The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Dear Son,

I'd never read the complete C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia. I've never even read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, although I'd read excerpts from it in school. I vaguely knew the premise, but not the story. (I intend to fix that this summer - if I can read 6 Harry Potter books in a month...) And I knew that it was intended to be a Christian allegory for the passion of Christ.

It was wonderful. I was lucky to catch it on the big screen, thanks to the $3 theater across the street from our condo. A big special effects movie should always be seen that way if it can be!

The characters weren't necessarily deep. Scratch that - they WERE deep, but they weren't complex. They didn't need to be. They each had a role to play that was important. Each one of the four children represented a part of ourselves - the noble but self-doubting future leader, the one with all the brains but unsure and indecisive when forced to put those smarts to the situation at hand, the selfish, opportunistic one made miserable by his selfishness and opportunism, and the innocent conscience who insists on doing the right thing because it is right.

And then, of course, is the self sacrificing King, by whose execution the children's debts are paid, and by whose resurrection the world is saved. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate the inspiration of that message.

These are archetypes in literature. They were ancient when the Bible was written, because they are so fundamentally a part of who we all are, and who we all WANT to be. (And the Bible has survived for 3,000 + years because of it.) We tell stories not just to describe, but to guide us. And when the archetypes are true and believable to the environment in which they've been placed, then we can see ourselves in them. When the heroes on the screen do heroic things, we know that we, too, are capable of being heroes. And there's nothing better than leaving a movie with that feeling. That's really ultimately why we go.

Technically, the movie was fantastic. You may laugh at the special effects in it by the time you read this, but the animal effects were some of the best I've ever seen. It's hard to get fur and muscle movement just right, not to mention integration between the CGI and the location of the shoot. It was apparent that they used some real animals where they could, and paid attention to how they behave and move. It was easy to believe in.

My only real complaint was that the movie was too short. The young actors were superb, but the scope of the plot was a little too big for any of the characters' subtleties to really come out. It just seemed a little rushed. But they had clearly done their homework, because even if WE didn't get to see the full panorama of their characters, the complexities were there, and prevented them from being the caricatures that true archetypes are often confused with.

Ultimately, the themes really spoke to me. Self sacrifice, redemption, risking your life against oppression, fighting for something greater than yourself - awesome. Those themes will always cause elitist art-house snobs to decry such movies, because to them if it's not dark and "honest" about how miserable we all are, it's not art. Bah. This movie will stand the test of time, and you'll grow up watching it. This year's Oscar winner for Best Picture will be nothing more than a Trivial Pursuit question when you read this.

This is one of those I'm really looking forward to sharing with you.

Love, Dad