THE NY TIMES LOOKS AT GOD IN TODAY'S MOVIES--AND DOESN'T FIND A PROFOUND MESSAGE:
The New york Times today looks at the Da Vinci Code and other films that tackle the subject of God, and seems disappointed to find that this trend is more like another Hollywood fashion than a spiritual quest. Here are some choice quotes from the article:
You don't believe in God?" Tom Hanks's character asks Audrey Tautou, who plays his partner-in-ciphers in "The Da Vinci Code."
"Do you believe in God?" Liev Schreiber's character asks a therapist who doubts that his adopted son, Damien, has devil genes in the new version of "The Omen."
"Get right with God," William Hurt preaches in the small, intense film "The King," but he's playing an evangelical minister, so he's a lot more certain.
With echo upon echo of faith-based dialogue, movie theaters today often sound like church. But what seems like a new willingness to explore questions of faith — as if Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" had made religion safe for Hollywood — has the spiritual depth of the "Daily Show" segment "This Week in God," with its quiz-show-style "God Machine" that spits out religions to satirize.
"The Passion" may have proved that religion could be marketed to a large audience, but the current films use religion merely as a topical hook. "The Da Vinci Code" is a mystery whose largest theme is not Jesus' divinity but the possible corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, a subject more political than spiritual. "The Omen" (set to open June 6) is a flat-out genre movie, a remake of the 1976 thriller that happens to hinge on the idea that a little boy is the devil's son. Even a more thoughtful film like "The King," with Gael García Bernal as the illegitimate son of the minister, is less about religion than hypocrisy: can the born-again minister live what he preaches?
What's surprising — especially in a country with a politically organized religious right — is the skepticism running through these films. Institutional religion is often villainous here, while genuine matters of faith are given the familiar Hollywood bromide treatment.
The current wave of religious-themed films doesn't speak to the audience's beliefs, but to its taste for pop entertainment, like "Da Vinci." That film's enormous box office seems to be holding up; the novel is already a cultural phenomenon, and it is even less about faith than the movie is. What sets the book apart from other best sellers is its subject: Did the Catholic Church murder through the centuries to cover up the idea that Jesus was mortal and had a child? The book's potted history lessons about Knights Templar and the sacred feminine follow an old publishing formula: novels that make people think they're learning can draw readers who don't usually like novels. But it's the tantalizing centuries-long cover-up that drives the page-turning chases and murders.
And while the movie's fidelity to the book is the flaw that makes it seem like some lifeless, illustrated version of the swifter novel, one of the film's biggest departures is its blunter dialogue about faith. Akiva Goldsman's leaden script, not Dan Brown's novel, has Robert Langdon (Mr. Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Ms. Tautou) stop for a chat about whether a deity exists. Sophie answers no to the God question, saying, "I don't believe in some magic from the sky, just people."
By the end, when her skepticism has been challenged, Langdon tells her that it doesn't matter whether Jesus was mortal or divine. "The only thing that matters is what you believe," he says. That line, invented for the movie, sums up its attitude toward faith: a reassuring humanist shrug that says, "Whatever."
The New york Times today looks at the Da Vinci Code and other films that tackle the subject of God, and seems disappointed to find that this trend is more like another Hollywood fashion than a spiritual quest. Here are some choice quotes from the article:
You don't believe in God?" Tom Hanks's character asks Audrey Tautou, who plays his partner-in-ciphers in "The Da Vinci Code."
"Do you believe in God?" Liev Schreiber's character asks a therapist who doubts that his adopted son, Damien, has devil genes in the new version of "The Omen."
"Get right with God," William Hurt preaches in the small, intense film "The King," but he's playing an evangelical minister, so he's a lot more certain.
With echo upon echo of faith-based dialogue, movie theaters today often sound like church. But what seems like a new willingness to explore questions of faith — as if Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" had made religion safe for Hollywood — has the spiritual depth of the "Daily Show" segment "This Week in God," with its quiz-show-style "God Machine" that spits out religions to satirize.
"The Passion" may have proved that religion could be marketed to a large audience, but the current films use religion merely as a topical hook. "The Da Vinci Code" is a mystery whose largest theme is not Jesus' divinity but the possible corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, a subject more political than spiritual. "The Omen" (set to open June 6) is a flat-out genre movie, a remake of the 1976 thriller that happens to hinge on the idea that a little boy is the devil's son. Even a more thoughtful film like "The King," with Gael García Bernal as the illegitimate son of the minister, is less about religion than hypocrisy: can the born-again minister live what he preaches?
What's surprising — especially in a country with a politically organized religious right — is the skepticism running through these films. Institutional religion is often villainous here, while genuine matters of faith are given the familiar Hollywood bromide treatment.
The current wave of religious-themed films doesn't speak to the audience's beliefs, but to its taste for pop entertainment, like "Da Vinci." That film's enormous box office seems to be holding up; the novel is already a cultural phenomenon, and it is even less about faith than the movie is. What sets the book apart from other best sellers is its subject: Did the Catholic Church murder through the centuries to cover up the idea that Jesus was mortal and had a child? The book's potted history lessons about Knights Templar and the sacred feminine follow an old publishing formula: novels that make people think they're learning can draw readers who don't usually like novels. But it's the tantalizing centuries-long cover-up that drives the page-turning chases and murders.
And while the movie's fidelity to the book is the flaw that makes it seem like some lifeless, illustrated version of the swifter novel, one of the film's biggest departures is its blunter dialogue about faith. Akiva Goldsman's leaden script, not Dan Brown's novel, has Robert Langdon (Mr. Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Ms. Tautou) stop for a chat about whether a deity exists. Sophie answers no to the God question, saying, "I don't believe in some magic from the sky, just people."
By the end, when her skepticism has been challenged, Langdon tells her that it doesn't matter whether Jesus was mortal or divine. "The only thing that matters is what you believe," he says. That line, invented for the movie, sums up its attitude toward faith: a reassuring humanist shrug that says, "Whatever."
posted by Dan Burstein at 8:21 AM
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