Magic Never Ends, The: The Life & Faith of C.S. Lewis (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Those are my main quarrels with "The Magic Never Ends: The Life & Faith of C.S. Lewis," and as you can see they may well be matters of personal taste. What's here, while pretty standard in its content and editing, is a decent biography that offers wonderful footage of the landscapes that inspired Lewis as a writer. The talking heads are pretty average in terms of their insights or even their ability to articulate their positions, and Winger is so casual in her appearance and so focused on Lewis himself that you could easily mistake her for a relative or former student. And the relative who does appear, Joy Gresham's son, Douglas, who also steers clear of Hollywood for the most part, except to talk about how embarrassed Lewis would have been by all the fanfare. That's another surprise, since Gresham was brought onboard as co-producer for the Disney "Chronicles of Narnia" films. The focus in this biography is on Lewis as scholar and Lewis as writer. For many, that will be enough.

Video:
When we zoom in on close-ups in nature, you can see that the level of detail is quite good for a DVD, and even better when you consider this is a made-for-TV (1.33:1 aspect ratio) documentary. The color exterior color footage is striking, with only the slightest grain--again, for a DVD.

Audio:
The audio appears to be a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, though it could also be a Mono that's split into two channels. It's hard to tell, since it's mostly voiceover.

Extras:
What appear to be bonus features are really sections of the documentary that are playable according to topic. There's the bio basics on Lewis, with voiceover as in the film, along with footage of the Cotswolds and Oxford University and The Kilns which have no voiceover at all, just music playing while the camera scans and pans the scenery. So unless you're paying attention during the documentary you really have no frame of reference. A final extra comes closer to being a bonus feature--an interview with Duncan--but even that has considerable overlapping, and what's more curious is that Duncan says things that are at odds with what the scholars had said in the film. I'm not sure how reliable it is.

Bottom Line:
This biography of Lewis focuses mainly on his scholarship and academic career, with an added emphasis on the author's late-in-life love affair with Joy Gresham. If you care about Lewis as an author, this is a pretty solid documentary; if you're wanting it as a companion to the films, I'm not sure how useful you'll find it.