**Comparing Narnia and LotR**

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

Lalwende, did you get the impression that they took the highlights out of Tilda Swinton's eyes? A very disturbing effect, it looked dark and frightening behind those eyes! Stranger than Cate Blanchett's Christmas tree light highlights.

Originally Posted by Valesse

The Witch's dress, for instance, appeared to have been made out of crackling grey/heat sensitive sillyputty in my eyes, and her eyebrows were NEVER made fully apparent.

I think that's just how she looks - she's known for taking off-beat parts where they make the most of her unusual appearance (which isn't bad for 45 ), which includes very fair eyebrows, which is why they weren't very prominent. I noticed that the make-up they put on her gave her skin a chalky, dusty quality which was very odd too. The costume was designed so that it would change colour according to how strong her hold was over Narnia (hence why it was black towards the end).

Originally Posted by davem

Lewis & Tolkien both believed that Man was created by God with an 'innate' knowledge of what was to come (ie the Incarnation) - this is how they accounted for the presence in so many mythologies of dying & reusurrected gods, etc. Lewis was aware how the knowledge of such 'salvific' stories had been lost, so he wanted to invent a new 'mythology' which would put children in the same position/state as the pagans who were first confronted with Christianity - they would be 'reminded' of their own stories & so would be ready to accept the story of Jesus.

I always find it odd that not long after I read LotR (and Narnia) I decided to give up going to church; I think that LotR was one of the catalysts in my change of belief at the time. I'm not sure how either writer would take that, but I found that what I was discovering in these works was not something that could be fulfiled by following a creed, more by discovering for myself what was 'truth'. I actually thought that this film brought across a broader, more 'ecumenical' message about goodness and honesty rather than act as a 'recruitment' campaign film, something it most definitely was not.