Monday, December 12, 2005

Aslan is on the move

Last night I attended The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with our older elementary program - TEAM. The film was everything I had hoped... almost. The characters could have been fleshed out a bit more but they didn't detract from the story. And I was afraid it took a bit long to get into Narnia but none of the kids complained about that. All in all, it is a wonderful telling of the book which is a wonderful allegory of the gospel. I found the sacrifice scene to be much more moving than The Passion of the Christ because the lion seemed much more human than Gibson's Jesus and the death was placed in a context that gave it meaning. Plus, it includes the resurrection.

After the film, we had a short discussion with the kids and I was impressed at what they got from it. I think we'll get a lot of mileage from it. FWIW, more than one of the kids remarked that "it is a buyer..." that is, a film that they will purchase once it is released on DVD. I also have a feeling that some of them will actually read the books now!

I highly recommend this film for older children (it is pretty intense for younger ones) and probably can be a good discussion starter for adults too. Go see it with a group of friends or with a bunch of kids and then discuss it.

3 comments:

Dave Miller said...

Greetings Roy,

I highly agree. It was a great movie, however perhaps a bit too intense for younger kids. Maybe a PG-13 rating would have been better.

I wonder sometimes if we in the church feel a need to have movies like this have a spiritual meaning to justify our desires to see them or take our kids.

By that I want to ask if Narnia would have been as worthy a story for a values driven church if it was just a classic story of good versus evil without the Gospel connections. Would we be as enthusiastic about recommending it without that component?

Just some thoughts.

Dennis E. McFadden said...

Roy,

Amen.

Dennis

Anonymous said...

I agree, this was an amazing movie. I teared up about half of the time. It was completely breath taking.