THE DA VINCI CODE [review]
So, I've been trying to read this book for over a year now, but somehow I never get to it. I have it on tape/cd, actually I downloaded it and I have it on my iPod. The sad part is, I listen to my iPod as I read, so what do you do when you listen to a book? Nothing, there is nothing you can do for that long. I tried sketching but then my creativity felt pressured and I had to quit, I tried baking (which if you know me, I'm not that good at, cooking bores me) but after the mixing and putting it in the oven I had nothing to do. I looked for my latch-hook project that I've been doing for the past 8 years but I quickly gave up because it's boring in the first place, that's why it's taken me 8 years. I tried to play on the internet but I have always gotten bored with that quickly, along with video games. At one point I tried reading another book a the same time, but that was the disaster on would expect. Soon I gave up and decided that I'd wait for the paperback and read it then. I forgot and when the movie came out I took the easy road and decided to see that instead.
So the movie comes out and my roommate and I went to it openning day, first showing in town. We both had really high hopes for the book we both meant to read. I feel bad for all our fellow movie-goers, the poor, unsuspecting folks that sat next to us and had to listen to us chat throughout the movie, commenting on the characters, as we do most movies.
I am not a very religious person, but ultimately am a spiritual person. I know that there has been many television spots for this book, most pushing the fact that the book and film are complete fiction. But I'd like to believe that some element of this is book and movie could be true. I'd like to believe that Jesus may have had a child, that Mary Magdalene was his wife. Or that Jesus had neices and nephews, since Jesus was a pretty religious man and may have chosen a celebate life. It's had to believe that after his birth, his mother never had any children with Joseph, his step-father. That believable isn't it?
What is wrong with the idea that Jesus could have had child any way? God had a son, everyone believes that God had a son and got a virgin pregnant with him. Why is it so hard to believe that Jesus could have a child? After all, Jesus was born to a mortal woman in a human world where it is fully acceptable to get married and have children. It's speculated that he was in his 30's when he was crucified. Plus there were some lost years before he became known as the messiah. Is it too hard to believe that in those years he tried to live a normal life? Even if he knew who he was, I'd think that he'd have a little bit of a hard time accepting that straight away. Maybe he lived a mortal, human life before he accepted his destiny. In any case this story brings up some good questions and answers them with the possibility of what might be and what the church could be keeping from us.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I didn't agree with the idea that Jesus was just a man, a man that whose divinity was created by a counsel. Tom Hanks' character says it best at the end of the movie, why does it have to be one or the other? "Why is it divine or human, why can't human be divine?" Why is it father or divinity? God is a father and no one ever questions his divinity, yet he is Jesus' father.
The film/book says that the church mistreats women, and that for centuries they basically had a manuel to discredit women, to burn the outspoken/smart ones as 'witches'. Therefore bring the witch trials into the mythology of the book/film. It is said that the church was to be headed by a woman, not a man, which angers the church. That Mary Magdalene was unfairly discredited by the church, being called a whore that repents in the bible. After the movie I looked up 'The Last Supper' painting and what I found is that the film did point out some things that supported the theory. There are no cups/chalices on the table, and popular mythology does mark this moment as the big appearance of the holy grail. There should be at least on cup/chalice on the table, the wine that he gives everyone to 'drink of his blood'. (Which I've always found a little bit creepy personally) But there isn't one cup/chalice there, except for the one mentioned in the film, the ancient symbol for a woman, the one between Jesus and the person on his right. Speaking of the person on his right, it does look a little bit feminine. She has long flowing hair, and lacks the beard that most of the people at the table have. Even though she is leaning away from Jesus, looking like she is listening to someone else speak, her body is tilted towards him, which any body-language expert would tell you is a sign of attraction. There does look to be a fuller chest than anyone else at the table as well, and the clothing look a bit on the girlie side too. So there may be some truth in observations made.
Now, that famous criptext with the password 'apple'. They mentioned that the password would be 5 letters and it had something to do with Newton, the father of gravity. They even made mention that the church was angered by Newton's law of gravity. I'm shocked that nobody else I went with figured out the password before he did. When they said that clue for the password and mention Newton twice I knew then that it was 'apple'. After all, Newton is famous for the apple falling on his head and him discovering gravity. (I was dragged to this movie two more times after I went with my roommate, which was volluntary. I like the movie, but watching it in the theater 3 times was a little much).
I guessed early in the movie that it was going to end up being Robert Langdon who would be the descendant of Christ, and that is why Sophie's grandfather wanted her to meet him... she was meant to protect him. When Leigh Teabing said how Jesus had a daughter and the church was supposed to be headed by a woman and that it added insult to injury. That's when I changed my guess from him to her, if it was so bad that the child of Christ was a daughter, then it, predictably, was the girl.
I enjoyed this movie, it's take on religion and the bible was new and refreshing. The movie was more religious than I thought it was going to be and was thankfully done in such a way as to not make me hate it. As someone who thinks that religion often gets it wrong, this movie was quite enjoyable. I don't think that there was a counsel to write the different books of the bible and to give Jesus his divinity but I like the humorous twist. I even enjoyed the 'book of stephen', I found it amusing that Stephen was almost a biblical name, and how ridiculous the 'book of stephen' sounded.
The movie was banned from a couple theaters ala BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, but it still became number 1 at the box office for a couple weeks. The church was against it, but there was some controversary among the church whether they would use it to get more people to mass or if it would damage the church as a whole. Ultimately the church as a whole damned the movie, but some individual churches used it as a vehicle to get people interested in church and religion again.
I personally expected a little more of the movie, I'm not exactly sure what it was that was missing though. I enjoyed the movie, enough to let myself get dragged to it two more times. But something was missing that could have pushed it a little further, and I don't know what could have done it. It would have had to have been subtle, because anything big would have been overdoing it. Or maybe what was missing was the simple abscence of a miracle. In most movies that involve the Holy Grail, or God there is a miracle. Something that happens inexplicably that could only be caused by the grace of God. Maybe it was the unresolved chemistry between Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon. There seemed to be an undeveloped love story between them, or maybe it was an older sibling type relationship. Whatever the relationship that was left between them was unresolved, and there was a wonder of whether these two would keep in touch. One would think that you keep up some correspondence with the girl you discovered was a descendent of Christ and by that a descendent of God. Who would be the new members of the Priori? Wouldn't the most obvious of choices be Langdon? Who now knew all the secrets and had proven that he could protect it? I suppose that those questions will go unanswered and they may have gone unanswered in the book as well. I guess that there is a reason to read the book now, to see if any of it was resolved in the book.
Despite the lack of resolution I recommend it.
Here is it's Imdb site:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382625/