This movie was recommended to me by the same person that blessed me with a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. Shadowlands is one of the most amazing screenplays ever written. It is well executed, acted and directed. The cinematography is a bit dark for my taste but I'm sure it was intended to be so. The screenplay is like poetry in portions of the movie, through out the movie I found myself taking pause to reflect on the comments just made on screen. This is a wonderful piece of cinema and I can only hope that more people will run across it and add reviews. Fair warning though this was a 6 tissue movie for me. Very touching. Very Heartfelt performances.
15 Reviews
Different from the later version
caspian197810 December 2003
Even though the Hopkins and Winger version had a larger budget, the BBC TV version is just as good. Even though we the issue of cancer is dealt with longer in the TV version, Hopkin portrays C.S. Lewis in more of, may I say, an American way. Both films portray C.S. Lewis with a British actor, but here, we actually forget from time to time that this is not C.S. Lewis and actually I an actor portraying him. This version mentions more about the Magician's Nephew and not the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe more like Hopkin's version. Both include the crying moment between Lewis and his step son up in the attic. Both are powerful and very different. Each is enjoyable if you are a fan of C.S. Lewis.
CS Lewis with class
didi-531 January 2009
The 1990s film with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger is rightly showered with praise, and I enjoyed it very much, but this TV original is just as good, and in some ways, more appropriately cast. Claire Bloom isn't a brash Joy, but she is still confident and throwing her cap at her favourite author (played by Joss Ackland in one of his best performances).
Quieter, calmer, and less emotional than the Attenborough film this may be, but it does justice to what is a marvellous play full of meaningful dialogue. You'll still cry to this version, but perhaps you won't have the musical prompts to set you off.
There's room for both - and having seen this on stage, I would say that the Ackland/Bloom one is slightly more faithful. But they're both excellent.
Quieter, calmer, and less emotional than the Attenborough film this may be, but it does justice to what is a marvellous play full of meaningful dialogue. You'll still cry to this version, but perhaps you won't have the musical prompts to set you off.
There's room for both - and having seen this on stage, I would say that the Ackland/Bloom one is slightly more faithful. But they're both excellent.
More informative but less emotional than the Hollywood version.
sue-molenda16 May 2005
This version did not move me as deeply as the later, Hollywood version starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. While it was beautifully filmed and superbly acted, the BBC version was more packed with dialog that imparted information which I found fascinating. It gave me a detailed glimpse of the intellectual, theological and moral considerations that motivated C. S. Lewis. It was therefore more interesting and stimulating than the Hollywood version, but not nearly as visually stunning or viscerally affecting. Still, while I did not leave a heaping mound of sodden Kleenex in the theater, I did use one, and at frequent intervals. I enjoyed this film every bit as much as the Hollywood version, and was grateful for the increased understanding I gained.
Yes, an accurate portrayal
jmkray-112 August 2006
This was a very faithful presentation of Lewis's life in the mid-50's. The dialogue on theology and the banter with his follow colleagues was exceptionally good. Michael White's book, "C.S. Lewis: Creator of Narnia" deals with this time frame in a very parallel way. Joss Ackland's acting was superb in catching the unemotional Lewis. The movie took great pains to be presented in an accurate English setting. The development of a strong bond between "Jack" (his preferred name) Lewis and Douglas Gresham, Joy's son from her previous marriage, was enjoyable to watch. The movie did avoid the distasteful element of "Warnie" Lewis's (Jack's older brother) drinking problem, but it would not have moved the story on, so it is best left out.
Great actors
jouko.salo27 December 2000
I really liked this film about love between two adults in postwar Britain. The high standards of BBC TV is evident in the production, and superb lead actors (Claire Bloom and Joss Ackland) make this an uplifting experience. Bloom and Ackland have previously worked together in theatre, and their chemistry and interaction is splendid. I recommend this version of Shadowlands over the film version of 1993.
