Living in a world that constantly occupies and stimulates our minds
with color, sound, action, motion, etc. it occurs to me that many of
the truly obvious things in life are not being captured, stored in
our organic, transitory brains (What *does* happen after the brain
decomposes?? Where do the stored memories and abilities go?? I’ll
address that in a future thread). There are so many obvious truths that
have been learned, discovered, realized by CT members that is seems a
shame to let them go to waste into the thoughtless void of oblivion.

Which is why I am starting this series of ‘obvious’ articles. Given
my preferences, I’ll start with obvious movie facts. Mind you, these
are not opinions; these are facts which have been backed by the combined
might of the human mind and endeavour. If you haven’t heard of them yet,
then you are the perfect subject for the ‘…for Dummies’ series.

Since these articles may be full of spoilers, I will give fair warning of the
spoilers to come. Let’s start with the very popular “Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” If you have not seen it yet, it is now
available on DVD. Purchase the 2-disc set and avoid the movie-only set. You
will be very pleased.

[spoilers follow]

Obvious fact #1

Aslan the Lion in this story is a stand-in for Jesus Christ (“There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it.”). The author and countless other commentators on the novels have backed this up. And there is that central scene that dwarfs (sic) even the battle scenes in the movie: the sacrifice of Aslan on the Stone Table. Aslan has the power to defeat the White Witch in battle, but instead sacrifices himself willingly to redeem the life of Edmund, the traitorous child that should be put to death to satisfy ‘the deep magic’ of Narnia. Aslan is tortured, shamed and bound before being put to death, only to return in a resurrected form the next day. This again, is made possible by the precepts of ‘the deep magic’ which he understands in ways that the White Witch does not.

The ‘deep magic’ in this story is an allegory to the Laws of Moses that were given to us in the Old Testament and established the propitiatory sacrifices that we humans could make in order to rid ourselves of sin. The lamb, the doves or measures of grain were the sacrifice to be offered, depending on the size of your sin. Given the magnitude of all human sin, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices was Jesus himself. As all Christians know, Jesus’ sacrifice ended the need for propitiatory sacrifices to be offered (the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem –the official sacrificial site for Jews– followed in 70AD. Coincidence? You decide). In the movie, the Stone Table (an allegory for the Stone Tablets of the Law) is broken when the Resurrection occurs. The Old Testament has been superseded by the New. My apologies to my Jewish readers, this entry should be called “It’s Obvious — Christian edition.”

Obvious fact #2

Edmund, the traitor, is an allegoric figure for all mankind. Aslan sacrifices himself to save Edmund’s life just as Jesus sacrificed Himself for all mankind. The word Edmund is derived from ‘monde’ or ‘the world’ in French (or Latin, or any other of those really great movie languages used for hiding cool information). So Edmund is a stand-in for The World of Humanity.

Obvious fact #3

Christmas is a religious holiday. Well, we all knew this, but it’s hard to accept that fact when faced with a 20-foot replica of an inflatable Santa Claus encouraging all of us to “spend, spend!” at the mall. In this movie, Santa makes an appearance as Father Christmas, driving his sleigh to provide a sackful of weapons to our heroes. He does not show up with presents and the underlying assumption that we need to spend money on trinkets. He shows up with weapons that imply a responsibility and a duty to be carried out (it is our duty to remember Christmas for what it is: a religious remembrance). The boys and girls then go Medieval at the Great Battle scene, making use of these legendary weapons. Oh yeah, there’s also a cool Ram’s Horn that can be used to call for help; gotta get me one of those.

Conclusion:

There are many more such allegories in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I have not read all of the books, but I’m sure I’ll catch all of the forthcoming movies. There is also a great BBC audio series of the Narnia novelizations. I have not found them yet, but they come highly recommended.

If you have further thoughts and obvious facts, please feel free to post them to
this thread. That’s what the Obvious Series is all about.

In the next few installments: “Obvious 2001” and “Obvious Casablanca”
Stay tuned.