I thought I’d risk my immortal soul this week and go see The DaVinci Code. I have always found Tom Hanks to be one of the more decent people in the film industry and usually enjoy any film he’s in. And, let’s be honest, who can really question Opie’s morals or values? I mean, he was raised in Mayberry by Andy for goodness sakes!
Having now seen the movie, I can only say that I believe there is some sort of conspiracy between Opie and certain Christian groups to make as much noise as possible about this movie so that it would sell enough tickets to justify its cost. Because, to put it quite bluntly, YAWN.
The producers of this movie should be on their knees in church thanking god for sending them the calls for boycotts and all the free publicity attendant on what seems like the panic of Christians over this rather boring movie.
It seems to me that believing in the Bible is an article of faith. You either have it or you don’t. You either believe the writers of the Gospels were divinely inspired or you don’t. You either believe the Church Fathers who chose which gospels made the cut and which didn’t were also divinely inspired or you don’t. That’s what faith is all about. No one can go back in history and prove anything much beyond the fact that a man named Jesus once lived and died in a certain time and place and that from his small group of followers, a great religion grew. To suggest that this movie will somehow turn that theology on its head is more than a little laughable.
I personally think that Christian theologians tie themselves into interesting knots trying to explain the role of women as presented in the Gospels so as to not admit the somewhat obvious – that women played a very important and vital role. They stood by Jesus on the cross and it was a woman to whom he first revealed his resurrection. Beyond that, I’ve never really given the whole thing much thought. Until now.
Now that there is so much fuss being made, I have to wonder if the old saw about where there is smoke, there is fire holds true in this case. Are Christian leaders up in arms because they fear the truth will be told or because they honestly think their congregations are too stupid and na�ve to understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction, between movie and documentary, between novel and historical document?
As I walked out of the movie, I heard people commenting that they didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I thought it was interesting that instead of the usual remarks heard after the release of a much anticipated movie, remarks about whether it was worth the wait, whether it was true to its source material, whether the right actors had been selected to represent much loved fictional characters, all I heard was people talking about the religious boycotts and how silly they seemed when faced with the reality of the movie.
I loved the books on which the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies were based. Invariably in talking to people about those movies, their reaction to them was closely intertwined with their devotion to the books. My sister was bored to tears with Harry Potter. I was totally entranced. I loved the books. She never read them. My sister found Lord of the Rings hard to follow because she never read the book and the year’s gap between installments just caused her to forget what had gone before and left her confused about what she was seeing now. I have the Trilogy all but memorized and had it been a decade instead of a year between installments, I still would have been entranced.
People who loved the book, The DaVinci Code, will probably love the movie because it is a fairly faithful, if somewhat dull and plodding version that is true to all the most esoteric bits of Magdalene lore described by the author. People who are not fans or who have not read the book will probably find the movie slow paced and confusing and, truth be told, actually funny in some parts that are meant to be serious.
Christians who worry this movie will somehow destroy their faith should not see it. But they should also seriously reassess the line between reality and fantasy in their lives. Because there is a danger that they’ve crossed it and in doing so have given a mediocre movie the boost it needed to make it a summer blockbuster.
And for all those albinos protesting the villain’s coloration, he’s actually the funniest thing in the movie. So be of good cheer. Without him and Sir Ian McKellen, the movie would have seemed interminable.