot be trusted with that legacy."

I encourage you to check out the entire post at torahblog.blogspot.com