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I love Narnia!! But the white witch looks just like a former friend of mine who has made my life miserable at times...Narnia's witch is just 300 pounds lighter.

Wow, Tilda Binton has a gift for malapropisms:

"If I'm posting any wish to my personal Cinema Santa this year, it is for more and more wise and courageous distributors, with more and more big and small and beautiful cinemas. Distributors with the kamikaze vision that spreads the broad and long view."

Got that? Wise and courageous film distributors with the kamikaze vision.

Also:

Mixing commentary on politics and religion Swinton spoke of her character of the white witch saying, "At least we made her whiter than white, the ultimate white supremacist, and we managed to railroad the knee-jerk attempt to make her look like an Arab."

I think they should recast that role immediately for the sequels, Cate Blanchett maybe?? But the casting of Tilda Swinton as a witch is apropos for her. She really has it bassackwards if she thinks this is an anti Christianity movie/book.

In the words of Bugs Bunny "What a marooon, what an ignoranamous!"

I just watched the DVD Narnia, it was a wonderful movie. Can't wait to see the next one.

Speaking of films, Fay and I saw United 93 this weekend. You must see it. We can't piss and moan about the left leaning crap from Hollywood and the film industry if we don't support a film that tells the truth when one manages to sneak out.

United 93 is not an easy watch -- you will be stunned when it is over. You will feel sick that, even knowing how the film turns out, you still hope against hope that it turns out differently.

I also plan on see the Andy Garcia film when it comes around.

Also speaking of films, I stopped by the local kinoteatr last night to check the showtimes for United 93 this week, and spotted a poster for An Inconvenient Truth. It purports to be "the most terrifying film you will ever see," though the MPAA seems to think otherwise: Rated PG for mild thematic elements. But a few seconds into the trailer, I too was gripped by terror: "I'm Al Gore, and I used to be the next President of the United States."

P.S. Do I even need to tell you what it's about?

Oh, I thought it was about the fact that Al Gore lost Florida.

The fact is, as I clarified that day, I never stopped being a communist. The fact IS that the Communist Party of Great Britain no longer exists as such. That the party was morphed into the democratic left over ten years ago. That my membership of the party was an act of faith born out of an alliance with ideals of fairness and a commitment to a welfare state that it was clear to me then was in the process of being deserted by the parliamentary left.

Which is why actors are generally just barely competent to read words written by others. They usually quite stupid in any area outside their "craft."

Well, that was inconvenient for Gore.

But as you will immediately guess from the stock photo imagery of Soviet fishing boats sitting dusty and dry on the former bed of the Aral Sea, An Inconvenient Truth is about global warming.

But Ronald Reagan was incandescently brilliant.

Then, he was not a great actor -- no Bogart or Brando. Although, he was decently competent.

Harebrained irrigation schemes have nothing to do with this, of course.

Frank: Sshhhhhh! Don't ruin things for the 43,461+ viewers who have pledged to see An Inconvenient Truth on the opening weekend.

But the Aral Sea dried up from the U.S.S.R. damming the two rivers feeding it to grow cotton, not from global warming. It is a great tragedy to lose such a lake (or inland sea), and the people around it apparently have a high incidence of cancer from the blowing metallic particles which used to be dissolved in it. But short of shutting down the cotton fields of Uzbek (one of the stans), there is no obvious solution. Perhaps Al should learn to pick cotton in Uzbekhistan.

Mixing commentary on politics and religion Swinton spoke of her character of the white witch saying, "At least we made her whiter than white, the ultimate white supremacist, and we managed to railroad the knee-jerk attempt to make her look like an Arab."

Interesting that whiteness is now symbolic of evil/Aryanness/Nazis. She made some statement about this a few months ago where she was even more explicit about the subliminal racial themes.

Got that? Wise and courageous film distributors with the kamikaze vision.

Wonder what she thinks about suicide bombers...

