C.S. Lewis: Through the Shadowlands

C.S. Lewis: Through the Shadowlands

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Editorial Reviews

Starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom. Winner of over a dozen prestigious awards including the International Emmy for Best Drama and two British Academy Awards.

He cried out, "Where is God when I really need him?" This film is about the agonizing spiritual crisis of C.S. Lewis when his wife died from cancer. The love, grief, pain, and sorrow were so shattering to Lewis that his basic Christian beliefs, magnificently communicated in his many books, were now called into serious doubt.

But he picked up the pieces and moved out of the depressing "shadowlands," realizing that "real life has not even begun yet."

Includes 90-minute television version and 73-minute abridged version.

Customer Reviews

Much closer portrayal of the true CS Lewis

Reviewed by Allison S. Martin, 2010-02-12

This movie, although lacking in production quality and budget of the Hollywood version, is much truer to the life of CS Lewis.

Two main points- Joy had two sons David and Douglas, not just one.

C S Lewis was a Christian. In the Hollywood version Anthony Hopkins portrays Lewis as an almost neurotic, inhibited man, which he wasn't. He enjoyed his friends and often laughed, telling and listening to jokes. In the Hollywood version, Hopkins, as Lewis, replies to a friend that Narnia was not Christian- but "it's magic".

Advise that any lovers of CS Lewis not pass this version over!

superior

Reviewed by W. Hamilton, 2009-09-15

The more recent version of "Shadowlands" with Anthony Hopkins playing C.S. Lewis is a film I admire but I was even more impressed with this production, starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom. The two screenplays follow each other quite closely, but I got more from Ackland's realization of someone who (as another character puts it) is "the non-playing captain" in life suddenly thrust onto the field, where humiliation and doubt almost consume him. Bloom is astonishing in her part - from the New York accent and mannerisms to the terrible and convincing descent into pain and death. The supporting cast are superb. Only the washed out images of an earlier videotape era detract from the whole thing, at the margins. The trained voices and good sound recording are enough, if you care to, to enable you to close your eyes and just listen.

This is the best version

Reviewed by Mark Twain, 2009-08-02

I just want to echo the views of others that this version is superior to the Hopkins/Winger version (and I love Anthony Hopkins). My reasons are stated in a review of the other one, as well as in comments to the DM Morris review above.

Excellent

Reviewed by Marilyn Dalrymple, 2009-06-17

Touching, gentle, intelligent; certainly worth watching.

A movie like this doesn't happen very often, but that's what makes one - Through the Shadowlands - a Jewel. The acting is stellar; the story strong. The actors are talented and do an outstanding job. Even the scenes and photography is well done.

There isn't anything I didn't like about this film.

Best Ever CS Lewis Movie

Reviewed by Max Hurst, 2009-01-14

I Have watched this superior drama since it's release in the eighties and have never tired of it. The atmosphere, the literate telling of the tale and the actors are uniformly wonderful. I have been reading Lewis since a teen amd have even collected British first editions of his works(which he would probably not encourage)and I believe have read every biography about Prof Lewis. Although there are liberties taken with the facts this version so captures the humane spirit of Lewis that it makes up for all that. I believe it was his friend and physician Dr Havard(the UBQ or useless quack as Lewis called him fondly) who upon viewing this film said that though Ackland looked and sounded nothing like his friend 'Jack' did none-the less manage to convey him in an uncannily accurate fashion. And so it seems when watching this delightful movie to all the events and characters as a whole.