The Golden Compass
***THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS POST***
I'm very excited over this movie adaptation, and can not WAIT until December 7th. That being said, I am also incredibly apprehensive. I always kind of pushed aside the criticisms of movies not being as good as their books and how critical they could be in judging a movie. Up until this point, never had a book I read that became a movie made such an impact on my childhood, and certainly never had it also touched so many people around me. This movie has to be good. Lord of the Rings can't hold a candle to these books in my opinion, but it needs to be Lord of the Rings good; maybe even better...
I was thinking about Chrissy telling me that after she had finished the third book in the trilogy she cried so hard she had to leave a class she was in at the time. Thats what really got me thinking about this. I recommended these books to so many people, and so many people loved them. I personally have read each one at least 3 or 4 times. Needless to say--there is a lot riding on this movie for me, personally.
That last sentence might sound odd, but it is true. If these books mean half as much to anyone that I recommended them to as they do to me, then I think those that have read them will know what I am talking about.
A friend of a friend of mine (a rather religious person) started complaining about the movie and how she "would never go see it" because they "kill God". That pissed me off to no end. These religious fanatics that probably have not ever read the stories, (nor understand the message behind them) make these blanket statements and thus the content has to be edited and the original, beautiful vision is tainted. It infuriates me to no end, and unfortunately it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Pullman himself is a religious man for fucks sake:
"My views on religion and science... That's a long one. In a sense I prefer just to point to the story and say "There it is." I'll say a brief word about the Authority, though. The God who dies is the God of the burners of heretics, the hangers of witches, the persecutors of Jews, the officials who recently flogged that poor girl in Nigeria who had the misfortune to become pregnant after having been forced to have sex - all these people claim to know with absolute certainty that their God wants them to do these things. Well, I take them at their word, and I say in response that God deserves to die. The Authority, then, is an ancient IDEA of God, kept alive artificially by those who benefit from his continued existence."
The Authority of the series is the first angel who came into existence and told the angels who came after that it was the being who created everything. The book is VERY EXPLICIT by saying that this angel, who named itself The Authority, is NOT the creator of worlds and beings. When the main characters find this angel in the third book, they see that he is very old and is trapped in some form of cage. The kids try to save him by releasing him, but when the cage is opened, the angel dissipates into the air. The kids don’t intentionally kill anyone.
What Pullman is against are the misdeeds and bad actions that are done in God's name. A quick browse of world history after the fall of Rome shows us the Inquisition, numerous witch hunts and burnings, many corrupt mergers of church and state, payoffs of monetary value for church pardons (and other unethical practices that lead to different divisions of Christianity), and so on. Pullman is not against religion or spirituality itself (the books are actually very spiritual); he's just upset about how religious government and parties can negatively affect the public. He's upset about people with blind faith who do what they do just because they are told or expected to do so, and would rather see people immersed enough in their faith to understand why they should act a certain way.
I don't understand why just because a movie lacks blatant in-your-face Christian ideas, it can't be a morally upstanding film with a great message. This movie, as well as the books convey ideas relevant to life, such as love, loyalty, sacrifice, patience, etc... Sure, the main message of the trilogy is living life to it's fullest here and now, but why is that a bad thing? A film and our lives in general can be moral without adding on a religious message, that does not mean it's atheist! The philosophical ideas that the story conveys are comparable to that of Humanism, the idea that life in this world should not be taken for granted.
I am afraid that due to the controversy surrounding it (if this movie is as good as I hope it is) it will do horribly in the theater and not make enough money for them to complete the trilogy. It doesn't have that same sort of comedic good-natured message that Dogma had and probably wouldn't gain a cult status.
I hope this isn't the case.
I'm very excited over this movie adaptation, and can not WAIT until December 7th. That being said, I am also incredibly apprehensive. I always kind of pushed aside the criticisms of movies not being as good as their books and how critical they could be in judging a movie. Up until this point, never had a book I read that became a movie made such an impact on my childhood, and certainly never had it also touched so many people around me. This movie has to be good. Lord of the Rings can't hold a candle to these books in my opinion, but it needs to be Lord of the Rings good; maybe even better...
I was thinking about Chrissy telling me that after she had finished the third book in the trilogy she cried so hard she had to leave a class she was in at the time. Thats what really got me thinking about this. I recommended these books to so many people, and so many people loved them. I personally have read each one at least 3 or 4 times. Needless to say--there is a lot riding on this movie for me, personally.
That last sentence might sound odd, but it is true. If these books mean half as much to anyone that I recommended them to as they do to me, then I think those that have read them will know what I am talking about.
A friend of a friend of mine (a rather religious person) started complaining about the movie and how she "would never go see it" because they "kill God". That pissed me off to no end. These religious fanatics that probably have not ever read the stories, (nor understand the message behind them) make these blanket statements and thus the content has to be edited and the original, beautiful vision is tainted. It infuriates me to no end, and unfortunately it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Pullman himself is a religious man for fucks sake:
"My views on religion and science... That's a long one. In a sense I prefer just to point to the story and say "There it is." I'll say a brief word about the Authority, though. The God who dies is the God of the burners of heretics, the hangers of witches, the persecutors of Jews, the officials who recently flogged that poor girl in Nigeria who had the misfortune to become pregnant after having been forced to have sex - all these people claim to know with absolute certainty that their God wants them to do these things. Well, I take them at their word, and I say in response that God deserves to die. The Authority, then, is an ancient IDEA of God, kept alive artificially by those who benefit from his continued existence."
The Authority of the series is the first angel who came into existence and told the angels who came after that it was the being who created everything. The book is VERY EXPLICIT by saying that this angel, who named itself The Authority, is NOT the creator of worlds and beings. When the main characters find this angel in the third book, they see that he is very old and is trapped in some form of cage. The kids try to save him by releasing him, but when the cage is opened, the angel dissipates into the air. The kids don’t intentionally kill anyone.
What Pullman is against are the misdeeds and bad actions that are done in God's name. A quick browse of world history after the fall of Rome shows us the Inquisition, numerous witch hunts and burnings, many corrupt mergers of church and state, payoffs of monetary value for church pardons (and other unethical practices that lead to different divisions of Christianity), and so on. Pullman is not against religion or spirituality itself (the books are actually very spiritual); he's just upset about how religious government and parties can negatively affect the public. He's upset about people with blind faith who do what they do just because they are told or expected to do so, and would rather see people immersed enough in their faith to understand why they should act a certain way.
I don't understand why just because a movie lacks blatant in-your-face Christian ideas, it can't be a morally upstanding film with a great message. This movie, as well as the books convey ideas relevant to life, such as love, loyalty, sacrifice, patience, etc... Sure, the main message of the trilogy is living life to it's fullest here and now, but why is that a bad thing? A film and our lives in general can be moral without adding on a religious message, that does not mean it's atheist! The philosophical ideas that the story conveys are comparable to that of Humanism, the idea that life in this world should not be taken for granted.
I am afraid that due to the controversy surrounding it (if this movie is as good as I hope it is) it will do horribly in the theater and not make enough money for them to complete the trilogy. It doesn't have that same sort of comedic good-natured message that Dogma had and probably wouldn't gain a cult status.
I hope this isn't the case.