I don't see how this could be made

[Ite]

As in a movie adaptation.

You know what I mean? Would depress alot of people I would imagine.

[rosymole]

Great to see you here matey!
I do agree with your view of the making of the movie, but then I suppose it depends on your view..it depressed the socks off me the first time I read it, but then after that I kinda thought..hey it's not so bad..they get to basically live in Narnia for ever!

[Starkist]

At the end of The Return Of The King, there is a description of the Undying Lands from Frodo's point of view. Heaven, if you will. It is incredibly beautiful. C.S. Lewis takes half a novel to describe heaven. How can that be depressing? The ending of the Chronicles is one reason that Lewis, and not Tolkien, is my favorite author. All throughout the Chronicles, he drops little hints here and there. Aslan appearing as a lamb, Aslan telling the children to get to know Him in their own world, seeing Aslan's country in Dawn Treader. Finally the stable door is burst open and heaven is revealed through the eyes of the children. It is the most beautiful piece of prose I have ever read. It makes me want to get to know my Lord and Savior in this world, and look forward to seeing Him in the next.

EDIT: You're right though, it sounds hard to film.

[grimmcest]

Oh, if LB was ever made, I know I'd cry uncontrolably...
& then go see it again the next day and have another good cry.
Repeat the cycle about 5 more times.

But, yeah. It's sad in a happy way.
I mean, it's sad they're "gone" well, from our plane, but they're happy in Narnia, which is truly perfect. So, really, we shouldn't be sad... Even though it's in our human nature that death=sadness.

Concluding, yeah, It'd be sad. I'd cry for a long time after seeing it. But, a few tears shed is worth telling that story.

[holyboy]

It would be difficult to recreate the feelings made in the book that has cause many people to love the book so much. There would have to be a lot of co-operation between music, acting, set design, and CGI to pull it off. My biggest fear is they release this movie too quickly, without paying enough attention to the elements that would make the movie great.

[Wolfwings]

In controdiction I have never found the LB any more or any less depressing than any of the previouse books
LWTW had Aslan himself sacrifice his life and then return ...
Each story deals with loss and it pluchs at the heart strings as we deal and live through each characters trials and hard ships that make them stronger.... even the inability to not return to narnia for peter and susan is a loss for a time of their own paradise and child hood fantasies
In my beleif LB tells us that nothing dies.. we all go on and step through a door to another world..a paradise
How can that be depressing?.. when the world aches and pains, when hope seems lost and you are in your darkest hour, Aslan is with you still, and all those you beleive lost are there with you... death has no hold..
The last book I beleive is the most important baring the first.. it is what drives home the power and love of Aslan and the power of dreams and good..

As far as filming of this would be... they made a realistic lion out of a computer -.- I think a stable door entering paradise wouldnt be as hard as you think

[onlymystory]

My favorite part is when Tumnus (i think) says that if you just walk far enough you'll see that other worlds are all connected to Aslan's country. I will always believe that when I get to heaven, I will be able to walk over to Narnia because that sounds pretty darn perfect to me. I love the idea that God has his own country that is a more beautiful and clearer version of not only my world but all worlds. After all, it would be difficult for me, Charles Dickens, and Queen Elizabeth to live in the same world, none of us would be comfortable. I think the last battle shows that God (aslan) has heaven perfectly planned out.

[Inklet]

I cry whenever I read LB, but I don't find it depressing at all!

I also cry every time I read the end of the Lord of the Rings: it's not depressing, but it is melancholy.

And those are the exact emotions the authors were aiming for.

Lewis makes us love Aslan's country so much, and depicts it so beautifully, that smiling is not enough. It's either laugh or cry.

Tolkien is writing from our own perspective. He makes the next world so beautiful (without describing it at all) that we are happy for those who go there, but are wistful about it.

They are both masters at evoking yearning . Lewis is wonderful at explaining exactly why we're yearning for Aslan's country. Tolkien does a better job of evoking the feeling without giving an explanation. He provides the signpost; Lewis the destination.


...Maybe this is a post for another forum, but I just want to ask:

Has anyone else ever cried at the end of the Prydain Chronicles?

It's the only other series that's affected me like this, and I haven't read those books in twenty years. (Oh, and Susan Cooper's "The Grey King", but that wasn't the end of the series.)

[Inklet]

(Oh, and Susan Cooper's "The Grey King", but that wasn't the end of the series.)

..and also, those were tears for the dog.

[kevinbailey]

Would a LB movie be incredibly sad? Yes. Would it be the most fabulous of all the movies? Definitely. Why? Because it would offer both a happy and sad ending to the story. Life isn't about completely happy endings. Good people die all the time. No other book in the series portrays this as well as The Last Battle, in my opinion. If the series is indeed made wholly into movies, The Last Battle would be--again, in my opinion--the most important of all.

