Dawn Treader lite

When the Lord of the Rings films buzzed the country, I remember hearing Christopher Lee, Peter Jackson's "Saruman," say that he read the entire trilogy every year.  Thus, if Mr. Lee said something about Tolkien's classics, you would do well to hear him.

Liam Neeson?  Not so much.

Mr. Neeson has had the honor of voicing Aslan, the central figure in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, in the saga's first three films (due to a weak opening weekend, there will likely be no others).  In the weeks before the opening of the newest film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Mr. Neeson opined to salivating reporters that,

"Yes, Aslan symbolizes a Christ-like figure, but he also symbolizes for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries."

Now, Mr. Neeson claims to have read these books and others by Lewis, but how does he get around the substitutionary death and resurrection of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?  What about the constant and consistent representations of Aslan's deity?  Mohammed?  He's dead.  Buddha?  Dead.  Aslan in the stories, like Christ, is very much alive.

You don't see Aslan taking a harem of lionesses.  He doesn't lop off anyone's head or self-detonate.  He doesn't sit in the lotus and try to cleanse himself of the impurities of the physical world.  Seeing Mohammed or Buddha in Aslan is like seeing Mao or Lenin in Captain America.  You've completely missed the point.

But it's not just Mr. Neeson.  Georgia Henley, the young lady who plays Queen Lucy, comes to Mr. Neeson's defense.

"I can see where he is coming from...Aslan represents more than Jesus or God for a wide range of people...He can be the epitome of wisdom or the epitome of courage, for instance, and it is very important that people can have their own interpretation of what he represents rather than have something forced upon them."

I'll chalk that up to youth, but I can't get around producer Mark Johnson's ignorance. 

"...resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian."

Wow.  I must have missed all those others where God condescended to become man, suffer the penalty for his creature's sin, and then be raised to life to guarantee their future hope.

**Spoiler Warning:  VDT's ending discussed below**

It is no wonder, then, that Hollywood has seen fit to neuter the most vivid depiction of Aslan as Christ in the book.  At the end, Edmond, Eustace, and Lucy come across a lamb, and the lamb is cooking fish upon a fire.  Hmmm.  I guess there must be lamb-figures in many different religions, too.  Lambs that cook up fish for their followers.  Oh, yes, and this lamb transforms in their presence into the great golden lion, Aslan.  Lion-lamb?  Lion-lamb?  Where have I heard that before?  Thus, when Aslan utters, "But in your world I am known by another name" in the book, the reader knows full well whom Lewis intends his lion to represent.

When Neeson voices that line in the movie, apart from the appearance of any lamb, one is free to insert the name of your choice.  Perhaps he represents Vishnu for you, and for you over there, he represents Imhotep.  That rube in the corner thinks he represents Jesus, but those enlightened folks over there think that he represents Oprah.

The story is that it is Christian allegory.  That's what makes Narnia so powerful on all levels.  When you snip out those uncomfortable scenes, you neuter the story.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader does a reasonable job of tying all the scenes together in a semi-coherent movie.  The characters are nicely developed while the acting remains as obvious as the first two films.  The true message of the film, penned in Lewis' final two pages of the book, was left on the cutting room floor leaving the door open for you to decide who Aslan is for you.

Alas.