DMoT -- see this: Of the Whiteness of the Whale

At least she's rarely shy about doing nude scenes (Narnia could really use some).

There is a nude scene in the books in The Silver Chair. But you may be certain that it will not be filmed. While it is objectively anti-sensual, there will be no naked little girls on the big screen.

Well, I'm just glad Tilda played the evil White Witch---a most appropriate role. I have to laugh at her claiming they made the witch, "Whiter than White!" (White people must ALWAYS be the villains, of course!) Well, yeah, dimwit! She's an ICE witch, Lewis describes her as having SNOW white skin in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!" (She's similar to the Snow Queen, from the Hans Christian Anderson tale).

Nor is the witch ever described as, "Looking like an Arab" in the book (that's just Tildie's drivelings, there, and her attempt to make the movie-makers, and C.S. Lewis, seem like Islamophobes---and the fact that she's just plain dumb).

The movie make the witch a blonde, not a brunette she is in the book; guess that's to make her look more like an evil white person. And not so Arab. Wouldn't want to offend any Moslems.

Really, wouldn't the woman have been happier starring in "DaVinci Code?"

It's going to get interesting as the series goes along, and the yowling and howling rises in scale; I'm really interested in seeing if they do "Horse and his Boy"---that book does have some evil Islamic types in it! The Moonbats are going to have fits!

(I'd be worth making, just to watch the ensuing histrionics).

Fortunately, the White Witch should appear only one more time, in one of the later books, which should give them plenty of time to recast the part---and maybe even give her black hair, as she should have, this time around, whether it makes her look "Arab" or not!

And I hope they do "Horse and his Boy"!

And I do hope Tilda's career goes bung.

(And, yes, Max, I think there are far too many Commies in the movie industry, and far too much Marxism has seeped into the culture at large---apparently we're now supposed to see C.S. Lewis as a Nazi now, and react with shock and horror at Narnia).

And I hope they do "Horse and his Boy"!

Kinky.

I have a feeling that she won't be asked back for Pt. 2.

I remember seeing Viggo Mortensen, Peter Jackson, and Elijah Wood on the Charlie Rose Show a few years back. During the interview Viggo decided to interject some of his anti-war blather, much to the discomfort of Peter and Elijah. I thought "What a jerk."

#19 Solus Rex

Not kinky---but extremely politically incorrect! It's the story of a Narnian slave boy, trying to escape the Islamic/Arabian Nights kingdom of the Calormenes with the aid of a talking Narnian horse. Along the way he's joined by a Calormene girl named Aravis, who's escaping an arranged marriage.

If they ever do it, the Moonbats are going to kill themselves with hissy fits.

Now, Lewis' "That Hideous Strength"---THAT'S kinky!

:>)

How did I miss this thread?

I guess Tilda isn't planning on coming back as Jadis in the prequel The Magician's Nephew. May I recommend Polly Toynbee as someone who would relish the role?

Fritzi I'd love to see Horse and his Boy, but it looks like Prince Caspian is in preproduction (at least according to a few articles I've seen and IMDB.com) That makes sense, to get the kids before they get too old. Then I would assume Dawn Treader

It took me a while to figure out the other kinky Lewis reference, I assume you mean the Head of Security.

I've also read at one bio that suggestes that Jack Lewis might have had a few kinks before he got saved...

Check this rant out from Polly and tell me Jadis could have done better:

Narnia is the perfect Republican, muscular Christianity for America - that warped, distorted neo-fascist strain that thinks might is proof of right. I once heard the famous preacher Norman Vincent Peale in New York expound a sermon that reassured his wealthy congregation that they were made rich by God because they deserved it. The godly will reap earthly reward because God is on the side of the strong. This appears to be CS Lewis's view, too. In the battle at the end of the film, visually a great epic treat, the child crusaders are crowned kings and queens for no particular reason. Intellectually, the poor do not inherit Lewis's earth.

