MovieChat Forums > A Wrinkle in Time (2004) Discussion > Talk about the wrong message to send

Talk about the wrong message to send

posted 20 years ago by MeOnline
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching A Wrinkle in Time on ABC right now and Charles Wallace is being tempted by the Red Eyed Man (REM). What a screw-up. Maybe I'm wrong in remembering this, but in the book it was Charles Wallace's own arrogance and over-confidence that allowed him to be taken over for a time.

In this, its making it look like the REM is tempting him to evil with knowledge. A giant encyclopedia fascinates him, followed by math, and then learning other new skills. And as he learns more, he starts to hurt those he cares about. This is just a great message to pass onto our kids, knowledge is evil and corrupts. For all those who say that its not bad for the age group its aimed at, I would argue that your children would be better served by having them read the book rather than watching this letdown.

[–] lynneelf 20 years ago

hmm...

it depends....

Obviously knowledge is good to have--Charles Wallace's family always made sure he had plenty of education.

However, knowledge without wisdom can be bad, especially if it's to be used for evil things (like dangling your sister over a pit of wiggling brain parts).

And actually they did mention his arrogance, for before approaching the man he was very boastful. (though I suspect it's harder to capture that on film).

[–] whitespirit26 16 years ago

OP, you couldn't possibly have interprated the movie's message in a more twisted way. Knowledge had nothing to do with it; the man was just using Charles's interestes to rope him in, not to corrupt him. It WAS Charles's arrogance that did him in: he walked right up to the man and said that he was going to make him let them all go, while in the background you could hear Meg yelling, "Remember what Mrs. Whatsit said, Charles; you DON'T know everything!" Considering the fact that Charles was generally a very humble and timid little boy, in both the film and book, you know he had to be acting pretty foolishly proud for his sister to have had to say that.

[–] jjsan13 14 years ago

silly silly silly

Knowlege is evil and corrupts thats why mortals
should be kept in the dark.

Especially with how fallible mortals are,
gah, don't even get me started.

[–] browntable759 9 years ago

Or maybe the message is that if a bad guy with dangerous ideas tempts you with something that you're very interested in, (which happened to be knowledge in Charles Wallace's case) you shouldn't be so captivated by your interest that you're drawn into something very bad. In the same scene, Meg's father encouraged her to use her knowledge to fight against the control being exerted over her. I would hazard a guess that kids would be much more likely to take away an anti-"listening to creepy people" message, not an anti-knowledge message.