Reely Bernie Faves: Shadowlands

I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that He makes us the gift of suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.

High school junior year Theology class with Mr. Rogers.

My classmates and I tried to tackle that challenging question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We read Elie Wiesel’s Night and had deep conversations about suffering, pain, and death. What could have been a dark downer of a class turned out to be the stark opposite because faith, hope, and God also snuck in there.

As a companion piece to our discussion, Mr. Rogers put Shadowlands in the VCR. It was a biographical focus on C.S. Lewis’s later years when he fell in love with an American poet who was concurrently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Lewis’s Christian viewpoint and entire philosophical take on faith were slapped across the face, forcing him to open his world not for answers but a reignited purpose—a purpose gained only through the pain of losing his soulmate.

We can’t have the happiness of yesterday without the pain of today.

Anthony Hopkins’s performance is solid with subtlety, and Debra Winger—who tends to invite a love/hate relationship among moviegoers—is wisely cast as the American bull-in-a-china-shop love interest. Winger plays Joy Gresham, and young Joseph Mazzello plays her son, Douglas, a role he took on immediately after Jurassic Park.

The breakdown of Hopkins at the end is not easy to watch. There are tears from both sides of the screen. Empathy presides between his pain and the pain of Douglas. There is a connection there. An openness. For the first time, C.S. Lewis/Anthony Hopkins must accept something intangible and unlike any of his many theses.

Why love if losing hurt so much? I have no answers anymore, only the life I have lived. Twice in that life I’ve been given the choice. As a boy and as a man. The boy chooses safety, the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

For some, the movie ends abruptly, but I prefer the opportunity for imagination and hope in Anthony’s character. Historically, C.S. Lewis renewed his faith in God after Joy’s death. Director Richard Attenborough wisely leaves the conclusion of his film to composer, George Fenton.

As a music teacher, I’m often asked: What music makes you cry tears of joy? Without hesitation, I bring up George Fenton’s “End Credits.”

Listen to how Fenton’s seven-note motif swells through the colors of the orchestra, apexing at the French Horn solo (2:38) and reminding us that we are never alone.

It just makes you gush.

This is the kind of movie that leaves you thinking, “It’s going to be okay.” It’s never easy, but we’re never alone when it comes to pain.

Thank you for reading!

Have you seen Shadowlands?

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)