There is a small foundation for the night Raid in the book

~Lava~

~Lava~

Well-known member
So, I was re-reading PC today and I came upon a part of the book that may have originated the idea of the night raid. In the Chapter "Old Narnia in Danger" Reepicheep and the mice prepose going in and storming Miraz's castle.
 
In LWW, Peter proposes disguising themselves and then sneaking into the Witch's castle to rescue Edmund. Does that mean it would've been ok if that had happened in the movie? ;)
 
Nope, it doesn't, I am just saying that the idea is not totally out of thin air. The reason that idea was totally ignored is that Dr. C came in and told them that the Telmarine Army was mobilizing.
 
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That is waaay too small a "foundation" for the change (don't mean disrespect to Reep).

Remember that movie people don't need excuse or "foundations" to change a good story for the sake of trying to make a movie more "exciting" (aka bringing in the dough).
 
Well, I would rather have an extra "raid" written in, with Caspian remaining the humble-hearted character Mr. Lewis created, than have no extra action and have Caspian be a know-it-all teenager who wants to compete with Peter. Still waiting to see how that turns out.
 
Copperfox said:
Well, I would rather have an extra "raid" written in, with Caspian remaining the humble-hearted character Mr. Lewis created, than have no extra action and have Caspian be a know-it-all teenager who wants to compete with Peter. Still waiting to see how that turns out.
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I agree with CF. I would not mind the raid if it were true to Caspian's character, and the characters of the other children. From what I read about it, though, it wounds fool-hardy and gets a lot of Old Narnians killed. Reep is brash ... but is he foolish in his "bravery"?
 
I wonder if the filmmakers got the idea for the night raid from Reep's line or if they just decided to do it on their own.

MrBob
 
I can understand their wanting to expand the action. You can't rouse much excitement by just having four kids and a dwarf walking through a forest for half an hour's worth of the movie. I am more concerned about changes in the characters, as has been discussed.
 
Copperfox said:
I can understand their wanting to expand the action. You can't rouse much excitement by just having four kids and a dwarf walking through a forest for half an hour's worth of the movie. I am more concerned about changes in the characters, as has been discussed.
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here here! Reading about the fight between Caspian and Peter...i dunno...it just seems that they're making more drama to make the story more "interesting". But it makes me wonder, is that necessary? Does changing the characters' way of thinking make the story more interesting? Whether it does or not, it sells much more. That's for sure...
 
I think you got it right: people who love the book because of its spiritual/character content will be disappointed if Peter betrays his noble character and is less than Peter the Magnificent ... but movie-goers who have never read the books and could care less whether Peter is noble will be thrilled by the duel. How stupid.
 
inkspot said:
I think you got it right: people who love the book because of its spiritual/character content will be disappointed if Peter betrays his noble character and is less than Peter the Magnificent ... but movie-goers who have never read the books and could care less whether Peter is noble will be thrilled by the duel. How stupid.
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See? my thoughts exactly! And the movie makers don't really care as long as there are more paying patrons!
 
"You can't rouse much excitement by just having four kids and a dwarf walking through a forest for half an hour's worth of the movie. I am more concerned about changes in the characters, as has been discussed."

Copper, I completely agree with you about the chatracters, but as for the walking, five to ten minutes total for the walk down, leading to an ambush (which would be very intersting), back to where they started, the midnight meeting of Lucy with Aslan, and the walk up, following Aslan.

I am curious how long the Caspian backstory will take.

MrBob
 
The back story has to be very different from the book because they cut out the young childhood with the nurse and will have to compress everything into a very short time frame with Caspian at or near his current age -- they don't have any shots of a "child" Caspian.

I disagree that following the book would have to be boring. Caspian's childhood in a movie need not be told by the dwarf, we could see it happening if they'd used a younger actor or had a child to play a younger Caspian. The Miraz they've chosen looks wicked and I think they could have made Caspian's childhood pretty harrowing and exciting rather than just nixing it all together.

Also, I don't know why everyone says the "walking" has to be boring. LOTR The Two Towers had a huge amount of "just walking" or running, and it did not lack for excitement.

Naturally I would rather see the story pretty true to the book, and I think they could have made it exciting without totally bankrupting Peter's character and investing high drama in a raid that (if the spoilers are an indication) may be pretty bloody and appear to be rash and foolish judgment on Peter's part.

I don't doubt it will be exciting, and I think the movie will be good, but I am working this feeling that it will be very different from the book, even the characters will be different than they appear in the book.
 
The foundation for the Night Raid in the book is that many battles were fought before Caspian decided to blow the horn. Lewis skims over these in a page or two. Lewis indicates that one battle imparticiular ended with dire consquences, and there were short tempers in the army because of it. Therefore, the only changes they are making by having a Night Raid are:

1. The battle takes place at the castle, instead of the woods around Aslan's How
2. The Pevensies are present


I don't see the Night Raid as that big of a change.
 
The problem with the night raid is that in the book, Caspian's Army was holed up at Aslan's How. Miraz's army was encamped not too far away just outside the forest and they were the stronger force. It was why the offer of hand-to-hand combat between Peter and Miraz was made. Caspian was on the losing side and had nothing to lose by making such a request.

Bob
 
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