Major Movie Spoilers! Christianity Today Discusses “Dawn Treader” [Updated]

WARNING: MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS

In a 3-page news article today, Christianity Today asked “Will The Dawn Treader Float?” The answer is a very hopeful “yes.” CT said filmmakers acknowledged mistakes in Prince Caspian but “believe they have righted the ship for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” How?

New film distributor — 20th Century Fox

New director — Michael Apted

“[R]enewed commitment to the message of the books”

Another important part of selling the movie and generating excitement among Narnia fans was last week’s “Narnia Summit” – ”where they showed clips from Dawn Treader and went through the entire script.” Who were the attendees? “100 Christian leaders” from large churches, “parachurch organizations,” “publishing companies,” “Lewis experts,” and “online fan sites” — some really tough Narnia critics and experts! So what were their reactions?

Steve Bell, executive vice-president of the Willow Creek Association:

There seems to be a high level of respect for the material. My sense was that they really want to go to the authenticity of C. S. Lewis, maybe more so than ever. They’re very aware that they have to turn the corner from Prince Caspian. They know that the ball got dropped, and they’re trying to recapture that momentum.

Christian author Philip Yancey:

They’re clearly making an effort to say that they respect and understand the spiritual focus of the book in a way that perhaps [Prince Caspian] did not. . . .They don’t seem to be cutting any corners; they’re throwing the whole ball of wax at this, and that’s a good thing.

Many Narnia fans have expressed concern about two major scenes in Dawn Treader: (1) Eustace’s “un-dragoning” and (2) the interaction between Aslan, Edmund, and Lucy at the end of the novel. Why does it matter? According to Wheaton College professor Jerry Root, if filmmakers ruin the latter scene, “they might as well close up the shop and produce no more films, for they will not be Lewis’ stories any more.” However, the reactions of Walden Media president Michael Flaherty and pastor’s wife Kathy Keller–who wrote letters to C. S. Lewis as a child, was converted through his writings, and wrote her senior thesis on Lewis’s “Mythopoetic Understanding of Literature”–should make Narnia fans both relieved and excited about how the filmmakers have approached these two scenes.

On Eustace’s “un-dragoning”:

Keller says she learned that writers originally wanted Eustace, still in dragon form, to fight a sea monster and “earn” his return to human form. But she says Flaherty, a committed Christian, “put them straight that you don’t earn grace, you receive it once you are humbled and aware of your need.”

Flaherty told CT, ”This book is the most theological of them all. There are more complex themes, particularly grace, that aren’t easy to get right [in a movie]. We must’ve spent an entire day talking about grace, and the importance of showing that it can’t be earned; it has to be given. This is something that Eustace can’t do on his own; he has to ask Aslan to do it for him. I think it’s a really powerful illustration of grace.”

On Aslan, Edmund, and Lucy:

Keller . . . says she was mostly satisfied with what she saw and heard. “I’m glad the final interaction between Aslan and Lucy was there in its unadulterated entirety, because I consider that the pinnacle of the entire seven books.”

Fans have to wonder where Edmund is in all of this. But maybe he was unintentionally left out in viewers’ responses.

A further concern on the part of Narnia fans is introducing extra-literary subplots in the Dawn Treader script. According to Kathy Keller, they’ve done just that. She gives another major plot spoiler:

“I was less than enthusiastic about the imposition of an invented quest to recover the seven swords of the seven lords to undo some evil magic of a new witch,” she said. “It is a fairly innocuous addition, but as a purist I would have been happier without it.”

Narnia fans will have to wait and see whether or not they like this addition come December, and whether filmmakers were right to introduce it.

Finally, many showed concern about the choice of agnostic director Michael Apted, for “some wondered if his agnosticism would prevent him from ‘getting’ the spiritual and theological meat of the books” — especially since Apted once appeared “to brag to reporters about gutting Amazing Grace . . . of its religion.” According to Michael Flaherty, “Can an agnostic director get the deeper meanings of the book? The answer is yes, because this agnostic did.” But according to Planet Narnia author Michael Ward, it doesn’t really matter.

“I think an agnostic or for that matter an atheist could do a good job adapting the book, since the requirements are literary sensitivity, sympathetic imagination, and aesthetic judgment, not commitment to Christ. The vital thing is that he immerses himself in the book, and maybe even some of the better literary criticism about the book, and resolves to be faithful to its spirit.”

Professor Root, who has “high hopes” for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, gives some final thoughts on last week’s Narnia Summit.

“While I haven’t agreed with everything that has been done so far with the films, I have largely been appreciative of the effort and for the most part I have enjoyed them. Whenever Hollywood makes a Christian-friendly film, I am encouraged. Furthermore, if someone’s first exposure to Lewis’ work is through a film and that drives them back to the literature, I am pleased.”

Click here to read the article. Don’t we all wish December were here?

UPDATE: in the CT article, Narnia Summit attendees also discussed various problems with LWW and PC. And NarniaWeb‘s Tirian “confirmed the bit about the seven swords, but added: ‘I haven’t seen any evidence of a new witch being added to this story.’”

UPDATE #2: Paul Martin at NarniaFans.com is unhappy with CT’s revelation of major plot spoilers in VDT, wanting them to be saved for the film’s December release. Regarding the addition not in the book, he considers it “a terrific addition, that adds a connective tissue and sense of urgency to the quest, making it less of an arbitrary deal for the Narnians.” He also warns that CT’s ”article is very out of context and incorrect with the plot point.”