Okay . . . we went to see The Da Vinci Code this afternoon . . . well, started at 4:20 and ended right up around 7:00. We waited for the second day so we could pick Kaye up from school and head up as a number of her classmates have read the book and she wanted to see the movie (she’s really into Sherlock Holmes right now so the mystery seemed right on for her, although I wouldn’t have thought it a novel for Taiwanese twelve-year-olds as very few folks here are Christian anyway and the prose does run a bit heady).
Now . . . the book’s biggest strength is the hype and controversy around it . . . the movie was banking on that too (one of my colleagues said that her church’s pastor told them they must NOT read the book or see the movie . . . which would tell me to immediately go see it . . . I remember as a kid being told that Jesus Christ Superstar was blasphemous and that certainly made that movie number one on my must-see list – I did see it and I loved it, Mary Magdelene’s song is still one of my all time favorite songs).
Well, the critics are panning this film . . . seems like a lot of negative comments in the reviews . . . some justified – it could move a little quicker and it does gloss over quite a bit but then it’s a novel and you have to make choices as to what sort of exposition you keep.
Kaye liked it a lot . . . and that’s coming from a kid who isn’t all that versed in the whole Christian culture like her Dad (actually, she finds crucifixes a bit disturbing).
Lorraine and I both enjoyed it as well.
Personally, I believe that the film actually "fixes" a number of plotholes and difficulties with the novel. For instance, the film gives a much more believable reason for Fache to believe Langdon is the killer than the novel. There are also some interesting revisions that make Tom Hanks’ character less the academic prig and unbelieving anti-Catholic as he is sometimes presented in the novel. The explanations of the Grail, Mary Magdelene, and Jesus as Just-A-Guy are all left to Teabing with Langdon as good natured skeptic. It is also clearly stated on more than one occassion that it is NOT the Church that is trying to supress the "truth" but a Shadow Council of Shadowy Bad Guy Control Freaks Lurking in the You Guessed It Shadows.
I would have liked to have seen Sophie’s brother and I see no reason for her grandfather not to remain her grandfather but I understand the changes for cinimatic streamlining of the story.
All in all, I enjoyed the piece. It is NOT as controversial as everyone pretends it is and the folks who are screaming that "believers" should NOT see it are silly . . . faith is faith is faith and if your faith is so tenuous that the presentation of an alternative idea might destroy it then you don’t have much faith in the first place and really do derserve to have it shattered. This Magdeline stuff is NOT new. It’s been around a looooooong time.
I showed Kevin Smith’s version of faith-testing, the film Dogma to my Literature and Film students on Thursday – the day The Da Vinci Code opened here as a sort of celebration of challenging ideas. Smith downplays some of the ideas (the scion is presented as a relative, a descendant of Christ’s sibling rather than of Christ himself – a copout in my opinion as the term is normally referred to the descendants of the "widow’s son" and not to the siblings who are also controversial – I happen to be in the Mary as mother of siblings camp). Some of the students found it to be a challenging film . . . because of the religious ideas presented for debate and not because of the sex or language or sophomoric humor.
For some links to play around with . . . see . . . The Last Supper – Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, The Hand and Knife.
Oh, the large size version of the image with this post can be found here for those in the mood to be silly and decorate their desktop. A copy of Leonardo’s version of The Last Supper can be found here and a delightful variation created for an advertising campaign is here (hint: mix and match the legs under the table to the girls seated at the table and you will note some very strange angles, the homerotic overtones are also very well done).
I am pressed for time right now so I will save my Blade and Chalice rant for another time. By the way, for those who care and for those who don’t, I will be teaching the undergraduate course in Literature and the Bible next year.
All the best,
Brian
STAGE, PERFORMANCE, ENTERTAINMENT HYPNOSIS – June 5-9, 2006
See "training" at http://www.briandavidphillips.com for details!
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.briandavidphillips.com
