The Golden Compass

[GATEGOD]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Christian groups are up in arms here over a new children's film starring Nicole Kidman and based on an award-winning novel by British author Philip Pullman, accusing it of being anti-religious.
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"The Golden Compass" which opens here Friday is the film version of "The Northern Lights," the first book in Pullman's "Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy aimed at teenage readers.

The books by confirmed agnostic Pullman trace the fate of a young girl, Lyra, as she becomes drawn into an apocalyptic battle of good against evil, meeting a host of strange characters along the way including a polar bear, voiced in the film by Ian McKellan.

Evil in Pullman's books is represented by the church, called the Magisterium, whose acolytes kidnap orphans across England to subject them to horrible experiments in the frozen northern wastelands.

"The Northern Lights" won Pullman the 1995 Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in Britain, and the final volume in his trilogy, "The Amber Spyglass" was the first ever children's novel to be awarded the prestigious British Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2002.

With its 180-million-dollar big budget movie, New Line studios is hoping to repeat the box-office success of its "Lord of the Rings" series.

And it aims to tap into the young audiences of cinema-goers who flocked to the five "Harry Potter" films making them big earners for Warner Bros.

But already "The Golden Compass" is whipping up the same controversy which saw the "Harry Potter" series based on the novels by British author J. K Rowling, accused by some on the religious right of promoting witchcraft.

The author's attack on organized religion has been toned down for the film, in a bid to attract as wide as audience as possible, something director Chris Weitz has acknowledged.

"In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots," Weitz wrote in the British Daily Telegraph.

But "if that's what you want in the film, you'll be disappointed," he warned.

However, the sanitized version of Pullman's book has failed to appease the Catholic League, which gathers some 350,000 members, and which has already been sending out leaflets denouncing the film.

"The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books," said president William Donohue.

"Unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books," he added.

The League already took on the movie world in 2006 to denounce the blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code" and its central tenant that Jesus Christ had a child by Mary Magdalene whose descendants still survive today.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops however has been more nuanced in its approach warning in a review of "The Golden Compass" of its "anti-clerical subtext, standard genre occult elements, character born out of wedlock, a whiskey-guzzling bear."

But it adds that "taken purely on its own cinematic terms, (it) can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism."

"The Golden Compass" will be released in some 3,000 cinemas and only 60 have so far refused to screen it, according to the industry daily Variety.

"It's this undisguised anti-religious theme that has numerous groups in a lather, but perhaps more of an issue for some ... will be the film's lack of exciting uplift and the almost unrelievedly nasty treatment of the young characters by a host of aggressively unpleasant elders," Variety added.

Is this stupid or is it just me? This actually makes me want to go see the film...
Why would the church even care if we went to see this movie even if it was anti church /whatever...
Do they have such faith in us that we will stop believing because of one movie that is 'fantasy'...
I just thought this was hilarious. What about you lol?

 

[Jade In The Sky]

Oh, Lord 😀 It is so unnecessary, it only serves to advertise the movie not the opposite. My friends were talking about the compass like months ago and are anxious to see it. It expresses an interesting theory you know that we have a soul in the form of an animal and when we are children it is not yet chosen which animal it will become. It is also next to us and if we're not careful we can lost it. The experiments are aiming exactly that - to substact the souls of those children.

On their official site you can answer a poll and they will tell you which is your animal 🙂 ( I am an eagle 😛 ).

P.S. The article reminds me of Rowling's statement that you see Dumblrdore was gay. WHO CARES, d*mn it. They're all trying to spoil the fun.

 

[Frenchy Faith]

I think religious people are just scared... they talk about the movie being against religion, and being bad for the view of people on religion... but Catholics gave a bad image of so many kind of people in the past, as well as now... so who are they to talk.

If people really believe in Catholicism, a "movie" isn't going to make them change their minds... as for kids, they should let them make up their own mind about religion instead of trying to force it on them.

I just think it's a stupid reaction on their part.

 

[Kean]

As a Catholic I really get annoyed with all this 'Harry Potter' or whatever else is evil and will turn your kids away from god! Jesus Christ! its just some little bit of fantasy, it's harmless! But you have these eejits!, God forgive me for saying it! who think that it's going to turn their kids to the devil! It's pure ignorance and it makes anyone who is part of the Catholic faith look like fools with them!

sorry rant over!

 

[Blondie Bear]

Part of my thesis will address this subject (fantasy-phobia), but honestly I couldn't tell you why Christians get so worked up about it. I mean, in their dogma, God is stronger than the devil, so even if magic worked and came from the devil, God could overcome it. And most of them don't believe in magic but still get freaked out that their children will turn to Wicca or something after watching/reading Harry Potter! I think they might run around pointing sticks at each other and speaking Latin for a few days, then get bored when it doesn't work (unless they have great imaginations).

 

[goldenboy]

Pullman's a "confirmed agnostic", that sounds funny, heh. But...I guess you could be completely convinced that something's unknowable.

William Donohue's sort of like of an unofficial attack dog for the Catholic Church; he's on TV a lot. I guess I can understand this, if they're just trying to persuade Catholic parents not to get the books for their kids..or just to make them aware of Pullman's POV. Whatever.

Looks like a cool flick.

