What an exceptional piece of film! Having read the books and watched the old BBC TV show as well as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from 2005, I would never have expected such a rapidly fast film full of action and power. The Pevensie-actors have developed very much, especially Skandar Keynes, whom you almost wouldn't recognize again. His rebellious little boy-Edmund from LWW has grown into a passionate young man eager to live up to the expectations Narnian people place in their former kings and queens. But also Ben Barnes as Caspian X. fits in without problems. This film is overall much darker and more dramatic than LWW. There is suspension and dramatic action all the time, and even the film score acts its part, being omnipresent and driving the plot forward. You almost never get a moment of rest and contemplation because the opposing forces never cease or even pause in pursuing their goals: Caspian and the Pevensies to free the Narnian people and raise Caspian to his inherited throne, Miraz and his Telmarine troops to secure their usurped reign over the country. Watching this film you shouldn't expect a one hundred percent visualization of C. S. Lewis' book. On the contrary, the film plot only extracts a quite rough plot outline from the book and weaves its own story around that "red thread". All the important parts of the book are in the film, as e. g. Caspian's education by Doctor Cornelius, the birth of Miraz and Prunaprismia's son, Caspian's flight and unification with the Narnian people, the help given by the Kings and Queens of Old (the Pevensies), the decisive duel between High King Peter and Miraz, etc. But the story around these parts is full of surprise and fierce action. And in my opinion that is the film's strength. You not only get a transformation of the book for the big screen, but something new and unexpected which quite often leaves you breathless and excited. I really like this film!
Reviews
2 Reviews
Jag är din krigare
(1997)
Clash of idealism and real life - beautiful and disturbing
3 April 2004
It was coincidence in the first place, coming across this film on my search for Scandinavian films. The brief outlining of the film's contents on an advertisement for the DVD made me curious, and I bought it without knowing more than those few sentences and the DVD cover, showing a boy holding a fox in his arms.
I didn't regret it for one minute. Although the film is by no means the romantic nature adventure the advertisement suggests, it is both beautiful and disturbing at the same time. In the beginning the story might remind some of us adults of our real or dreamed adventures of our youth. Surviving in and with nature, saving trapped animals, serving a great spirit of nature which appears in the character of an old Indian. But civilization is never far away, and conflicts are bound to come up. And this is where the story gradually changes from romantic to disturbing. Kim, a thirteen year-old boy who opens the traps to free helpless animals, who first inflicts relatively harmless damage to punish poachers and drive them away, has to realize that the extension of civilization cannot be stopped by mere idealism. There are other steps that have to be taken to prevent the forest from being rooted out, the home of countless animals from being destroyed. Idealism becomes sheer desperation, and our sympathy with that boy and his desperate fight on behalf of wild life goes along with the knowledge that probably there will not be a happy end.
Which leaves us deep in thought about the right or wrong of civilization subjecting and exploiting nature.
Both children and adults can profit from the film and its message. It both encourages and warns children and young people who care for nature and wild life. And it shows clearly to adults that human extension will meet its limits at some point, if there is someone who helps nature to claim and, if necessary, reclaim its place in our lives.
I didn't regret it for one minute. Although the film is by no means the romantic nature adventure the advertisement suggests, it is both beautiful and disturbing at the same time. In the beginning the story might remind some of us adults of our real or dreamed adventures of our youth. Surviving in and with nature, saving trapped animals, serving a great spirit of nature which appears in the character of an old Indian. But civilization is never far away, and conflicts are bound to come up. And this is where the story gradually changes from romantic to disturbing. Kim, a thirteen year-old boy who opens the traps to free helpless animals, who first inflicts relatively harmless damage to punish poachers and drive them away, has to realize that the extension of civilization cannot be stopped by mere idealism. There are other steps that have to be taken to prevent the forest from being rooted out, the home of countless animals from being destroyed. Idealism becomes sheer desperation, and our sympathy with that boy and his desperate fight on behalf of wild life goes along with the knowledge that probably there will not be a happy end.
Which leaves us deep in thought about the right or wrong of civilization subjecting and exploiting nature.
Both children and adults can profit from the film and its message. It both encourages and warns children and young people who care for nature and wild life. And it shows clearly to adults that human extension will meet its limits at some point, if there is someone who helps nature to claim and, if necessary, reclaim its place in our lives.
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