Does any of this matter? Not really. Most children will never notice. But adults who wince at the worst elements of Christian belief may need a sickbag handy for the most religiose scenes. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw gives the film five stars and says, "There is no need for anyone to get into a PC huff about its Christian allegory." Well, here's my huff.

Lewis said he hoped the book would soften-up religious reflexes and "make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life". Holiness drenches the Chronicles. When, in the book, the children first hear someone say, mysteriously, "Aslan is on the move", he writes: "Now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had enormous meaning ..." So Lewis weaves his dreams to invade children's minds with Christian iconography that is part fairytale wonder and joy - but heavily laden with guilt, blame, sacrifice and a suffering that is dark with emotional sadism.

Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.

His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth

Hey, I'm all about personal responsibility, but that's going a bit far, eh?

Is sky too blue, the grass too green, Mt. Everest too high, the Grand Canyon too wide? 'Cause if so, then mankind surely is to blame ...

#24 & #25 Papijoe

Oh, yeah, Polly would make a GREAT Jaddis! She sounds as bile-filled, cranky and downright anti-Narnia as Jaddis ever was!

I heard they were doing "Prince Caspian" next; "Horse and His Boy" comes further along in the series (I forget whether it's the fourth or the fifth). I do hope they do it, if only for the fun of watching Tilda, Polly and legions of sniffy literati elites get their knickers all in a twist at its shocking political incorrectness!

Also, reading Polly's screed is giving me an almost irresistible urge to sit down and write a non-muscular, non-crusader, non-Christian, sweet, inclusive, inoffensive, PC sweetness-and-light and jolly third world culture story for the kiddies, you know, the kind of thing Polly and Tilda and love, heh, heh, heh. . .

I do hope they get to "Dawn Treader". That was one of my favorites! What are some of your favorites in the Narnia series?

("That Hideous Strength" is one of my favorites too. My late, beloved brother always said Fairy Hardcastle made him think of Janet Reno. You think they'll ever make a movie of Lewis' space trilogy, by the way?)

(Lewis doubtless had a few kinks before his conversion---as do we all. It is a sad sign that in this day and age he's held up as some sort of horrible facist type---whereas real facists are generally admired!)

Lewis doubtless had a few kinks before his conversion---as do we all.

Word, sister.

C.S. Lewis, according to some accounts, also was an S&M connosieur:

Lewis developed and craved what even his Christian biographer, Jacobs, calls “mildly sadomasochistic fantasies”; in letters to a (homosexual) friend, he named the women he’d like to spank, and for a time signed his private letters “Philomastix”—“whip-lover.”

Gopnik's apparent suggestion that enjoying S&M -- especially of such mild and common variety as spanking -- makes one "a warped, morbid, stammering sexual pervert" is worth a chuckle (or a derisive snort), however.

Lewis doubtless had a few kinks before his conversion---as do we all.

I resemble that remark.

Gopnik's apparent suggestion that enjoying S&M -- especially of such mild and common variety as spanking -- makes one "a warped, morbid, stammering sexual pervert" is worth a chuckle (or a derisive snort), however.

Sloppy writing.

Gopnik's apparent suggestion that enjoyment of S&M -- especially of such mild and common variety as spanking -- can only result from one being "a warped, morbid, stammering sexual pervert" is worth a chuckle (or a derisive snort), however.

That's more like it.

Fritzi I've read Magicians Nephew and heard Horse and his Boy and Prince Caspian and LWW on the FoF CD series. I'm going to make sure I read the last three. I think they are all as good as LWW so far, but I especially liked Nephew, maybe because I read it too.

Yes, papijoe, Nephew is very good! (I think Dawn Treader and Horse & His Boy remain my two absolute favorites of the series).

Who was reading them on the FoF CD series? Hope it was somebody good.

And Lewis, Heh, heh, heh, no need to resemble that remark! We're talking C.S. Lewis, not you, though of course, all kinkoids of the world must unite. . .

:>)