Beautiful, magical, intelligent, thought-provoking
fortean214 April 2008
Easily one of my favourite dramatic TV films, in many ways beautiful yet sad, heart-warming and thought-provoking, this is a superb dramatisation of a few years in the life of C.S. Lewis and his relationship with Joy Davidman. I found it to be incredibly absorbing with excellent and 'realistic' dialogue and situations. It all seemed very 'real', yet there were also 'magical' moments that almost leave you breathless with delight. Ackland and Bloom as the central characters were excellent, as were the supporting cast. It's one of those dramas that I find hard to criticise, simply because, for me, there is NOTHING to be criticised, it just works so well on so many levels.
Very highly recommended.
Very highly recommended.
Missing key theme
deansscreen29 April 2019
Lewis wrote that his marriage to Joy brought him a new appreciation of the body and of physical pleasures. He emphasized this pleasure, in fact. Apparently, Joy and her love removed all traces of his prudish inhibitions. The BBC film glosses over this theme almost entirely. We get the impression that the couple only played Scrabble. The film also shortchanges the theological exertions that Lewis underwent to regain his faith after Joy's death. Otherwise, I must say, a splendid film in its acting and photography. It has my enthusiastic, if limited, recommendation!
The Definitive version - far superior to the movie
ubipetrus31 January 2016
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.
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.
beautiful version of C.S. Lewis-Joy Gresham relationship
blanche-230 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
A little trivia here: Joy Davidman's ex-husband, William Lindsay Gresham, is the author of Nightmare Alley, the basis for the film made starring Tyrone Power. Because of selling the film rights, they were able to buy a farm in the country, where Davidman wrote her second novel. I have often heard that a conflict with the estate caused the film to be withdrawn from TV showings and delayed the DVD release until 2005.
This is the 1985 version of Shadowlands shown on PBS, starring Clare Bloom and Joss Ackland. It tells the story of a tremendous friendship between the Christian and children's writer C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, who visited England with her two sons.
The two are only friends, but Joy and Lewis marry so she can stay in England; she actually retains her name and lives separately from him. One day, running for the phone, she tripped over a phone wire and broke her leg. It was then that the doctors discovered that her bones were being eaten away by cancer, and she had a mass in her breast. At that point, Lewis wanted a religious marriage, though his religion forbade it because she was divorced. He finally found a priest who would marry them.
The acting is superb, nothing else to be said. Bloom as Joy is intelligent and direct, Ackland perfect in his containment of emotions as he deals with Joy's illness, until the scene with her younger son.
Someone commented that this wasn't as emotional as the film with Debra Winger and Anthony Hopkins. I found it very emotional and went through more than a few tissues.
Beautifully photographed and produced with a lot of care, I highly recommend this as a story of a friendship that grew into a special love.
This is the 1985 version of Shadowlands shown on PBS, starring Clare Bloom and Joss Ackland. It tells the story of a tremendous friendship between the Christian and children's writer C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, who visited England with her two sons.
The two are only friends, but Joy and Lewis marry so she can stay in England; she actually retains her name and lives separately from him. One day, running for the phone, she tripped over a phone wire and broke her leg. It was then that the doctors discovered that her bones were being eaten away by cancer, and she had a mass in her breast. At that point, Lewis wanted a religious marriage, though his religion forbade it because she was divorced. He finally found a priest who would marry them.
The acting is superb, nothing else to be said. Bloom as Joy is intelligent and direct, Ackland perfect in his containment of emotions as he deals with Joy's illness, until the scene with her younger son.
Someone commented that this wasn't as emotional as the film with Debra Winger and Anthony Hopkins. I found it very emotional and went through more than a few tissues.
Beautifully photographed and produced with a lot of care, I highly recommend this as a story of a friendship that grew into a special love.
No Brian's Song
neilsmahoney13 October 2021
Brian's song without Brian Picalo... There isn't a single character developed enough to care about... The pace is unbearably 1950s slow... The woodsy outdoor shots should be beautiful but somehow don't work, 60s Christmas movie esque... Was the writer of the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe a scholar really this boring... The writing is atrocious, the actors didn't have a chance... It's a failed attempt to study deep thoughts... Instead of being broken hearted Brian, in this case Joy is dying, I couldn't wait for the movie to end.
