As Co-producer of Prince Caspian, C. S. Lewis' Stepson Shares Unique Insights into the Film
"Most of us go about our little lives hoping that these things will go away and just leave us alone. Well, they won?t. The forces of evil are always going to be there. We?re always going to have to fight them. As Tolkien himself said, "All wars are lost. THE war goes on."
National Review reporter Rebecca Cusey interviewed Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis and co-producer of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, by telephone from her office in Washington, D.C. Two of the questions and answers from the interview follow. To read the interview in its entirety, including Gresham's view of chivalry and a little-known story about C.S. Lewis and his mother, click on the link provided at the end of this article. (Photo: Douglas Gresham/Christianity Today)
What is the essential thing that they absolutely have to get right in this movie?
The underlying messages of the story are so important and so vital in fact, to the story; [they] are the return to faith, truth, justice, honesty, honor, glory, personal commitment, and personal responsibility. All those things come out so strongly in the movie and were very important to me. Also the message is of vital importance: No matter how far away we stray, there?s always just one way back.
This film, even more than the other, seems to embody the idea of Muscular Christianity?fighting for what is right against desperate odds?that is apparent in C. S. Lewis?s writings. Would you agree that it is there in this film?
I think it is certainly there in this film to a certain degree. What you have to bear in mind is that the Narnian side tried everything they could, even to the extent of single combat with Peter, to avoid a bloodbath; it was the evil side in the end that brought it about. And that is of course, exactly what happens in our world. At the time that they were being written, Chamberlain [made an] effort to make peace with Hitler, right up until Hitler had betrayed everything they had agreed on. And of course we see it in our world today, where we are trying, Western society is trying?desperately almost?to the mistake of rolling over and playing dead, to pander to everyone else who is attacking it, one way or another. Eventually, of course, what will happen is people will dig their heels in, just as in Narnia, and the thing will be forced upon them. I think there are causes which are important to fight for, and I think that comes out in Prince Caspian.
It resonates throughout the whole of our society. We have to become more and more conscious of that fact, by the way. Most of us go about our little lives hoping that these things will go away and just leave us alone. Well, they won?t. The forces of evil are always going to be there. We?re always going to have to fight them. As Tolkien himself said, "All wars are lost. THE war goes on."
