Prince Caspian (2008) Part 9: This Isn’t What I Wanted

Lucy sits next to the Stone Table, fiddling with her bottle of cordial. She hears something from outside and runs out of the How. This may not be a widely shared taste, but I love looking at the misty mornings in this movie. But this isn’t time to take in the movie’s beauty as the weary remnants of the Narnian’s army trudge back to their fortress.

Peter and Caspian aren’t speaking to each other. I wish they could keep that up for the whole scene.

Lucy: What happened?
Peter (re: Caspian): Ask him.
Susan: Peter!
Caspian: Me? You could have called it off; There was still time!
Peter: There wasn’t, thanks to you! If you’d kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now.
Caspian: And if you’d just stayed here like I suggested, they definitely would be!
Peter: You called us! Remember?
Caspian: My first mistake.
Peter: No! Your first mistake was thinking you could lead these people.
Caspian: Hey! I am not the one who abandoned Narnia!
Peter: You invaded Narnia. You have no more right to be here than Miraz does! You, him, your father…Narnia’s better off without the lot of you!

Yikes! I’ve been offering defenses of the way this movie adapts the character of Peter, but this nasty conversation is extremely hard for a book fan to take. It’s such a 180 from Caspian and Peter’s relationship in the text. The way each character goes for the other weakest spot (Caspian by accusing Peter of abandoning Narnia and Peter by badmouthing Caspian’s dead father) is especially brutal. Also, from a purely neutral perspective, putting aside the book, the way Caspian screams at Peter and draws his sword after this is silly. I get that they’re outraged but aren’t they also supposed to be exhausted after the battle?

Anyway, Edmund interrupts the fight by yelling, “Stop it!” Glenstorm comes forward with a wounded and evidently unconscious Trumpkin. Lucy runs over and applies her healing cordial to him. (This was likely inspired by a less dramatic scene from the book where she uses the cordial to heal a war wound of Trumpkin’s. This follows Edmund beating him at fencing and Susan beating him at archery and is another thing that convinces him to take the Pevensies seriously.) Caspian sheathes his sword and marches into the How. Nikabrik follows with an interesting expression on his face.

While all this is happening, Glenstorm’s wife meets his eyes, and she breaks down crying as she realizes that one of their children is lost. It’s a well-acted moment from Lejla Abassova though its impact is somewhat lessened by the fact that we haven’t really established that’s she Glenstorm’s wife.^[1]There was going to be a scene of her wordlessly bidding her menfolk farewell before they left for battle which would have helped. But the director was probably right to cut it for pacing reasons.

Our focus returns to Trumpkin as Lucy’s cordial revives him. “What are you all standing around for?” he grumbles. “Telmarines ‘ll be here soon enough.” Lucy smiles affectionately and rises to go. Before she does so, Trumpkin says, “Thank you, my dear little friend.” It’s a nice moment.

Back at the castle, we see Miraz being crowned. Since it’s now apparent that Caspian is working with the enemy, the Telmarines who might otherwise have supported him feel they have no choice but to accept his uncle as king.^[2]Making Peter’s plan even more disastrous in retrospect. No one at court besides Miraz looks happy^[3]And, technically, even he hides his emotions well., especially not Glozelle and Sopespian. But they all bow to him anyway. We then see Miraz and Prunaprismia looking down from a balcony as their subjects below cheer “Long live the King!” I wish the movie should have shown Prunaprismia’s face to make it clear she’s no longer comfortable with her evil husband and also done something to clarify that the peasants are cheering because that’s the safe thing to do, not because they actually like Miraz. That would have been better storytelling.

Intercut with all this, we see the Telmarines completing the bridge at Beruna and an intimidating army marching across it. We also hear Telmarine lords shouting, “Beruna pledges it troops! Galma pledges its troops! Tashbaan pledges its troops! Ettinsmoor pledges its troops!” All of those are locations from the Narnia books and I appreciate the attempt to please fans. However, their choices also indicate the screenwriters weren’t particular fans themselves, not ones with great memories anyway. In the books, Galma is an island that isn’t part of Narnia. Tashbaan is the capital of an enemy country and Ettinsmoor is a wasteland populated by barbaric giants. You know, giants, the kind of fantasy creatures the Telmarines would be against. Oh well, like I said, nice try.^[4]It’s not impossible that Galma and Tashbaan could be allied with the Telmarines but there’s nothing about Miraz’s forces to indicate they’re made up of armies from different … Continue reading

Back at the How, Caspian stands by himself, staring bitterly at the wall carvings of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. Well, not quite by himself.

