Search - C.S. Lewis & Chronicles of Narnia - The True Story of the Author of the Classic Tale on DVD

Just don't do it...

Melody Green | Normal, IL United States | 10/16/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If you are looking for a good documentary about the life of C. S. Lewis, this is NOT the one you want to watch. It does include some nice scenes of places Lewis lived and worked, but this documentary consists of one narrator reading through a rather sappy and sometimes inaccurate text, while showing pictures and film footage of various things, some of which the relevance is never exactly explained. For example, when discussing Joy Davidman, C. S. Lewis's wife, scenes include the statue of liberty, the tower Bridge in London, and the New York skyline, without ever explaining what relevance these specific things have to the story. The images get stranger: when discussing Jack and Joy's civil marriage, a plastic bride and groom wedding cake topper is shown, even though at that time in their life there were no celebrations that would have included such an object. Many of the pictures of people are not photographs, but pencil drawings that are not particularly accurate representations of the person that they are based on. Much of the text itself is based on speculation, including the idea that a trip to see the lions in the London Zoo as a child must have influenced Lewis's interest in lions. Possibly the most irritating point for those who actually know a little about Lewis's life, Lewis's friend Tolkien is refered to as "J. R." If you are looking for a good documentary on the life of LEwis, I reccommend The Magic Never Ends, which includes interviews with both individuals who knew Lewis himself, and scholars who have studied his work, or even C. S. Lewis Beyond Narnia, which is narrated by an actor playing the role of an elderly C. S. Lewis telling the story of his life by quoting passages from his books and letters."

A well-written documentary of the Lewis family

bernie | Arlington, Texas | 07/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is hard to be alive today and not know something of CS Lewis. Many children are aware of his Narnia Chronicles others are aware of his Christian writings. We know this about Lewis and that about Lewis.

However, this documentary is designed to fill in the gaps that we did not know about. It also orders the things we do know in the chronological.

One of the added pluses of this documentary is the narration by Liam Dale and his British accent.

The research and script was by Sue Hosler. This presentation and much of the archive materials came from LDTV LTD. www.ldtv.co.uk 2005 Delta entertainment Corporation, Los Angeles.

You will want to keep a copy for periodic viewing.

The Magic Never Ends - The Life and Work of C.S. Lewis"

C.S. Lewis & The Chronicles of Narnia

J. Andrus | Des Moines, Iowa USA | 08/29/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As the 1-star reviewer mentioned, this documentary is hardly 'well done'. They interview zero people. It consists of a strange sounding narrator reading the script over various pictures, some about Lewis and some not. They even have an actor who never speaks sitting at a desk typing in several scenes. The production quality is that of an EXCELLENT high school project. (hint: that's not good)

I gave this documentary 3 stars for two reasons....

1) the information being read by the narrator is interesting. (I would recommend anyone that has a serious love of C.S. Lewis to watch this film)

2) Over the menu and later in the movie there is a piano piece being played that is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. I have often caught myself putting in the DVD and turning up the stereo and just never clicking 'play', but instead, just letting the menu screen stay up with the piano piece playing. I would probably kill to find out the title, so that I could buy it from itunes. But this documentary is so low budget that it doesn't even appear on IMDb.com. (I've never run across another readily available DVD to not appear there)


note to the 1-star reviewer: The narrator mentions that Joy is from New York, which is why they show the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline."