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Revenge of the White Witch: Narnia Star Re-Interprets Lewis' Books as 'Anti-Religious'

Confirms complaint that movie version of story "greatly empowers the Witch at Aslan’s expense"

By John-Henry Westen

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the heels of the actor who played the Wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings advocating for homosexual marriage, the actress who played the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia has suggested that C.S. Lewis' famous book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is "anti-religious."

Speaking at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival which concluded last week, Tilda Swinton, the Scottish actress who played the white witch described herself as a "red witch" alluding to her membership in the British Communist Party.
(see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050409.html)

Joking about the state of religion in the United States she said, "Last year, in the process of promoting two fantasy films for different Hollywood studios, I was advised on the proper protocol for talking about religion in America today.  In brief, the directive was, hold your hands high where all can see them, step away from the vehicle and enunciate clearly, nothing to declare."

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."

In a recent interview with Netribution in the UK, Swinton suggested that the Narnia books, while admittedly spiritual, are actually "anti-religious".   She said: "I would go so far as to say that not only is this not a religious book, but, if anything, it's actually an anti-religious book in the sense that it is about the very opposite of following a dogma, following a doctrine. It's about being resourceful and self-sufficient and following your own conscience and your own star, which is a very private issue and not anything to do with any set down religion."

Swinton, who worked closely with homosexual film-maker Derek Jarman, and confirming criticisms from faithful C.S. Lewis fans about the film, also noted a subtle departure from the Lewis book in the film, stressing that religion is open to interpretation.  "When Aslan is resurrected - you know, according to the resurrection myth in most standard religious belief systems - when the children ask him what's going on, originally there was the idea that there was a deeper magic that even the witch didn't understand," she said.  "But in fact in our film his answer is that had she interpreted the deep magic differently . . . The idea of interpretation is right there in the heart of the film and belief is in the eye of the beholder, and people can slap on it whatever they want."

Swinton's concept of evil may be expressed as constancy of faith by others.  "I suppose what I think of as evil is sort of anti-human impulses in humans, and doubtlessness is a thing that I think is really problematic, and very much in vogue these days politically," Swinton told Netribution.  "The politically doubtless seem to be being bigged-up and I think that it is anti-humane. So that feels the closest thing that I can think of to a concept of evil. The lack of the capacity to be compassionate, I think."

Steven D. Greydanus, in his review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on the Decent Films website, criticized the "many liberties" taken by the producers with the original book themes. He was especially harsh about the film version's undermining of the power of Aslan and elevation of the status of the Witch which contradicted Lewis's most important messages in the book.

Greydanus wrote, "Perhaps the single gravest change to the story is one that greatly empowers the Witch at Aslan’s expense. It is simply the eradication of the whole motif of the Witch’s overt fear of Aslan. This is absolutely crucial to the book’s emphasis on the utter lack of parity between the omnipotent Aslan and the powerful but limited Witch. The whole vision of good and evil at work in the story turns on the fact that the Witch is never even close to being a rival or threat to Aslan, any more than Lucifer to Christ himself."

The Christian film critic further explains that "The filmmakers, perhaps motivated by a misguided dramatic notion of needing the villain to be a credible threat to the hero, eliminate practically every indication of the Witch’s fear of Aslan from the story — in the process jettisoning much of the point Lewis was making about the nature and relationship of good and evil."  

See the Netribution interview:
http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/interviews/actor/tilda_swinto...

See Greydanus's full review of the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
http://decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/2641

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