John Oliver Beyond Narnia is a captivating movie where C. S. Lewis is presented as an older man looking back and telling the story of his life. There are cuts back and forth from the autobiographical narrator and those acting out the scenes.Over the years I have seen several videos about C. S. Lewis. I have read many hundreds of pages. And here are all the facts told in an orderly way. The film is easy to understand and very engaging. The sets and costumes help tell the visual story as the narrator talks.This movie is recommended for all those who want to understand the live of C S Lewis both as the writer of the Narnia Chronicles as well as his many other books. Understanding his spiritual pilgrimage can provide a greater context to more fully appreciate the soil of his life that the fruits of his labors came from in his complex walk with God.

scifianon It was very touching to here the story with the narration. You see in his life the reflection of the things he wrote about. It brings me to tears. His life seems so unreal, how he touched so many lives because his life had been touched by Jesus, but Jesus working through others such as Tolkien. I wish people could view this and take away the same sense of divinity Lewis himself felt about life; both its joys and sorrows. Thanks to TBN I got to see this wonderful and poetic biographical account of the physical and spiritual triumphs and trials of one man's life that is echoed in all of our own. He is one of my favorite apologists because he was so human and this displays eloquently his Christian humanity. It is unfortunate however, that his stepsons have drifted from one another.

Philby-3 CS (Jack) Lewis, an Oxford don who died 40 years ago, is in the news because the latest filmed version of his famous children's novel, "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" (filmed in New Zealand, of all places) has become a box office success. Norman Stone, who in 1985 directed "Shadowlands", an excellent TV movie based on Lewis's relationship with his American fan and eventual lover Joy Gresham (with Joss Ackland and Clair Bloom in the leading roles), has given us a re-run of that film but this time as a dramatized documentary with Anton Rogers as an elderly Jack Lewis taking us through his story. And it is an interesting story.Jack Lewis came from a prosperous and happy Belfast protestant family (his father was a solicitor) but at the age of 10 his mother, who he adored, died of cancer. He and his brother Warnie were sent away to a succession of nasty boarding schools, until their father decided a private tutor might be the answer and sent Jack to his former headmaster, the elderly but dynamic "Knock" who was a teacher of genius. Wounded in the trenches in WW I, Jack went to Magdelene ("Maudlin") College Oxford and racked up an almost unheard of triple first in Moderations (Greek & Latin Literature), Greats (Philosophy and Ancient History) and English.. He settled down to the comfortable life of an Oxford don, but his early atheism gave way to deep Christian belief and he produced some notable works on Christian themes, as well as the allegorical children's stories, "Chronicles of Narnia.". He had a long and stormy friendship with another great fantasy writer, JRR Tolkien, also an Oxford don.His personal life was a little less comfortable. For 30 years he lived with and supported the difficult and demanding mother of Paddy Moore, Jack's best friend, killed in WW I. Then in 1952 he met Joy Gresham a brash American divorcée in her 30s he had corresponded with, and her sons Douglas and David. At first just friends (though he married her in 1956 so that she could stay in Britain) he fell in love with her after she became seriously ill with cancer. They married again, this time for real. She went into remission and they had a couple of happy years together before she died in 1960. At 62 Jack was a widower with two teenage step-sons to look after.The story is told in flashbacks, with Jack to camera, radiating sincerity, providing the links, and occasional contributions from biographers, scholars and friends, including Joy's son Douglas. Given the producers of the film are the Faith and Values Group, a certain amount of religiosity is present though it would have to be described as a soft sell. What is interesting is the comparison with the earlier "Shadowlands" – the play by William Nicholson, Nicholson and Stone's 1985 TV movie mentioned above, and the 1993 movie directed by Richard Attenborough from Nicholson's script. The early works tend to concentrate on the personal story of Jack and Joy, while this version gives more of Jack's life and beliefs. In fact it is vastly more informative.Being a fine writer ("The Screwtape Letters" is a masterpiece of persuasion) Lewis became a very influential Christian figure in the 20th century. He is, via the Narnia stories, as widely read as ever. If you want to know what it is to be a Christian he's your man.

whistlestop This is a beautifully made docu-drama. Anton Rodgers plays CS Lewis, and tells the story of his life and beliefs from his armchair at "The Kilns", supposedly in 1963 just before his death. It's more accurate than "Shadowlands", although that is a wonderful film too. This one includes both the Gresham boys, whereas only Douglas was shown in the other film. Rodgers looks a lot more like pictures of Lewis than Anthony Hopkins did, and the movie was largely filmed at the actual house in Oxford. My only protest is that Joy Gresham is shown smoking a cigarette, although she never smoked in her life. Lewis and Warnie, of course, smoked constantly. I found it very moving, and also funny at just the right moments. If you get a chance to see it, you won't be disappointed if you're a Lewis fan like me! I hope they bring it out on DVD!