What Does Indiana Jones Mean to You?
One week from today, I'll be seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Time for me to put aside the heavier viewing fare and relive the joys of being a wide-eyed teenager.
Mick Silva's Advice for Writers; Narnia's Makeover for High King Peter
Silva ponders
Mick Silva on the voice of the Christian writer.
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High King Peter of Narnia's "small mind"
In C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, High King Peter did *not* have a "small mind." But it seems that American filmmakers are almost incapable of portraying a valiant, decisive, noble leader. It's as if we don't believe it's possible anymore.
Aragorn, that great king in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, was given a Hamlet-like complex, a severe insecurity, and all kinds of debilitating doubts by the filmmakers. In the Narnia movies, it appears that High King Peter is about to fall victim to the same disease.
See what Steven D. Greydanus reports from the Prince Caspian junket, over at ArtsandFaith.com. He recounts what was said about revisions to Peter's character. Apparently High King Peter now has a big ego, but a small mind. So much for the noble, mature leader of Lewis's world.
Now remember, Lewis and Tolkien didn't mind movies being made of their stories so long as the core, the heart, the meaning of the stories remained intact. I'm more and more concerned, from the buzz I'm hearing, that Prince Caspian the Movie has little to do with the meaning of Prince Caspian the Novel. The storytellers seem to be writing in their own meanings. They shouldn't have bothered with Lewis. They should have made up their own stories. Ahh, but then they couldn't have exploited the beloved name of C.S. Lewis, could they?
Again, I hope I'm wrong. I hope the movie arrives and surprises us by preserving the core of Lewis's story. But based on reports from trusted friends who have seen it, that looks less and less likely.
I encourage you: Read the book. Then you'll be able to make a fair assessment not just of the movie as a movie, but of the movie as an adaptation.
Film Forum: "The Fall"
This is collection of reviews of The Fall that found interesting.
Morehead:
Throughout the film, I felt like Tarsem was trying to get my attention, to get me to notice this really alluring costume, or the angle at which he shot this stunning castle wall, or how he was able to seamlessly transition from the shot of a pinned butterfly to a deserted butterfly-shaped island. Simply put, The Fall ends up drowning in its own excesses, constantly trying way too hard to wow the viewer and sweep them off into an imaginative, whimsical tale of heroes, bandits, and princesses in such an obvious manner that it ends up feeling rather ingratiating.
McCracken:
... as cinematic a film as you will ever see. And this is fitting, because The Fall is essentially a love letter to the form—an outpouring of expressive sound, image, space, movement, and color, strewn together in delicately messy bursts and flourishes of filmic passion. ... A descendent of films like The Wizard of Oz, Big Fish, and even Pan's Labyrinth, The Fall reminds us of the power of the moving image to provide both an escape from the harsh realities of life but also a means whereby humans can better understand themselves, and each other.
Ulich:
Each and every of Tarsem's visuals scratch onerously at the mind, heart, and cornea. The overall effect is close to synaptic overload and, indeed, the film eventually keels over and dies from the mere effort to constantly top itself.
Dollar:
For all his epic pretense, rock-video veteran Singh (Losing My Religion) devotes far more energy to settings and costumes than his putative subject (storytelling). It's a draggy pastiche of Alejandro Jodoworsky's Holy Mountain and One Thousand and One Nights.
Fibbs:
The Fall is wholly beguiling, an utterly transportive piece of filmmaking as dazzling in its visual audacity as it is in its spartan simplicity. ... And it's the best thing I've seen all year.
The Browser, 5/9: Evangelical Manifesto; Koehler on Cannes; Dude still abides!; Neil Young hates mp3s; book reviews; Marion Ravenwood
The Evangelical Manifesto
On the remote chance that you may not already have read it, I should post the news that An Evangelical Manifesto was published and presented earlier this week, on May 7.
The Steering Committee for the document includes...
- Timothy George
Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University - Os Guinness
Author/Social Critic - John Huffman
Pastor, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, CA
Chair, Christianity Today International - Rich Mouw
President, Fuller Theological Seminary - Jesse Miranda
Founder & Director, Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership, Vanguard University - David Neff
Vice President and Editor in Chief, Christianity Today Media Group - Richard Ohman
Businessman - Larry Ross
President, A. Larry Ross Communications - Dallas Willard
- Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern California
Author
And, via Ross Douthat, here are responses to it by:
Alan Jacobs (here, and here) and Michael Brendan Dougherty. Other responses will be posted here as fast as I become aware of them. (Well, almost as fast.)