BBC version "Shadowlands" a profoundly moving search for meaning and genuine Compassion amidst tragic personal-loss
Ed-from-HI10 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The original BBC-version of "Shadowlands" circa1985 is a profoundly moving, deeply insightful film. Of course, the Debra Winger + Anthony Hopkins theatrical-version is more well-known (and also quite well-done), but in many ways this BBC version of "Shadowlands" starring Joss Ackland as C.S. Lewis and Claire Bloom as Joy Davidman-Gresham feels more authentic, and presents much more 'in-depth' conversations.
Even if you are not devoutly Christian you can still extract a great deal of meaning from this particular film, but it certainly helps if you at least have an inquiring nature about our place and significance in the vast Universe and the search for genuine 'meaning' beyond just the 'material' (i.e. for something of authentic value usually associated in some way with those under-appreciated/ underdeveloped concepts of compassion, empathy, genuine 'connection' etc.) The main reason why I found this version of "Shadowlands" so satisfying was precisely because the characters of both C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman-Gresham seem fully-realized (by Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom) as deeply compassionate, deep 'thinking' human beings that are in no way (even with their great intellectual achievements) condescending, self-righteous, and not complacently 'certain' about the meaning of 'life' 'God' 'purpose' etc. But they were both totally sincere and committed to devoting their minds, spirits (and of course faith) to the eternal pursuit of searching for meaning as (physically-fragile) human beings; and with most things in Life, the sincere willingness to search & question is more rewarding than quickly settling on a definitive (one-size-fits-all) answer!
The first and second halves of this film are quite different in tone of course. During the first, the independent bachelor/Christian-philosopher/ author C.S. Lewis seems content being a teacher/ professor and perhaps even 'spiritual-guide' in a way to his students (and fans of his popular series, like the 'Narnia' books). He doesn't think he needs a 'partner' until he begins receiving intriguingly profound (and even poetic) letters of commentary/inquiry from a mysterious New Yorker by the name of Joy Davidman-Gresham (who had already written & published an award-winning collection of poetry in America).
However, Joy seems trapped in a marriage that has recently fallen into dis-repair, and reaches out to Lewis for no specific reason other than connecting (just intellectually at first) with a 'kindred-spirit' ==> C.S. Lewis being intrigued beyond measure, arranges for Joy to meet him in England.
The discussions and interactions that transpire are truly fascinating (for the viewer) beyond measure, as it is revealed that Joy Davidman-Gresham was born into a Jewish family, subsequently converted to both Atheism & Communism (probably partly due to the dire economic circumstances of the 'Great-Depression') but ultimately finds herself left with a sense of profound 'emptiness' and eventually turns to Christianity. But the idea that Joy's journey was such a Long and well-traversed (and obviously deeply thought-out) process is thoroughly captivating (to both audience and most probably C.S. Lewis who was of course a profoundly deep-thinker with an undeniable desire to locate the 'humane' aspects of religion).
In the second-half, as C.S. Lewis and Joy fall in Love and Marry, before being confronted with their most profound spiritual challenges (and physical tragedies) - leading to C.S. Lewis' deepest spiritual/philosophical struggles and the book-essay collection 'A Grief Observed'
Even if you are not devoutly Christian you can still extract a great deal of meaning from this particular film, but it certainly helps if you at least have an inquiring nature about our place and significance in the vast Universe and the search for genuine 'meaning' beyond just the 'material' (i.e. for something of authentic value usually associated in some way with those under-appreciated/ underdeveloped concepts of compassion, empathy, genuine 'connection' etc.) The main reason why I found this version of "Shadowlands" so satisfying was precisely because the characters of both C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman-Gresham seem fully-realized (by Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom) as deeply compassionate, deep 'thinking' human beings that are in no way (even with their great intellectual achievements) condescending, self-righteous, and not complacently 'certain' about the meaning of 'life' 'God' 'purpose' etc. But they were both totally sincere and committed to devoting their minds, spirits (and of course faith) to the eternal pursuit of searching for meaning as (physically-fragile) human beings; and with most things in Life, the sincere willingness to search & question is more rewarding than quickly settling on a definitive (one-size-fits-all) answer!
