Saturday, May 17, 2008

Palimpsest

I've been reading reviews of the new CS Lewis movie release, "Prince Caspian". I learned a new word - palimpsest. One reviewer suggested that rather than say the movie is 'based on the novel', say 'it's a palimpsest of the novel' - that it has traces of the novel.

I guess artistic license has created a good action film that's not really a family film - and that it's missing most of CS Lewis's core story value.

I read (listened - I listen to hundreds of audio books) Dumas's Man in the Iron Mask and found the movie's story line was gleaned from only one paragraph of the book. When we're looking for movies to be like the books, I think we usually feel disappointed. And there's times I think the movies are an improvement on the book, or a whole new story to still enjoy and maybe touched by.

I like a lot of the past few decades movies over the older movies. I think today great questions are being asked - lots more to ponder and even discuss.

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