Print-To-Screen: The Chronicles of Narnia

Have yet to seen any of the movies, but I do seriously wonder how far could they stick to the original stories.

I read an article recently from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine about the thoughts from mystery writers on their works transformed from print-to-screen.  Basically, one of them summed it up when he said to the effect of, "The novel is what belongs to you, your vision.  The film does not, it is the vision and creative work of someone else."

I guess that really settles the issue of "faithfulness" of print-to-screen.

Back to Narnia, its dramatization by major producers has no shortage of criticism, not least by Philip Pullman who himself received a lot of criticism from "Christian extremists".

I read the original Narnian novels and I have no doubt that I do not agree with some of his views.  What is more pertinent though was I recognise that some of the passages in the novels targetted the symptoms rather than the underlying causes.

As Mike Myers put it in his first movie as Austin Powers, "if we had known ... we'd have done it differently but the spirit remains the same."

So what to make of the Narnian series?

First of all, I have no apologies about it, I don't see myself as an apologist in the first place.  It is Lewis' story, not mine.  He's not around to defend himself, and I don't presume to speak for him.

But certain criticisms, like what Philip Pullman said of Susan, were simply untrue representation of the novel.  I had nothing against Pullman or his Golden Compass, but what he did here was disappointing and a lack of integrity.

What is a more significant issue though is the portrayal of the Calormen, with the original novels indicating descriptions with unmistakable inspirations from the Near/Middle East.

The moviemakers of LOTR basically glossed through this challenge when they portrayed the Easterlings and Southrons.

As human beings, nobody likes their culture or society to be stereotyped, though descriptions of smelly masses in marketplaces by portcities could well be factual (and applicable to just about any bustling port/trading city around the world).

Of course, in the first place, the Calormens were fictional, and just as fictional as Ming the Merciless who had traditionally been portrayed like a sinister Mandarin, a la Fu Manchu.

Well, I don't see the point of avoiding portrayals just for the sake of not offending people, but again, the first question is to ask what is the original message saying.

Stage and films are just interpretations of the original story, and each adaptation is almost a different story on its own from the original - that's why there's endless remakes of Shakespeare and all.