Shadowlands (film)
Encyclopedia
Shadowlands is a 1993 British biographical film directed by Richard Attenborough
. The screenplay
by William Nicholson
is based on his 1985 television production and 1989 stage adaptation of the same name
. The original television film began life as a script entitled I Call it Joy written for Thames Television
by Brian Sibley
and Norman Stone. Sibley later wrote the book, Shadowlands: The True Story of C. S. Lewis
and Joy Davidman.
d bachelor
C. S. Lewis
, an Oxford University academic at Magdalen College
and author of The Chronicles of Narnia
series of children's books, and his relationship with divorced American poet Joy Gresham
and her young son Douglas
. What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into an intense feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie
disrupted by the outspoken, feisty Gresham, whose uninhibited behavior offers a sharp contrast to the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world. Initially their marriage is one of convenience, a platonic union designed to allow Gresham to remain in England. But when she is diagnosed with cancer, deeper feelings surface, and Lewis' faith is tested as his wife tries to prepare him for her imminent death.
of the Chicago Sun-Times
called the film "intelligent, moving and beautifully acted."
Rita Kempley of the Washington Post described it as "a high-class tear-jerker" and a "literate hankie sopper" and added, "William Nicholson's screenplay brims with substance and wit, though it's essentially a soap opera
with a Rhodes scholarship
. . . [Winger] and Hopkins lend great tenderness and dignity to what is really a rather corny tale of a love that was meant to be."
In Variety
, Emanuel Levy observed, "It's a testament to the nuanced writing of William Nicholson . . . that the drama works effectively on both personal and collective levels . . . Attenborough opts for modest, unobtrusive direction that serves the material and actors . . . Hopkins adds another laurel to his recent achievements. As always, there's music in his speech and nothing is over-deliberate or forced about his acting . . . Coming off years of desultory and unimpressive movies, Winger at last plays a role worthy of her talent."
In the stage play as in reality, Lewis and Davidman honeymoon in Greece. In the film, on their honeymoon they look for a "Golden Valley" in England, as depicted in a painting hanging in Lewis' study.
As in the stage play, though not the earlier television film, Joy has only one son. In the original television film, as in reality, Joy had two sons, Douglas and David.
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by William Nicholson
William Nicholson (writer)
William Nicholson FRSL is a British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist.-Family:A native of Lewes, Sussex, William Nicholson was raised in a Catholic family in Gloucestershire. By the time he reached his tenth birthday, he had decided to become a writer. He was educated at Downside School,...
is based on his 1985 television production and 1989 stage adaptation of the same name
Shadowlands
Shadowlands is a 1985 television film, written by William Nicholson, directed by Norman Stone and produced by David M. Thompson for BBC Wales. Its subject is the relationship between Oxford don and author, C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham....
. The original television film began life as a script entitled I Call it Joy written for Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
by Brian Sibley
Brian Sibley
Brian Sibley is an English writer. He is author of over 100 hours of radio drama and has written and presented hundreds of radio documentaries, features and weekly programmes.- Early life :...
and Norman Stone. Sibley later wrote the book, Shadowlands: The True Story of C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
and Joy Davidman.
Plot
Set in the 1950s, the film focuses on reserved, middle ageMiddle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
d bachelor
Bachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, an Oxford University academic at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
and author of The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
series of children's books, and his relationship with divorced American poet Joy Gresham
Joy Gresham
Joy Davidman was an American poet and writer, and a radical communist and atheist until her conversion to Christianity in the late 1940s. Her first husband was the writer William Lindsay Gresham. They had two children together: David and Douglas. Her second marriage was to C. S...
and her young son Douglas
Douglas Gresham
Douglas Gresham is an American-born British biographer and film producer, resident in Malta, and one of the two stepsons of C. S. Lewis.- Personal life :...
. What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into an intense feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie
Warren Lewis
Warren Hamilton Lewis was an Irish British Army officer and historian, best known as the brother of the author and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps of the British Army during and after World War I...
disrupted by the outspoken, feisty Gresham, whose uninhibited behavior offers a sharp contrast to the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world. Initially their marriage is one of convenience, a platonic union designed to allow Gresham to remain in England. But when she is diagnosed with cancer, deeper feelings surface, and Lewis' faith is tested as his wife tries to prepare him for her imminent death.
