Love in the Heart of Darkness

It’s not easy to make movies about writers. They don’t lead interesting lives. You just stay behind the typewriter for the most part.

But these movies are about fantasy writers. That might help a bit. Imagination is their craft.

They stir the human soul. They tell about the great chain of humanity. And the thoughts that deepen the heart. Both films are love stories involving writers.

“Shadowlands” tells about C.S. Lewis and his friendship with a Jewish-American woman from the United States who takes him by storm. More than pen pals. They’re soul mates without realizing it. She’s a challenge to him.

Anthony Hopkins (Before the "sir) plays the part with enormous wit. And subtle charm. He’s an Englishman who leads a quiet life. Debra Winger is very good as his counterpart. She’s the woman who seeks to light his fire with passion. Notable is actor Edward Hardwicke who plays Lewis’ gentle brother. (You can see him in Sherlock Holmes series opposite Jeremy Brett).

Both Lewis and Joy Graham are writers. But their love doesn’t last. Sadly enough.

Relationships are a pain. No philosopher can pretend to understand them. No scientist could make an equation to it. No mathematician could put the numbers to it.

This film does a wonderful job of portraying writer C.S. Lewis. He’s an Oxford scholar who teaches and gives lectures. He finds a love through his writing.

It’s a very good chapter of a writer’s life. The chapter where he gains and loses a love. When he discovers that Joy has terminal cancer, he must find the courage to go on living. Love isn't fair. Richard Attenbourough directed a quiet masterpiece.

A lesser-known gem is “The Whole Wide World”--a brilliant story about a writer. His name is Robert E. Howard.

Best known for his brutal sword and sorcery fiction that hit the pulp pages during the depression era. His imagination’s a rare gift. His descriptions jump from the books. The string of words create a powerful image.

You might not know his name. But you know his works such as Conan the Barbarian. The Texas stalwart created more than two dozen pulp heroes and penned hundreds of short stories.

He’s the greatest loner in Texas. Nobody knew him that well except through pulp magazines at the time. Nobody offered him love. Except from his doting, overprotective mother.

Novalyne Price Ellis enjoyed a brief, stirring relationship with Howard. She revealed her feelings for him in a book, “One Who Walked Alone,” published in 1985. The film is based on this love.

“The Whole Wide World” tells a story about Howard who fell for a local school teacher. He takes her love by storm. But he doesn’t know how to reciprocate. It's a passion that could be found in romance books. But love is a tragedy. It always is.

Vicent D'Onofrio is mammoth as Robert E. Howard. You can see the fire in his eyes when he talks about his stories. Renee Zellinger is equally good as Novalyne Price. A very good pairing.

Howard is unable to cope with the world. His world has no room for love. That is his greatest failure.

But for a brief, glittering moment, a woman gave him that chance. To know what love is. To feel it. Breath it. And he responded. Passionately.

But he lived with too much passion. Eventually he learned of his mother’s death… someone he could not live without. Howard took to a shotgun and blew his own head off. He was only thirty. It was a love that couldn’t last.

I would recommend these films when you hit the video stores next time. Perhaps for next Valentine’s Day. They’re beautiful pictures that let you get into the world’s greatest puzzle: the writer’s mind.