SWNID is not making an exhaustive search of reviews on the much-awaited premiere of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We have, however, looked to a couple of sources at either end of the ideological and artistic spectrum for opinions. They are instructive.
At National Review Online, political correspondent John J. Miller (author of the delightfully titled Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France) gives not so much a review as a field guide for those who know and love the book. He told SWNID what we wanted to know before we go to a bargain matinee sometime after the press of the semester's end is over. But on the review side, the verdict is that the movie is excellent.
At the New Yorker, Anthony Lane reviews LWW along with Brokeback Mountain, the latter leading the column. Nothing could illustrate the decline of what was once America's wittiest weekly than Lane's snippy review that maximizes post-Christian Britain's distaste for the forthrightly Christian Lewis, misstates the story as an "allegory," notes Tolkien's reservations about Narnia but misstates their nature, and in general dismisses the movie for an audience that wouldn't consider going in the first place. Lane is no Pauline Kael, in case gentle readers wondered, but the New Yorker hasn't been the New Yorker since Tina Brown destroyed the literary and journalistic legacy of William Shawn. (N.B. that SWNID is not bitter about this, just wistful and nostalgic.)
For those who wonder whence the story for the gay cowboy movie came, the New Yorker also links the original Anne Proulx short story. SWNID has always found Ms. Proulx to be among the most leaden of the so-called stars of the "literary fiction" firmament, and a few paragraphs of this story, which doesn't take long to get well beyond family friendly, illustrates.
In sum, the critics are as divided by LWW as the synagogue at Iconium was by Paul's gospel. Hardly surprising.
P.S. For those who haven't heard, Douglas Gresham, stepson of C. S. Lewis and executor of the Lewis literary estate, appeared on the Michael Medved radio program earlier this week. SWNID was the first caller to address a question to Mr. Gresham. We are still tingly over our near brush with nearly Lewis.
1 comment:
Nice work, Tim! This is looking like a case of the rumor that circulates without any grounding in primary sources.
Despite the pretensions of learning on the left, the truth is that the opponents of Christianity are as inclined to uncritical credulity, believing what they want to be true, as anyone who adheres to Christian orthodoxy.
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