The first and second halves of this film are quite different in tone of course. During the first, the independent bachelor/Christian-philosopher/ author C.S. Lewis seems content being a teacher/ professor and perhaps even 'spiritual-guide' in a way to his students (and fans of his popular series, like the 'Narnia' books). He doesn't think he needs a 'partner' until he begins receiving intriguingly profound (and even poetic) letters of commentary/inquiry from a mysterious New Yorker by the name of Joy Davidman-Gresham (who had already written & published an award-winning collection of poetry in America).
However, Joy seems trapped in a marriage that has recently fallen into dis-repair, and reaches out to Lewis for no specific reason other than connecting (just intellectually at first) with a 'kindred-spirit' ==> C.S. Lewis being intrigued beyond measure, arranges for Joy to meet him in England.
The discussions and interactions that transpire are truly fascinating (for the viewer) beyond measure, as it is revealed that Joy Davidman-Gresham was born into a Jewish family, subsequently converted to both Atheism & Communism (probably partly due to the dire economic circumstances of the 'Great-Depression') but ultimately finds herself left with a sense of profound 'emptiness' and eventually turns to Christianity. But the idea that Joy's journey was such a Long and well-traversed (and obviously deeply thought-out) process is thoroughly captivating (to both audience and most probably C.S. Lewis who was of course a profoundly deep-thinker with an undeniable desire to locate the 'humane' aspects of religion).
In the second-half, as C.S. Lewis and Joy fall in Love and Marry, before being confronted with their most profound spiritual challenges (and physical tragedies) - leading to C.S. Lewis' deepest spiritual/philosophical struggles and the book-essay collection 'A Grief Observed'
This predated them all.
planktonrules28 January 2024
When I was searching on YouTube recently, I was surprised to see "Shadowlands" (1986). After all, I've seen the 1993 movie and enjoyed it...and I knew there previously was a play version. But I never knew that there was this made for TV version...and it's well worth seeing.
The story is about C. S. Lewis and his relationship with American authoress, Joy Davidman. It follows from their corresponding by mail to meeting to marrying and, sadly, her premature death from bone cancer.
Unlike the later and much more famous film, this version sticks closer to the real story. For example, the 1993 film omits a son...whereas Joy actually had two sons. Also, the 1993 version de-emphasized C. S. Lewis' Christian faith and focuses mostly on his fame from having written "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and not his more overtly Christian works of fiction and non-fiction.
Overall, I really liked this version. Joss Acklund looks more like Lewis and the film is well worth seeing...and a bit depressing because real life can often be depressing and this portion of his and Joy's life is pretty sad with her untimely passing.
The story is about C. S. Lewis and his relationship with American authoress, Joy Davidman. It follows from their corresponding by mail to meeting to marrying and, sadly, her premature death from bone cancer.
Unlike the later and much more famous film, this version sticks closer to the real story. For example, the 1993 film omits a son...whereas Joy actually had two sons. Also, the 1993 version de-emphasized C. S. Lewis' Christian faith and focuses mostly on his fame from having written "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and not his more overtly Christian works of fiction and non-fiction.
Overall, I really liked this version. Joss Acklund looks more like Lewis and the film is well worth seeing...and a bit depressing because real life can often be depressing and this portion of his and Joy's life is pretty sad with her untimely passing.
Superb
jlthornb513 November 2022
This is unforgettable. Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom give the performances of their lifetimes in a truly masterful story. The later version is fine but it is this one, with Mr. Ackland so moving and real, that you will never forget. When the film was released, I was stunned another actor was playing the role of C. S. Lewis. In my mind and memory, it will forever be Joss Ackland I think of when I read C. S. Lewis or hear him mentioned. When an actor can achieve that, it is a stunning achievement. It is most certainly exactly what is done here and because of what he achieved, I have looked for and appreciated Joss Ackland ever since.
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