Når fortiden blir moderne

Siden Prince Caspian overfaller kinoer verden over 16. mai, er det ikke til å komme fra at filmen vil få noe medieoppmerksomhet.

Selv om dette uansett vil bli farget av hype (eller hat - Narnia er blitt litt slik, har det vist seg de seneste årene), kan det være nyttig å vise det beste intervjuet så langt med regissøren med det mistenkelig narnianske navnet Andrew Adamson, her.

Ikke minst er det interessant å høre hvordan han - dog ganske pietetsfullt - har modernisert deler av fortellingene, og hvorfor. Ikke minst Løven, heksa og klesskapet.

Narnia devotees are going to nitpick your every single decision. Would you say that Doug Gresham is the biggest nitpicker of all?

He is a nitpicker, but it's very rare that we have bumped heads on anything because we both have the desire to be true to the books. But there were times in the first film we did come to blows (laughing)—no, come to conflict, I should say—with things like Susan [Pevensie, one of the children in the books]. This was where C. S. Lewis had a feeling about women's role in the world that differed a lot from mine—particularly with Susan getting to use her bow.

You're talking about the part in Lion/Witch where Father Christmas tells Susan and Lucy they are not to use their weapons in battle, but only in great need?

Yeah. I always thought it was such a negative message to send to young girls and women to say, "Here's a bow and arrow. But I really should have given you a butter knife and a plate, because all you do is get to make sandwiches." To me, it's like why is he giving her a bow and arrow and then saying you have to rely on your brothers to defend you? This is where Doug and I got into it a little bit. I said maybe that was C. S. Lewis's point of view at the time, but times have changed and it's certainly not my view at this time. I've got two young daughters, and I don't want that message to go to my daughters.

But Andrew, you didn't try to contemporize other parts of the movie. You kept the setting in World War II, with London being bombed at the beginning. So why did you feel like you had to contemporize this part of the story?

Well, I think Lewis's view of women changed when he met Joy—Doug's mother. I think he sort of cast women down in the earlier books, but when you look at The Horse and His Boy, it has a strong female character. Doug's mother was a strong woman. Doug said, "I don't really know if that's true. I'm trying to remember if he wrote The Horse and His Boy after he met my mother." I went, "Doug, the book is dedicated to you."

Based on that argument, you reached the agreement that Susan would indeed be in battles?

Yes, we did. And Doug accepted. Well, I don't know whether he just relinquished or accepted. But she's in battle in both of them, and she really does well with this one.

Enkelte av oss med tilsvarende antall døtre av Eva i huset, føler nok en viss sympati med denne sønnen av Adam (selv om vi ikke synes Lewis hadde så svake kvinneskikkelser som det kan høres ut her).

Og en viss bekymring for guttene som kommer for nær buen.