[Puzzle dear]

Yeah, I think the makers would find it too sad, and screw up the story line so that either Susan comes too, or the kids survive the crash and tell their descendents all about Narnia! :eek:

[onlymystory]

I don't think they'll change the book like that. I think they would probably add some line or scene somewhere to imply that Susan is just a little further behind the others. A way to give us hope that she makes it. My problem is how to make the new Narnia so much more amazing than the old. LB gives me chills everytime I read it so that would be the real difficulty I think.

[Puzzle dear]

Yeah, I wouldn't reccomend it for kids under 10.

[FVD]

I'd like to see Susan at the end of the movie grieving somewhere. I know I'll be in tears watching that moment.

FVD.

[Puzzle dear]

I don't think they'll change the book like that. I think they would probably add some line or scene somewhere to imply that Susan is just a little further behind the others. A way to give us hope that she makes it. My problem is how to make the new Narnia so much more amazing than the old. LB gives me chills everytime I read it so that would be the real difficulty I think.
Ya really think they wouldn't change it?

[lionessofgod]

Oh yes, it would. Disney are jerks and they will most likely take the fun out of the books, and the true "being" of the books. I would much rather make up my own movie, lol! :D

[lamer]

I too am interested as to how Disney will tell this tale. First off I have to sadly say there's no 100% chance they'll even make it as far as TLB, they may do Prince Caspian and that's it or go a bit further... let's all just hope.

Second off, yeah it's one of those things you can't possibly imagine how they'll do. But they're professionals; I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for the story as well.

[polly&digory]

If they didn't do it then there would be the final piece missing. I think that it wasn't that bad. They didn't even know they had gone. I think that is how Lewis expected it to be like when we died and went to heaven.

[CSLewisFan]

As it will be one of the last movies made (if it gets made) it will be beautiful.

-Austin

[lamer]

According to my friend, he has a DVD for each of the movies (Not by Disney of course), except for the Last Battle. He said they didn't make one. Is it really that hard to make?

[Puzzle dear]

I don't think it's a question of whether it's hard to make visually, but story-wise. I mean the Friends of Narnia DIE!! Film makers are afraid of children leaving the theaters in tears, that it's too sad.

[she-elfwarrior19]

I think its possible to be made and isnt at all depressing to be a movie.

[queen_aravis]

It's definitely possible...with all the special efects we have right now...

However, I don't know about you, but I would surely cry during movie seven. I don't care that the other Narnias are better than the first one, Narnia is no more!*snif*

[WiseEdmund]

actually i think that it could be made to be inspirational to children just as CSL intended. After all, seeing that for being good, those children and Lord Digory ended up in such a beautiful place might show them promises of things to come :)

Besides, the narnia stories all get more and more mature with time so i imagine that by the time we get to the last battle most children would be able to get the point. As for the younger children, it will be a matter of discretion in terms of how they explain it to them.

[annapopplewell]

I do.
why dont you?

[Srob]

I think the movie can be made. We have awesome graphics now, and just think of how fast they are progressing. I mean in 94 we were amazed by Jurassic Park and then again in 97 by The Lost World: Jurassic Park and then the new Star Wars movies and then all the others that I cannot remember...lol....

I also think the movie will most definitely be given a PG-13 rating, because the war and the fact that it opens with a train wreck, and then Tash--cause I hope they make him really gruesome/scary--he is supposed to be. But yeah, it will be sad they die--in theatre--because it definitely was in the book, but like someone said--because they were good, they go to a better place.

[Magician's Horse]

The thing I love about the Chronicles being made into movies is that CSL gives us tons of details, but doesn't hammer it down like with other books, such as Harry Potter. I think that's what is going to make all of the Narnia movies great if they make them. Personally, I find The Voyage of the Dawn Treader far more emotional in a sad way than LB. The Last Battle shows that there will be nothing but happiness forever. At the end of VoDT, you see that everything could be perfect, but then have to turn away. You get to the end of the world and have to go back to normal life.(by you i mean Caspian and the crew, not Reepicheep and the kids.) The one thing I can see happening with LB is that the acting is not going to be good enough. This is a book that shows that the world is ending, evil is taking over the world, and an all-out war is going on throughout virtually they whole thing. I believe that when they make The Horse and His Boy, they're really going to have to set up the Calormenes enough to make LB a good movie. If everyone works hard enough Last Battle will probably end up being the best movie in the series. The only one I can see being better is VoDT, because that's just the best, best, best, best ever. I really hope they do all of the movies, because without the full arc, the concept of Narnia really doesn't make as much sense.

