A Few Words On Movie-Making

 About a year ago, my best friend asked me if I’d heard that there were rumours Meryl Streep was going to voice Aslan in a new version of The Magician’s Nephew. I must admit, I didn’t even know who Meryl Streep was. I just knew that was a woman’s name, and we both vehemently agreed that there was no way a woman was going to play the literal representation of Christ.

    Cue my horror and disappointment when Greta Gerwig announces that Meryl Streep is, indeed, the voice of Aslan. And that is not the only problem with this film, far from it. I watched the trailer and almost cried. C.S. Lewis would be heartbroken if he knew that his story of creation in Narnia had been turned into a punk-rock, Guardians of the Galaxy-esque blockbuster film. If it’s that or no movie, I’d take no movie any day.

    But my question is… why? Gerwig has claimed to understand and love Lewis’ books, but then she’s turned around and done this. Why?

    I don’t entirely know, but I do believe the reason could be similar to the reason people around America right now are rejoicing because abortion has been legalised in a number of states. I’m not a political activist, but neither am I complacent, and as a Christian I have a very strong sense of right and wrong. I believe that there is a very real and very present spiritual war going on. We can see it in the way people celebrate the murder of innocent human beings and the election to office of people who have completely anti-American, anti-Christian views. And we can see it in the secularisation of beautiful Christian classics like Lewis’ books. Gerwig may believe she is doing The Magician’s Nephew justice, I don’t know. But the fact remains that she is not. 

    Don’t believe me? Listen to C.S. Lewis. 

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“I did not say to myself ‘Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia’: I said ‘Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen.’ If you think about it, you will see that it is quite a different thing.” 

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“Common sense, disregarding the discomfort, or even the horror, which the idea of turning all our theological language into the feminine gender arouses in most Christians, will ask ‘Why not? Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?’ But Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument not in favour of Christian priestesses but against Christianity. It is also surely based on a shallow view of imagery. Without drawing upon religion, we know from our poetical experience that image and apprehension cleave closer together than common sense is here prepared to admit; that a child who has been taught to pray to a Mother in Heaven would have a religious life radically different from that of a Christian child. And as image and apprehension are in an organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.”

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“It is a funny thing that all the children who have written to me see at once who Aslan is, and grown-ups never do!”

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    So you see, Aslan cannot be a woman in the same way Christ cannot; because in Narnia, Aslan is Christ. Or rather, as Lewis says, if there were such a world as Narnia, Aslan would be Christ. It is not merely an allegory, but rather a depiction of life and of truth as it is. 

    (He is not a tame lion, you know.)

    (No, but He is good.)

    This is not, however, my only bone to pick with Hollywood at the moment (although it is a very large bone indeed.) I would like an explanation, please, why we need so many remakes of already classic movies. (Disney, I’m looking at you.) This has been a question I’ve had for a while. Aside from Cinderella, which was beautiful and a masterpiece, nobody really cares about all these Disney princess remakes. We didn’t ask for them. We didn’t want them. Instead, why not be more creative? If you must adapt, adapt books. Be faithful to them. Respect their authors, and respect the story. (I have very high hopes for East of Eden and Sunrise on the Reaping; unrelatedly, Mckenna Grace’s press looks are GENIUS.) I just don’t get it. Be creative. Create beauty. Stop recycling the same plots. And if you are adapting a book, be faithful to the original source material. 

    People have done this before. It’s really not that hard. Please and thank you.

    So I guess in conclusion: don’t watch the new Narnia movie, but do know exactly where you stand when it comes to political and moral beliefs. And if you’re a film producer, or any kind of artist, there are things far more important than money.