I went to see Narnia last night. With me were three of my daughters who are avid Narnia fans. Not only have we read the books together, but they have each read the Chronicles several times. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did it stick very closely to the book, but it was done very well.

I find it interesting that a movie was made that had no heads exploding or intestines gushing out, no nude people and no foal language and the director was still able to get his point across very effectively. I don't mean that he was able to, say, make all the violence not violent. Quite the opposite. He was able to create a sense of violence without actually going into detail. For instance, when Aslan is killed by the White Witch the actual plunging in of the knife is never shown. Instead we saw a close up of Aslan's face and especially his eyes. Just that alone not only told us of the violence, but made the violence much more personal and thus much more effective. It literally struck to the heart (no pun intended). Even the battle scenes were full of violence with out the violent detail. Some people got hit by big rocks or spears, but no details. Yet I came away from the battle scene with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and a feeling of horror that comes with knowing that battles are bad and people get hurt. I didn't need to see someone's brains hit the camera to know that. I just knew it.

This isn't something understood by only the moderns. There have been a few odd-balls in recent (20 year) history. I remember watching a movie where two people where obviously in love and, in one particular scene, the man and the women go into a room together and the camera fades as the door closes. As an adult you knew what was going on. You knew of the love and passion they had for each other. In other words the director was so good as to assume his audiences intelligence. He said, "I will only give them a couple scenes and I know they will make the connection." Unlike many movies I have seen in the past few years where the directors have such a low opinion of their audience's intelligence that they have to actually show everything in great detail for fear the viewer just won't be able to make the connection. "O.k., they are in the room. And just in case you can't figure out what two people in love do in a room alone let me show you. First they will...."

I wish more producers would take the hint. A movie can be made without being needlessly offensive and still tell a very effective story. In fact, it appears to me that all the gore, sexuality and language that appear in modern movies is simply a detractor from the real story trying to be told. Movie producers in the past twenty years have been like a bunch of teenage boys who have discovered sex for the first time (I didn't say "Had it", just "Discovered it"). They just can't stop going on about it. They can't wait to tell everyone about what they know and proceed to do the most inappropriate things at the most awkward times.

It seemed like movies just cannot get along unless it shows blood, chest (female mostly) and accost your ears with foal language. Yet it seems that the trend is waning. Either the teenagers have moved on far past their preoccupations and have gone on to focus on the art or they have just figured out that there is money to be made in a sector that doesn't like those sorts of things being forced in their faces every time they turn around. Either way, I like it. There have been a few adult oriented movies lately that have really hit the high ground, in my opinion, and all without having to stoop to peep-show tactics. And some of them are so good they can even be show to the younger audience without ripping away their innocence in the process.

As a side note for those out there who would call me a nut case and a fanatic for what I am saying:
Just because I don't want to go into a room full of strangers and watch naked people running about or making love on a huge, storey size screen doesn't, in my book, make me at all strange. If you want to really know who the weirdos are, next time you go to that sort of movie take a look around you. Oh, and you better bring a mirror lest you miss anyone.