In 1952, life-time bachelor C. S. Lewis – Jack to his friends – had a much broader public reputation than one might expect of an Oxford University professor. He had given popular BBC broadcasts on religion during World War II and had published a widely read and inventive discussion on faith, The Screwtape Letters, told from the perspective of a frustrated devil. But his fantasy-fiction novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of what would become the seven-part Chronicles of Narnia series, propelled his celebrity throughout the United States and drew American poet and recently divorced Joy Gresham and her two sons to his door.
The film focuses on this meeting and on C.S. Lewis’s subsequent unexpected and bittersweet discovery of love.
An Unlikely Couple
They were an unlikely pair, the emotionally distant English professor and the straight-talking New Yorker, but Lewis was drawn to her. Yet his years of personal detachment kept her at arms length. They married in 1956 but the civil ceremony appeared initially to be a ‘technical’ one, permitting Joy and her two sons (only one is shown in the movie) to stay in England and they continued to live separately. But when Joy became ill they married again, this time “under God,” and lived together until her death in 1960.
From Television to Theater to Cinema
Shadowlands, written by William Nicholson, screenwriter for both Gladiator and Elizabeth: the Golden Age, was originally produced in 1985 as a BBC television drama. Nicholson subsequently re-fashioned his TV script as a successful stage play that ran in both London and New York theaters in 1989 and 1990 starring British actor, Nigel Hawthorne who would later play C.S. Lewis’s brother, Warnie, in the movie version. Nicholson rewrote the stage play into a feature-length film that was directed by Richard Attenborough with Anthony Hopkins as Lewis and Debra Winger as Joy.
The Shadowlands
C. S. Lewis writes about "the shadowlands" in his seventh Narnia story, The Last Battle, a term that reflects his religious conviction that our mortal world is but a shadow compared to the heaven still to come. Screenwriter Nicholson adds another dimension to its meaning by referring to the feelings that Lewis had hidden in the shadows of his life until his meeting with Joy.
But Nicholson didn’t intend the film to be a documentary about C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. “I used parts of their story, not used other parts, and imagined the rest. The love affair was real enough, but they were both intensely private about it. No one knows exactly how and why they fell in love. It is in this uncharted region that I have created a story.” (Western Springs Theatre)
Richard Attenbrough's 'Best Film'
The result is a vivid and poignant drama about the transformative nature of love. Its director, Lord Richard Attenborough, when asked about his long film career which includes an Academy Best Picture Award for Gandhi, replied: “The best film I made, one that has fewer flaws in it, was Shadowlands. I think that was as it good as it gets.” (Scottish Television STV, 2008)
Evocative Cinematography
The cinematography by Roger Platt (who shot the 2002 and 2005 Harry Potter films) convincingly captures both Oxford's rich historic setting and the tidy routine of the country home that Jack shares with his bachelor brother. His effective lighting evokes dimly-lit, dark-walled dining halls and the fading dusk of the Oxfordshire countryside.
Writing the Star
Anthony Hopkins is superb as the quietly detached Jack Lewis and Debra Winger’s Joy Gresham is one of her best roles. But the writing by Nicholson is the star of the film, moving its main character step by step from the shadows of his passionless life to the high-risk spotlight that only love offers. One scene in particular, central to the story, demonstrates Nicholson’s skill when he reveals Lewis’s discovery of his true feelings:
INT. OXFORD UNIVERSITY - NIGHT
Jack talks with Harry, another professor, about how best to take care of Joy and her son now that Joy is very ill. Jack has not told anyone of his ‘technical’ marriage to Joy.
HARRY: It’s not as if –
JACK: It’s not as if what, Harry?
HARRY: Well, she’s your friend of course, but she’s not - family.
JACK: She’s not my wife.
HARRY: No.
JACK: Of course not. It’s impossible. It’s unthinkable. How could Joy be my wife? I’d have to love her, wouldn’t I, I’d have to care more for her than for any one else in this world. I’d have to be suffering the torments of the damned the prospect of losing her –
HARRY: I’m sorry Jack. I didn’t know.
JACK: Nor did I, Harry.
That's the Deal
When Joy died, C.S. Lewis’s grief was intense, calling up the trauma of his mother’s death when he was only nine, an event that had forced him into his protective stance in personal relationships. Joy had taught him that pain and happiness are inescapably twinned and that both had to be embraced. Nicholson’s last lines for C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins in voice-over) sums up Lewis's new insight:
JACK: Why love, if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore, only the life I’ve lived. Twice in that life I’ve been given the choice. The boy chooses safety and the man chooses suffering. Pain now is part of the happiness. That’s the deal.
References
Shadowlands, directed by Richard Attenborough, written by William Nicholson; Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger; produced 1993, released 1994
Theatre of Western Springs - Theatrewesternsprings.com
STV (Scottish Television) - Youtube.com
TLE 101
Alan Barkley - Alan Barkley earned an Honors BA from the University of Guelph and an MFA from NSCAD University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He received a ...
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