[Valkyrie]

I would be more depressed if they didn't create every movie. I actually don't find the book depressing at all. I find it more beautiful than the mind can take in. Just thinking about it.. a world within a world within a world. I used to have a slight death anxiety, a fear of death as you will. After starting these books, I haven't the thought of fear in my head. The end isn't when the body dies, everyone simply goes on. I believe the world of Narnia expands wherever your heart does, that is why they saw England. That was their happy times, before the war.. with their parents. Heaven is what you make it.. like that movie "What Dreams May Come".

[EveningStar]

Music and Image would have to be leveraged heavily as storytelling tools.

I have some past in cinema. I'll be glad to share my ideas with you....

First mental image: TOSCA. A man is imprisoned at the top of a tower with a staircase running up and around the outside of it much like they do on big oil storage tanks. His lover, at the bottom, has the pardon that would set him free. She comes on stage. The music has switched from the tragedy of him dying alone to a calm, low, anticipatory few bars as their eyes meet. She begins to run UP the stairs, he to run DOWN. The music literally climbs. They don't just go STEP STEP STEP STEP STEP STEP STEP STEP down this long staircase. The music, in climbing, makes a rush up the stairs seem to gain momentum. Then a climax. They embrace. After what would be considered a decent interval comes the first line of dialog. A melodic line that ascends would make one long run in a straight line on a featureless grass plain MOVE FORWARD. Literally the score could move higher up and further in.

Second mental image: POCAHONTAS. Missing time. It's not just for alien abductions. You break up the rush into a series of shots and as you interrupt the train of thought you also screw up the viewer's perception of time. Here we see what could be a long and very tedious rush of Pocahontas in Disney's film to stop the execution. Instead there are three areas...the executioners, the white rescue party, and Pocahontas herself....

Wh: Now we'll make them pay!
Po: Eagle help my feet be swift
Ex: Swift without a warning
Po: Mountain help my heart be great
Wh: We will leave them lying in the dust!
Po: I don't know what I can do, still I know I've got to try!

These rapid shots are tied together by the song. They rush by in a mad montage in a process known as jump cutting. The progress does not become anarchy because the whites are running left to right in every shot and the natives facing right to left. Think about LWW in the battle scenes. It is ALWAYS the case that the good guys go left to right in American/Canadian/European movies because English speakers read from left to right. The bad guys always are going right to left. They almost never vary.

You just have to let the music and visual grammar bear part of the burden at the expense of written words.

[Valkyrie]

Think about LWW in the battle scenes. It is ALWAYS the case that the good guys go left to right in American/Canadian/European movies because English speakers read from left to right. The bad guys always are going right to left. They almost never vary.

.

Really?
:eek:

I have never noticed that, but it makes great sense!

[EveningStar]

Look at the credits of a movie for CONTINUITY. That person is the one that makes sure the carnation is in the same side of your lapel if they stop filming on friday and take up on monday shooting shots that are all supposed to be happening the same day. They even bring a polaroid camera (or now a digicam) to verify everything visually.

The grammar of establishing shot, medium shot, closeup, tracking, etc etc was invented by D. W. Griffith, the great silent film director who ironically only wanted to make his fortune so he could afford to sit down and write the great American novel. (He never did). His INTOLERANCE is a model of "Art Film" technique.

The technique of filming as a series of shots rather than just letting the camera run unchecked like a stage play was further developed by the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. His use of crowd scenes was revolutionary in films like THE BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN and will even to this day have some basic influence how battles are shot as in LWW or certainly TLB.

Back to the original topic, YES, it will be important to have camera plane shots and show the grand picture which can be augmented a thousand fold with CGI so that the hundreds of happy people running higher up and further in reflect the grandeur of the last hurrah. The "it was like you could touch them" business about other worlds you could see from miles and miles away will no doubt have to be montage, special effect, and perhaps even a peaceful, eerie tracking shot, probably strobed to make it otherworldly. Disolve from distance into mid shot, then close up, then BCU...finally freeze frame or ultra slow of a hand reaching up to touch someone's face. You realize you are seeing them from hundreds of miles away as if they were in the room with you. Then cross dissolve back into the rapt face of the person having the experience. IT CAN BE DONE FOLKS, really. Cheaply, no. But possible.

[Tsukiko]

If they did not film TLB, Im sure many fans (as myself, for it is my favorite) would be dissapointed. As King Tirian is my favorite charatcer, I would be sad to see him not get any screen time.

First time I read LB..It just seemed different from the other 6, and it really, really exitced me. And after reading the first 2 chapters..I just completely loved it, though I find the ending a little dull-dont ask why. And some of the best and noblest charatcers are introduced in it.