Shadowlands

By: Amy Stello

Before class I had only watched bits and pieces of the movie Shadowlands. It always surprises me to see the incredible lives that many authors live through. I believe that writing must be a way for each author to cope with the extreme situations in their lives because there is no other way to sort out the problems.
The end of Lewis's life was wrapped up within the spunky woman he met through his books. A few things surprise me about the depiction of C.S. Lewis. First would be the way he seems to be closed off to those around him- stiff, unlike the Lewis I would have imagined from his books. The second would be how un-legalistic Lewis seems to be about life. In the movie, perhaps to drive home a point, they have Lewis and future wife Joy clash about the nature of life. Joy wishes for Lewis to open himself up to the experiences of life rather than analyzing them through the context of books. I had never imagined C.S. Lewis to just be another scholar who was out of touch with reality. His books always had such a no-nonsense, simple joy mentality. I cannot imagine him being disconnected with the simplicity in life and caught up within the intelligentia of Oxford. Secondly, the relationship between Joy and Lewis seems to be so liberal in its approach. Since Lewis wrote so much theology, I find it interesting and refreshing that he took each specific case in life and judging it through that context instead of lumping everything into one group without critical examination. There are both good and bad things which, even if I do not fully accept the representation, call into examination about Lewis and his life.