 

[TabulaRasa]

I will wait till it comes to dvd but it does look pretty good.
I am catholic but could seriously care less. Kids need to keep those active imaginations alive. So let them pretend they can do magic, hell I will pretend with my kids. Otherwise, they will just sit around.

 

[white avenger]

I grew up reading things as diverse as "Beowulf" to Superman, dozens and dozens of stories about superhuman characters, many of whom interacted with any number of pagan gods, devils, demons, and monsters of all kinds. I was raised in a very religious Southern Baptist family by parents who encouraged my imagination and went to the trouble to prepare me for adulthood by teaching me the difference between fantasy and reality. In my home, guns and knives weren't toys, and fictional beings, whether natural or supernatural, were exactly what their name implies: FICTIONAL. I have never been able to understand why a work of fantasy could possibly be considered harmful as long as parents or authority figures go to the trouble to explain to young people just what the difference between fact and fantasy is.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Good old religious fanatics. They have saved the film company millions of dollars in advertising.
They should stick to what they are good at...telling every-one the other religions are false and that those that do believe in them should be got rid of.
What's wrong with the film ? nothing.
But lets not forget what's really important here, if it wasn't for the main stream religions, what may have been a financial failure will now be a success, lots more people will get to, and want to, see it.
Makes you wonder if the Catholic church was one of the financiers of the film.

 

[Harley]

To play the devil's advocate (*snicker*), I heard that in the series of books, God dies at the end, which most religious people would view as flat out blasphemy.

I think some people are concerned that if kids get interested in the movie, they'll get into the books, which they view as blasphemous (sp?).






*shrug*

 

[Buffy Summers]

Let's all remember that it's not ALL religious people or Catholic followers who feel this way about the book, but a small percentage. Let's try not to generalize about religions. 🙂

 

[Buffy Summers]

Okay, so I went to see it today. You have to try really hard to get an anti religion view from the film. It's more a pro think for your selves or anti establishment.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I saw a preview for it on the TV last night, it looked quite good.

 

[GATEGOD]

It looks like a great movie ^_^ but this weekend and next there are so many good movies coming out ^_^ I don't know what to go see haha :lmao:

 

[palabravampiress]

In the U.S., at least, the Catholic League used to have tons of say -- not only over how a movie did once it hit the box office, but also over censorship standards. They even sort of started film censorship and standards as we know it now. I, for one, am glad that now all they can really do is complain and kick up publicity.

I DO think religious fanatics need to chill, though. If you think a certain movie might give your kids ideas that you don't think they're ready to encounter, then don't take them to the movie. There's no point in trying to ruin others' good time.

 

[buffetofsporks]

I haven't seen it yet, but everyone I know who has says that it's okay at best, and nowhere near 'Narnia' standards. Also, the whole "killing God" concept isn't even implied.
So yeah, I'll probably catch it on basic cable one day.
As far as the boycotters: Let them think they're doing a productive thing. When really all they're doing is making the movie studio lots and lots of mullah. =]

 

[Bangelxx]

The Golden Compass!

Hey anyone see this movie?? I thought it was really good! 😀

 

[buffetofsporks]

Here's the link to the other thread about this movie

I haven't seen it yet. I probably won't until it's on DVD.
🙂

 

[ckg927]

I managed to catch it(for free)before it was released.

My take: Well photographed and acted,but something was...missing. And I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Maybe we were all fantasy-ed out?(You know,LOTR...Narnia...Stardust...Eragon...etc.) That the plot,even with stuff telescoped out,takes too long to grab our interest? Plus,considering that a pre-teen girl is the main focus of the movie,it may have been confused about what its target audience was.

And trust those who protested the movie to go ahead and pile on,crowing over its failure at the box office. Penny to a pound they never saw the flick.

 

[Rowan Hawthorn]

And trust those who protested the movie to go ahead and pile on,crowing over its failure at the box office. Penny to a pound they never saw the flick.

Of course not. If they actually watched it, they'd get even lamer when anyone calls'em on their BS.

I heard Pat Robertson braying once about one of the Eagles' songs ("Take the Devil",) which he loudly proclaimed was instructing their listeners to do just that. Unfortunately for his supporters among my extended family, he picked the wrong song to hawk, because I not only know pretty much every Eagles song ever recorded, I just happened to have the published lyrics handy (these are actually copied from the internet, since I haven't been able to find the book since I moved, but I double-checked them, and they're correct):

"Open up your eyes
take the devil from your mind
he's been holding on to you
and you're so hard to find
the wind outside is cold
restless feeling in my soul
tempting me to get away
but there's no place a man can go
God, will you lead me where I roam?
Help me not to let my feelings show,
No, No.

You are the one, oh, how could you be
so blind?
the devil prays on runaways
he's never far behind
the many years I've tried
Now have been revealed to me
closer is the love you'll find
waiting so patiently
God, Will you lead me where I roam?
Help me not to let my feelings show.
No, No.

Take the devil
Take the Devil
from your mind"

Not exactly what ol' Pat claimed, is it? I showed the lyrics to the two guys in question, and after a couple of minutes of hemming and hawing, they go:

"Well, they're just mocking Christians..."

Yeah, guys, and you're mocking intelligence...