Nikabrik: Are you so glad of that magic horn now, boy? The Kings and Queens have failed us. Your army’s half dead. Those that aren’t will be soon enough.
Caspian: What do you want? Congratulations?
Nikabrik: You want your uncle’s blood? So do we. You want his throne? We can get it for you.

With a rather unsettling grin, Nikabrik leads Caspian into the Stone Table room. Caspian follows after one more glance at the image of the Pevensies on the wall. “You’ve tried one ancient power,” says Nikabrik, “It failed. But there is another power greater still, one that kept even Aslan at bay for near a hundred years.” In the book, Caspian immediately guesses from Nikabrik’s words what ancient power he means and that was before he said anything about “a hundred years.” The movie makes him slower so that…well, we’ll see. Something stirs and growls in the shadows of the seemingly empty room. Caspian draws his sword. “Who’s there?” he asks. A cloaked figure (played by Shane Rangi and, according to the Internet Movie Database, voiced by Tim Hands)^[5]Tim Hands is a sound/dialogue editor but, weirdly, IMDB does not credit him with performing that role on this movie.steps out from behind a pillar. From under his hood, we can see a hairy snout, full of teeth. “I am hunger,” he says, “I am thirst. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies!” With that, he pulls back his hood, revealing himself to be a snarling werewolf. By this time, another figure has emerged, this one a Hag (Klara Issova.) “What you hate so will we,” she tells Caspian, “No one hates better than us.” Both actors are fantastically creepy in their roles and their dialogue is quite close to the book. The Hag’s line about hatred has a thematic significance here that it doesn’t in the book since Caspian’s hatred of Miraz is presented as his big flaw.^[6]He also wanted to avenge his father’s murder in the book but that wasn’t presented as a bad thing. More on this in a later post. Actually, on reflection, the line was thematically significant in the book too. It was just about Nikabrik’s hatred of Telmarines, not Caspian’s. As wonderfully creepy as the movie makes this scene, I feel like it can’t be as creepy as in the book since there we didn’t actually see the Hag and the Werewolf while they were making these speeches. The scene was portrayed from the points of view of Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin who were listening from behind a door. It’s just not the same with the characters clearly visible in a shadowy but basically well-lit room. This was inevitable though with the change of medium.

“And you can guarantee Miraz’s death?” asks Caspian. “And more,” says the Hag. Caspian still looks suspicious, rightly so, but he sheathes his sword. “Let the circle be drawn,” says the Hag. She and the werewolf scratch a circle on the floor around Caspian as she chants. Caspian, weirded out, looks to Nikabrik for clarification. Why doesn’t he just ask what they’re doing? Because the movie, unlike the book, doesn’t want Caspian to stop this little ritual. But it knows that if Caspian knew its purpose, there’s no way he could do so without losing the viewers’ respect. (Needless to say, in the book, Nikabrik and his compatriots explain their whole plan and Caspian immediately puts a stop to it. The implied reason why he listens to the Hag and the werewolf at all after their creepy introductions is respect for Nikabrik.) Anyway, Nikabrik just grins evilly at the bewildered Caspian. Warwick Davis is great at evil grins. Because the vast majority of the goods guys in the movie have been grumpy and sarcastic, Nikabrik hasn’t really stood out as sinister before this as he had in the book. You could say that’s a bad thing and that this scene hasn’t been set up as well. But you could also say that’s an improvement on the book as Nikabrik’s villainy is a bigger plot twist.

As the Hag’s chant reaches its climax, she pulls out the end of the White Witch’s wand-don’t ask me where she got it-and stabs it into the floor. Ice magically emanates from the wand. It crawls up the wall blocking the giant image of Aslan from view in a nice bit of visual symbolism. Within the ice, a ghostly figure appears.

It’s the White Witch (Tilda Swinton)’s ghost! I’ve got to say I actually like the way she looks here better than in the last movie. Her white skin color is much more “like snow or paper or icing-sugar.”