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Two Soderberghs and a missing Kiarostami: early rumblings about Cannes 08
I'm two weeks behind on posting this, but it's too tantalizing to ignore. Here's Robert Koehler musing about the lineup for this year's Cannes Film Festival...
Just look at some of the filmmakers in the roster, and you're looking at a window on the future of cinema: Alonso and his Thierry del Fuego-set Liverpool, Albert Serra and his Three Wise Men odyssey El Cant dels ocells, Claire Simon's Les Bureaux de Dieu, Raya Martin and his five-hour Now Showing and the best Romanian you haven't heard of--Radu (The Paper Will Be Blue) Muntean and Boogie.
He concludes with:
...a mystery: Although Abbas Kiarostami's Shirin was expanded into a feature based on the short he contributed to Cannes' Chacun son cinema and Kiarostami, is, well, Kiarostami, he's nowhere to be found in the lineup. Any lineup. Why isn't it in Cannes? What happened?
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The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers
Word is spreading fast about the next book by "God Girl" Cathleen Falsani, religion columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times. The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers will be a welcome focus on the quiet but everpresent spiritual questions at the core of the Coens' films.
I met Cathleen Falsani, the author, at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing a couple of weeks ago, and it was a pleasant surprise. I've been reading her work here and there for years. (I think I discovered her through Steve Beard's Thunderstruck site.) She approached me after my Through a Screen Darkly lecture to tell me that she was glad I'd brought up No Country for Old Men in the presentation, and went on to tell me about the book. It sounds very cool, but she's got another one coming out right now called Sin Boldly that looks interesting too. Can't wait to read either one of them.
So, learn to make a White Russian, and you'll be all set. When the book arrives, you can kick back every evening with a glass in one hand and Falsani's book in the other, and learn to see the Coen Brothers through a new lens. (I wonder if the book will include Burn Before Reading, or if the printing will happen too late for that....)
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Neil Young versus the MP3
Ready for Harvest Moon on Blu-ray?
When Neil Young announced the impending release of his Archives on Blu-ray Disc earlier this week, he made it clear that there was a technical reason for his decision.
As well as making his entire back catalogue and a large amount of related items available in one collection of shiny discs, he was striking a blow against the MP3. "Putting on a headphone and listening to an MP3 is like hell," he said. His aim is to give the audience "quality whether they want it or not. You can degrade it as much as you want, we just don't want our name on it".
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A hero will rise... to save the state of book reviewing
As book reviewers vanish from newspapers, will anyone stand up and offer a solution? Here's a story of one controversial attempt.
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Marion's mandibles
I don't know about you, but are you getting unsettled by Karen Allen's perpetual, ear-to-ear grin in the promotional shots for Indy 4? It's kind of creeping me out. I hope Marion Ravenwood's return to the Indy world will remind us of the tough-talking, punch-throwing dream girl who won our hearts in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Marion gone soft and smiley? Say it isn't so!
The Browser, 5/8: O'Connor; Berryman; Joe Henry; Elvis Costello; Ron Burgundy; Image on Lumet's latest
Do you have the equipment?
Flannery O'Connor blogged twice this week. That's always worth a look. And what great quotes.
Read more
For the Love of Movies That Never Played at the Mall...
In my experience of discussing movies online, few people have challenged me to dig deeper and look closer at movies than Ken Morefield.
That's why I'm enthusiastic about having his as a "guest reviewer" so often at Looking Closer.
So I am delighted to discover that...
Leif Enger Returns
Not many novelists have so impressed me with their first novel that I would literally jump for joy in the bookstore to discover their second novel. But when I stumbled unexpectedly onto THIS yesterday, yes, I did jump, and it was for joy.
The Coen Brothers Put Clooney and Swinton in Bed Together
These pics promise a return to the wild and wacky side of the Coen Brothers' world.
CT Movies' Angry Readers; Dirty Harry on "No Country" and "Assassination"
Moring's mailbox
CT Movies has published more examples of the angry mail that continues to fill editor Mark Moring's mailbox. Hang in there, Mark! For every expression of outrage, I suspect there are three or four who quietly applaud what CTMovies is doing... And really, isn't that what it's all about? Being popular?
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Two great 2007 films about violent men
[correction] A blogger called "Dirty Harry" [/correction] at Libertas takes a second look at No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and he likes what he sees. His post has me nodding and applauding all the way through.
IMAGE: "The Secret" is screwy, and other recent observations.
I continue to find frequent, thought-provoking, inspiring thoughts at the new Image blog.