Cast
- Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as C.S. "Jack" LewisC. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland... - Debra WingerDebra WingerMary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
as Joy GreshamJoy GreshamJoy Davidman was an American poet and writer, and a radical communist and atheist until her conversion to Christianity in the late 1940s. Her first husband was the writer William Lindsay Gresham. They had two children together: David and Douglas. Her second marriage was to C. S... - Edward HardwickeEdward HardwickeEdward Hardwicke , sometimes credited as Edward Hardwick, was an English actor.-Early life and career:...
as Warren "Warnie" LewisWarren LewisWarren Hamilton Lewis was an Irish British Army officer and historian, best known as the brother of the author and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps of the British Army during and after World War I... - Joseph MazzelloJoseph MazzelloJoseph Francis Mazzello III is an American actor who is best known for his roles as Tim Murphy in Jurassic Park, Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries The Pacific, and Dustin Moskovitz in The Social Network....
as Douglas GreshamDouglas GreshamDouglas Gresham is an American-born British biographer and film producer, resident in Malta, and one of the two stepsons of C. S. Lewis.- Personal life :... - James FrainJames FrainJames Dominic Frain is an English stage and screen actor. He is possibly best known for his role in the Showtime series The Tudors in which he appeared as Thomas Cromwell from 2007 to 2009, and for his role as vampire Franklin Mott in season three of the HBO drama True Blood, as well as his role...
as Peter Whistler - Julian FellowesJulian FellowesJulian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, DL , known as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer.-Early life:...
as Desmond Arding - Michael DenisonMichael DenisonJohn Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE was an English actor.-Background:Denison was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1915. He was raised by his aunt and uncle from the age of three weeks, following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father. He was educated at Harrow...
as Harry Harrington - John WoodJohn Wood (English actor)John Wood, CBE was an English actor.-Biography:Wood was born in Derbyshire and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Changing to drama, Wood became known as a stage actor, appearing in numerous West End productions as well as on...
as Christopher Riley
Critical reception
Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
called the film "intelligent, moving and beautifully acted."
Rita Kempley of the Washington Post described it as "a high-class tear-jerker" and a "literate hankie sopper" and added, "William Nicholson's screenplay brims with substance and wit, though it's essentially a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
with a Rhodes scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
. . . [Winger] and Hopkins lend great tenderness and dignity to what is really a rather corny tale of a love that was meant to be."
In Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Emanuel Levy observed, "It's a testament to the nuanced writing of William Nicholson . . . that the drama works effectively on both personal and collective levels . . . Attenborough opts for modest, unobtrusive direction that serves the material and actors . . . Hopkins adds another laurel to his recent achievements. As always, there's music in his speech and nothing is over-deliberate or forced about his acting . . . Coming off years of desultory and unimpressive movies, Winger at last plays a role worthy of her talent."
Changes from the stage play or earlier television production
The stage play opens with Lewis giving a talk about the mystery of suffering. This film opens with Lewis giving a radio broadcast about the sanctity of marriage.In the stage play as in reality, Lewis and Davidman honeymoon in Greece. In the film, on their honeymoon they look for a "Golden Valley" in England, as depicted in a painting hanging in Lewis' study.
As in the stage play, though not the earlier television film, Joy has only one son. In the original television film, as in reality, Joy had two sons, Douglas and David.
Awards and honors
- Academy Award for Best ActressAcademy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Debra Winger, nominee) - Academy Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayAcademy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
(nominee) - BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Best British FilmBAFTA Award for Best FilmThis page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
(winner) - BAFTA Award for Best FilmBAFTA Award for Best FilmThis page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
(nominee) - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleBest Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:...
(Anthony Hopkins, winner) - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleBest Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...
(Winger, nominee) - BAFTA Award for Best DirectionBAFTA Award for Best DirectionWinners of the BAFTA Award for Best Direction presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-2010s:* 2010 - David Fincher – The Social Network** Tom Hooper – The King's Speech** Danny Boyle – 127 Hours...
(nominee) - BAFTA Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayBAFTA Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Adapted Screenplay has been presented to its winners since 1968:-1980s:1983: Heat and Dust – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala*Betrayal – Harold Pinter...
(nominee) - National Board of Review Award for Best ActorNational Board of Review Award for Best ActorAn incomplete list of the winners of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actor :-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
(Hopkins, winner) - Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorThe Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:...
(Hopkins, winner) - Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorSoutheastern Film Critics Association Awards 1993The 2nd Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 1993, were held in January 1994.-Top 10 films:#The Piano#Schindler's List *Academy Award for Best Picture*#The Remains of the Day#Much Ado About Nothing...
(Hopkins, winner)