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Shadowlands

  • TV Movie
  • 19861986
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
544
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
21,662
1,729
Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom in Shadowlands (1986)
BiographyDramaRomance
Noted author and scholar finds love, then must endure its loss...Noted author and scholar finds love, then must endure its loss...Noted author and scholar finds love, then must endure its loss...
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
544
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
21,662
1,729
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Norman Stone
    • Writers
      • William Nicholson
      • Norman Stone
    • Stars
      • Joss Ackland
      • Claire Bloom
      • David Waller
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Norman Stone
    • Writers
      • William Nicholson
      • Norman Stone
    • Stars
      • Joss Ackland
      • Claire Bloom
      • David Waller
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 13User reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Won 2 BAFTA Awards
      • 3 nominations total

    Photos

    Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom in Shadowlands (1986)
    Joss Ackland in Shadowlands (1986)
    Joss Ackland in Shadowlands (1986)
    Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom in Shadowlands (1986)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Joss Ackland
    Joss Ackland
    • C.S. Lewis
    Claire Bloom
    Claire Bloom
    • Joy Davidman
    David Waller
    • Warnie Lewis
    Rupert Baderman
    • Douglas
    Rhys Hopkins
    • David
    Alan MacNaughtan
    Alan MacNaughtan
    • Christopher Riley
    Philip Stone
    Philip Stone
    • Harry Harrington
    Tim Preece
    • Alan Gregg
    Norman Rutherford
    • Paxford
    John Ringham
    John Ringham
    • Doctor
    Henry Moxon
    • Solicitor
    Michael Cunningham
    • Registrar
    Max Harvey
    • Radio Announcer
    • (voice)
    Jim Kirby
    • Father Fisher
    Dilys Price
    • Sister
    Richard Merrett
    • Student
    • Director
      • Norman Stone
    • Writers
      • William Nicholson
      • Norman Stone
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom also both appear in Queenie (1987), Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1995), Tales from the Madhouse (2000), and notably provide voices in the animated film The Princess and the Goblin (1991), based on the novel by George MacDonald. C.S. Lewis was greatly influenced by MacDonald's fantasy writings and spiritual insights.
    • Quotes

      [first lines]

      C.S. Lewis: Why am I so afraid? I never knew that love could hurt so much. Yet I love you, and all I want is to love you. Beyond every door, I hear your voice saying to me, 'This is only the land of shadows. Real life hasn't begun yet.'

    • Alternate versions
      92-minute television version and 73-minute "abridged" version are available on DVD. The abridged version includes on-screen titles such as "January 1950" and "Two Years Later" at various points in the film. The time difference is made of cuts at the beginning of the film. 92-minute version opens with Jack at the college with a voice-over and the camera passing through a wardrobe. Another long section of cuts start when Jack is walking and reading Joy's letter, the letter is longer and includes a poem. Jack then goes into a classroom and lectures, and later returns home for tea with Warnie. After Joy and Jack's first meeting, scenes of them walking and talking around Oxford is longer. She arrives at his house with her boys, and they play chess with Warnie. Other cut scenes include Jack at a pub with his friends, and finding Douglas reading in the attic for the first time. Jack also tells Joy about when his mother died. And Joy goes to the college for a party and meets Jack's colleagues. The Christmas they spend together also includes a scene of a toast before they leave. Another section of cuts show Jack's life at the college (montage partly included in the opening credits of the abridged version), more scenes of him speaking to students, and talking to Christopher. In a final cut scene, the gardener asks Jack to come outside and he is surprised to find Joy has returned to England. Joy moves into her new house at the 36 minute mark in the full version and at the 17 minute mark of the abridged version, no cuts noted after that.
    • Connections
      Remade as Shadowlands (1993)
    • Soundtracks
      Abide With Me
      (uncredited)

      Lyrics by Henry Francis Lite

      Music by William Henry Monk

      Performed by Norman Rutherford

    User reviews13

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    The Definitive version - far superior to the movie
    Clives Staples Lewis (known as "Jack" to his friends) was a truly brilliant Oxford Don who brought Christianity (at least in a general way) into the educated forums. While one can regret his not having embraced the Gospel quite as fully as did his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, he nevertheless contributed enough to be of genuine value even so. The beauty of this version (in comparison to the other) is how one truly gains a far better view of who he is, what makes him tick, and also not only who he was but who the others in his life were, not only Joy but also his brother Warnie, and his circle of friends, the "Inklings." The relative accuracy of this version adds substantially to the emotional depth of the loss. Though the particulars of each person's grief varies, it is ironically in those particulars that each person's grief is most united to everyone else's particular griefs. There is a moment when, looking at the two boys facing their own grief in losing their mother, he looks at Warnie standing next to him and comments on how the two of them now is a repeat of what it had been for himself and Warnie so many years previous when their own mother was lost and they were of a similar age.

    You just can't get moments like that in a movie that doesn't even bother to show that Joy had two sons instead of merely one. In this version, he really is C. S. Lewis, the great writer not only of the fanciful Narnia Chronicles, but also of many brilliant essays on Christian moral and even doctrinal concerns, someone who has made serious thought about important things actually interesting, someone who tells his readers things they never thought of before and are now all the richer for now knowing, and yet he is also someone on the verge of having to eat all of his own brilliant words in the face of this suffering. He had written most beautifully about the Love of God; but where was that love now in his wife's sickness, suffering, and death? Even the small-budget atmosphere of the BBC production actually adds to its weight. Despite his being well-known, he lived a "small" life which revolved around his academic profession, his friends, his writing, his Faith, his family, and his wife. A vast Hollywood budget would have only brought in distractions and destroyed the focus. The movie, by contrast, has practically nothing to do with C. S. Lewis at all. The casting of Anthony Hopkins as C. S. Lewis is just plain wrong, like casting Peter Lorre as Abraham Lincoln, and the lines given him are full of vague New Age aphorisms instead of the precise Christian expositions which defined C. S. Lewis' entire existence and fundamental being. Unlike this BBC version, the film presents a generic anonymous character who could be just about anyone, blubbering over his wife in her sickness and death.
    helpful•6
    1
    • ubipetrus
    • Jan 31, 2016

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 29, 1986 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Країна тіней
    • Production company
      • British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 32 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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