This illustration is from The Horse And His Boy, chronologically the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. It takes place during the reign of Kings Peter and Edmund and Queens Susan and Lucy. Though they appear briefly in the book, the story is not actually about them but rather about a young boy named Shasta, a girl named Aravis, and two talking horses from Narnia, Bree and Hwin. The uncomfortable fellow in the illustration to the left is Rabadash, the crown prince of Calormen who wants to force Queen Susan to marry him. He attacks Narnia's neighbour and ally, Archenland, planning to seize the country then launch a raid from there into Narnia to kidnap Susan. Unfortunately for Rabadash's "romantic" endeavors, Archenland- with help from Narnia- fends off the Calormene invaders. To add to his humiliation, during the battle Rabadash's chain mail gets caught on a hook on a wall, pulling him off his horse and leaving him hanging helplessly until, his army defeated, he is taken into custody by King Lune of Archenland.
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“A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.” ― G.K. Chesterton I found the premise behind the 2016 film Risen to be an extremely interesting one. Essentially, it's the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, seen through the eyes of an outsider and nonbeliever. Of course, this isn't the first time that this has been done: The Robe, for example, is the story of the Roman soldier who gambled for- and won- Jesus' robe. Risen, however, plays out like a detective story; it's the investigation held by the Roman authorities to attempt to find the missing body of Jesus which they naturally assume has been stolen. Joseph Fiennes plays Clavius, the tribune in charge of the investigation. Opinion has been divided on his portrayal of this character, but I think it's fine and, especially in the first half of the film, skillfully done. Clavius has been a soldier for 25 years, engaged in putting down one rebellion after another for the Empire. His weariness is obvious; he carries out his orders conscientiously but without enthusiasm or even much conviction. He prays to his gods in the same way: perfunctorily, without much expectation or hope. The crucifixion is just one more duty to be seen to, or so Clavius assumes, until it proves to be something much more complicated. As I said, Fiennes' tired and stoic performance works very well throughout the first half of the film; it is less successful through the last part, for reasons I'll discuss a little further on. Framing the resurrection story inside a criminal investigation is a novel approach and one I found I liked. Clavius conducts the investigation methodically and with the same professionalism- if not enthusiasm- that he brings to the rest of his career. There's a problem though: the more witnesses he interviews, the more he finds that the evidence doesn't match up with the official narrative. For example, he discovers that the soldiers who were guarding the tomb have been paid by the Jewish authorities to testify that they were drunk at the time, rather than say what they actually saw. Breathing down his neck is Pontius Pilate, the Prefect of Judaea, who wants the body found, and quickly, before the situation becomes a major political problem. One criticism I have of the film is its portrayal of Pilate: he's kind of one-dimensional, always angrily demanding that Clavius find Jesus' body and bring those responsible for its theft to justice. I would have liked to see his character more conflicted; we know from the Biblical account that Pilate was reluctant to order Jesus' execution because he considered Him to be innocent. Caught, however, between the expectations of Rome and the tensions with the Jewish religious and political leaders, he did what was politically expedient rather than personally palatable. I would have liked to see this reflected more in Pilate's character. This is a bit of a nit-pick, though. My major problem with Risen is that, once Clavius discovers that **2000 year old spoiler** Jesus is alive, the film has nowhere to go. Clavius immediately abandons his old life and goes with the disciples, trying to escape Jerusalem and make it to Galilee to meet up with Jesus. It is in this part of the film that I understand the criticism of Fiennes' portrayal of Clavius as stiff and unemotional. But I think that this is more a problem with the script than with Fiennes' acting; the character is left with nothing to do. He goes from actively investigating the events surrounding Jesus' death to being a passive observer to most of what happens next. Jesus' ministry is over, so Clavius can't learn from Him, and there isn't much time for character development of any kind as the movie sort of devolves into an extended chase scene. There isn't even much tension or suspense in this chase, since anyone with even a smattering of Biblical knowledge is aware that the disciples were all at the ascension. I think the film would have been more successful if, perhaps, Clavius had returned to his regiment and slowly realized that the old way of life with which he was already discontent has become unbearable. Have him seek out Christians to learn from and interact with, dealing with all the complications and conflicts which this would necessarily involve. Instead, all we get from him is wonderment that Jesus is alive. Well, yes... of course he's amazed, but where does he go, emotionally and intellectually, from there? We never find out, which is why the ending is unsatisfying. I hesitate to define this next point as a flaw in the film, since it's more of a personal thing, but I don't particularly like the portrayal of Jesus and His disciples; they're a bit too hippy-dippy for my taste. As I said though, that may just be me... I haven't yet seen a depiction of Jesus on screen that I actually like. The exception to this is the Jesus in Ben Hur, for the simple fact that it's more of a non-portrayal: we never see His face or hear His voice. I genuinely find this to be much more effective. Oh, and the ascension scene in Risen is really badly done; the scene is given no weight or significance, despite the fact that in the film this is what the disciples have been struggling to make it to, and it's where they were to receive the Great Commission. Oddly, it's reduced to about 30 seconds of bad CGI. In conclusion, I would say that the first part of Risen which follows Clavius as he investigates the disappearance of Jesus' body is an interesting and involving story. I just think that it is let down by the second part of the film, which doesn't really go anywhere.
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