Brandon and I watched The Golden Compass together on Monday night. It was a great show.
I too received the emails saying Christians should protest this movie. I must have received that forward at least a half a dozen times, all from people who had not read the book. I talked to my brother Ted, who has actually read the book and he said there was nothing anti-Christian about it. The email purported that the movie was about killing God. That is blatantly false. The bad guys in the movie are trying to take away people's agency. That's just what we want in a good movie, really bad bad-guys. Personally I thought it was much better than the first Narnia movie, which lacked all of the feeling and humor that the book had. And they kill the symbolic Christ in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and nobody protested that.
I am heartbroken the The Golden Compass essentially flopped in US theaters all because of some false, right-wing, fanatic, religious campaign. Fortunately it did well internationally. I hope they will decide to make the rest of the trilogy into movies as originally planned. I certainly intend to read the books now.
Here is a link to some more stuff about the author. He is certainly an atheist and anti-religion, but that doesn't really bother me. He seems to be an intellectual who supports morals and good values.
6 comments:
I haven't read the book or seen the movie, but I do know that the Urban Legends website stated the emails (I received a ton too!) as "true" and went on to explain it. You can read it here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
The author is definitely anti-religion and he has said himself that his books "are about killing God." Whether you get that from his movies or whatever I think is really determined upon if you are looking for that and personal interpretation.
Either way those kind of movies aren't really my thing (Narnia included...) so I didn't really care one way or the other but I'm kinda glad I didn't put anymore money in the author's pocket.
I have to agree with Tori about this. I looked it up when I received the e-mails sometime last year, and I found the author himself saying he is Atheist and wrote them with the intention of "killing God". It made me sad.
I talked to Ted about it too. He said they are a fun read...but he didn't get that feel from them. I guess if you read them, or see the movie without the idea of the author's intentions, it would be awesome. But, I am kinda tainted...I wish I wasn't. The girl looks cute, and I love Daniel Craig.
I am sorry Em, but I make all movie-watching decisions and political decisions based on forwarded emails. I refuse to think for myself.
Actually, I rarely watch movies anymore (except for ones on Redbox, so if I see it there I may check it out). Maybe I should read the book first.
I have this on my Netflix to watch, and I'm glad that you liked it.
I've been having a lot of fun catching up on movies now that we are back doing Netflix.
Robert and I loved that movie. It was so well done. I haven't read the books or the emails that were sent out. (I did receive them but rarely open forwarded messages...really...why bother?) If you judged every book by how eccentric the author was, nothing would get read. Anyways, how often does Hollywood 'stick to the story?'
Loved the new pics. of Elora. What a sweetie!
Hey, just have to add my two cents. my sister saw the first movie and loved it--but i have to decline on principle. the subject of the movie had nothing to do with my decision--i just couldn't bring myself to support someone who stated his purpose soooo clearly. even if his #1 goal was just to sell books and get people out to see his movie based on the controversy--i still can't compromise. sorry, maybe i'm a lemming too, but just can't seem to convince myself otherwise. glad you enjoyed the movie though--my sister really thought it was great.
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