“Wait! This isn’t what I wanted!” Caspian protests. He starts to back away in horror, but the werewolf grabs hold of him. More specifically, he grabs hold of his wrist and holds it out while the Hag draws a knife. The Witch speaks. (I don’t know much of this is due to Swinton and how much due to the sound mixing but her voice sounds nicely ethereal otherworldly.) One drop of Adam’s blood and you free me,” she says. This is actually a good addition to the book’s story, explaining why none of the White Witch’s followers have tried calling up her spirit before. OK, it’s not an amazing explanation since they could have captured any random human and don’t need specifically need Caspian’s blood, but I still like it. It’s a bit weird that the line concludes with her saying, “Then I am yours, my king.” It almost sounds like she’s flirting with him. Was that the idea? Anyway, despite Caspian’s protests, the Hag cuts his hand, drawing blood.^[7]Don’t ask me why the movie couldn’t have a PG rating if the battle scenes showed blood but this is OK. The MPAA is weird. The Witch kisses her spectral fingertips and then extends her hand-physically breaking through the ice! It’s very creepy.

As she does so, the fight goes out Caspian. He seems to be falling under her (literal) spell. Just when it looks like he’s going to let her use his blood, we hear Peter yell “Stop!” He rushes into the room along with Edmund and Trumpkin. (Don’t ask how they knew what was happening. I guess, as in the book, they were just eavesdropping.) The werewolf throws off its cloak and leaps upon them. Edmund fights the wolf, Peter fights the Hag and Trumpkin fights Nikabrik. It looks as if Nikabrik is going to overpower the other dwarf but then Lucy appears and grabs him from behind. Nikabrik twists her arm and shoves her hard against the floor. On the plus side, Peter also throws the Hag hard against the wall and it’s implied that Edmund slays the werewolf. Nikabrik is about to kill Lucy when Trumpkin stabs him from behind. While the movie’s plot structure has kept it from developing their relationship, we know Trumpkin and Nikabrik have shared a home for some time and it’s sad to see one forced to kill the other. (In the book, the light is knocked out during this fight and it’s left ambiguous which of the good guys killed Nikabrik.)

Seeing all her allies falling, the Witch becomes desperate. “Come on!” she hisses, holding out her hand. Caspian, hypnotized, is about to obey but Peter shoves him aside, holding out his sword. “Get away from him!” he cries. The Witch quickly withdraws her hand but just as quickly holds it out again. “Peter dear!” she says, smiling. “I’ve missed you!”

OK, what?!

Now it definitely sounds like she’s flirting. And why should Peter believe she’s missed him? Pretty much their only interactions were trying to kill each other. Yet it seems like he’s falling for her words. The idea seems to be that standing in the circle makes you susceptible to the Witch. “Come,” she coaxes, “Just one drop. You know you can’t do this alone.” Peter starts to lower his sword. But before he can do anything, a sword pierces through the center of the wall of ice.

It shatters, revealing the sword’s wielder, Edmund, behind it. “I know,” he tells Peter, “You had it sorted.” Caspian and Peter stare at the image of Aslan, appalled at what they almost did. Then they turn to see Susan. She glares at Caspian in disgust, then turns and storms off, leaving him looking even guiltier. Yes, apparently, the filmmakers felt that almost bringing back the White Witch wasn’t a big enough reason for Caspian to feel terrible. He also needs to be upset because Susan doesn’t like him anymore. Spare me.

This is easily the craziest scene in the movie. Maybe in any of the Narnia movies. I don’t necessarily hate the addition of having Nikabrik’s crew partially complete their evil ritual and the heroes stopping it just in time. It’s a stereotypically Hollywood-esque change to make to the story but, hey, sometimes I enjoy the stereotypically Hollywood-esque. And there are some aspects of the scene I really admire but there are also plenty I find ridiculous. As something of a writer myself, I can see what the screenwriters’ goal was. Since Caspian and Peter entirely blamed each other for the failure of the last battle, they wanted a situation where they would be equally at fault and have no choice but to acknowledge their own failings, even to bond over their mutual guilt.^[8]Of course, the screenwriters wouldn’t have needed that if they’d stuck closer to the book. The problem is that there’s no way either Peter or Caspian would be idiotic enough to even consider trusting the White Witch. To get around that, the movie implied that she had them under a spell. But in that case, assuming they really had no free will, why should they feel guilty?^[9]Well, I guess Caspian should for not insisting on the Hag and the werewolf explaining themselves. Sometimes understanding the thought process behind ridiculous, contrived scenes like this inclines me to forgive them. At other times, it just makes me despise them more. It depends on how much I enjoy the movies (or books or plays) on the whole. I enjoy this one, so I’ll forgive it though I understand why other viewers might not do so.

Next Week: That Telmarine Army Is Still Coming. What Will Our Heroes Do?

But First Another Animation Station Post as a Tribute to the Late Bob Newhart