Posted on 11/26/2007 8:46:29 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley.
All of you have probably received the e-mail by now. A lot of Christians have, including many of us here at BreakPoint. One of my colleagues received it from five different people no less!
I am referring to the e-mail that is circulating about the upcoming fantasy film The Golden Compass, based on the book by Philip Pullman. It says that Pullman’s fantasy trilogy is openly anti-Christian.
Unlike many other e-mails that get circulated, The Golden Compass e-mail is not a hoax, though, in fairness, there are some incorrect details. (For example, contrary to what the e-mail cites, Jesus is mentioned in the books, and the girl and the boy at the center of the story do not kill God, though they are present when a being calling himself God is killed. God is actually presented as completely unreal in The Golden Compass; there are only angelic beings who try to set themselves up as God and are defeated.)
But the part about Pullman hating the idea of God is completely accurate. He uses his stories to twist and distort familiar biblical accounts of creation, fall, and redemption, making heroes of those who rebel against religion, and having one of his “good” characters even say, “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.” It’s sort of a Da Vinci Code theme for kids.
But I suggest that we should do more than just read the e-mail and press “Forward.” If we really want to be able to speak out against Pullman’s ideas, we must know what we are talking about. That’s why I mentioned the story details that might seem a bit trifling. Because when Christians start warning the culture about something dangerous, we often get a backlash. And it is worse if we are not prepared. If we just go out there and tell people, “This movie is about kids who kill God!” we just get a reputation as ill-informed scolds. Already that is starting to happen.
There are several ways you can prepare yourself to talk about Pullman’s books and upcoming movies. You can pick the books up at the library and skim them. You can read a book called Dark Matter by Tony Watkins; although Watkins finds more to like in Pullman’s books than we do at BreakPoint, he still does a good job of explaining the problems. You can visit our website—BreakPoint.org—where we have a number of articles, blog posts, and commentaries pointing out Pullman’s spiritual and literary flaws.
I know of one school in Virginia, Immanuel Christian, that is considering having the older students discuss and evaluate the worldview of the books in their weekly book discussion group. This is a terrific idea. When the movie comes out and their friends head off to the theater with no clue about what kind of indoctrination they are going to undergo, kids who have discussed Pullman’s worldview with Christian parents and educators will know what’s going on. Then they can choose the good and reject the bad.
Of course, all of this takes time for parents and teachers who already have enough to do. There is no easy way around that. But it is worth the investment in the lives of our children. As parents, teachers, and leaders, we can and should do no less.
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
This is from Focus on the Family about the movie
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm
That has got rave reviews, hasn’t it? Pardon me, the plot sounds kind of boring, but many good movies seem boring until you watch them. The Pianist for example...
I believe it’s being made by Walden Media; who gave us Narnia. I have been hearing that Pullman’s anti-Christian themes have been totally bleached out. That it’s just a rousing fantasy flick.
There’s a couple of good articles on “The Golden Compass” in the latest issue of This Rock magazine (December, 2007), but unfortunately they don’t have it on-line yet.
It is deliberately designed to undermine Christianity. Even if the movie draws back from that, it will be dangerous if it sends kids to the books.
Also, the anti-Christian bias is not very evident in the first volume, but grows as the trilogy progresses. Also deliberate, so kids will be drawn in before they realize what they are getting into.
Yes, it did win in the Toronto Film Festival. It’s an incredibly moving and powerful film.
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/compass-pullman.htm
More here about the movie. This is a very good article at the link.
It comes from New Line Cinema. The “problem” with bleaching the elements comes when kids want to get the books, which are not bleached.
Nope, New Line. And a pig with a gold earring is still a pig.
Yep. It is a NO-GO in this household.
I noticed how they are even trying to play it up as a Narnia-type vehicle in the trailers with, “The last time a little girl wandered into a wardrobe...”
Nice try, but unlike Ms. Lewinsky, I say NO CIGAR.
It's a remake of The Omega Man with Charlton Heston. That was a good movie based on the Story "I am Legend" by Richard Mathieson. Every good horror film or movie seems like it was written by Richard Mathieson.
I don't know why they think they can improve on the original....
I was a kid, yes, saw Omega Man. Very good, but typical 70s “bad ending”. Think about it, all the movies back then, the good guy died at the end. I hated that...
“The only movie for the holidays that looks interesting, is that one called I am Legend.”
I just reread the short story and will be interested to see if they stayed at least partly true to the plot. It certainly could not be more of a stinker than The Omega Man was.
But the hero dying at the end, and so passing into Legend, was the point of Matheson’s story. I think the earlier version, “The Last Man On Earth,” starring Vincent Price, made that point more clearly than “Omega Man”.
Vietvet
This movie won't see a dime of my household's money, ever.
Actually, the first take on “I am Legend” was “The Last Man on Earth”, with Vincent Price (circa 1964).
Interesting “Omega Man” fun fact - it was the first movie that advertised itself through television commercials. (Funny what a person remembers)
Things to do on my holiday list:
1) Write and send 100 Christmas cards - Ungh! ASAP!
2) Test and hang new outdoor lighting display - ASAP!
3) Unpack and clean indoor displays and arrange - NOW
4) Kill God in the hearts of kids - PASS
The worst (most despicable!) of the three books (and all three of the books are (deliberately) being toned down for the movie versions) is the third - where “God” IS killed.
The movies just are not quite as bad as the books.
The books - because they are toned down - are specifically and deliberately anti-Catholic in tone, message, and plot, and anti-religious in general - and are NOT fit for “just fantasy” labels. Despite what the reviewers and liberals are saying.
What you read matters. What you let your children read matters even more.
Omega Man was a favorite of mine and some others when we were kids. Really liked the music.
I like both opening themes that someone edited together.
This needs to be pinged as widely as we can ping it, IMHO.
I’m guessing “I am Legend” may be more inspired by “The World, The Flesh, and The Devil” from the fifties starring a young Harry Belafonte.
When you children inquire, simply tell them that they will not be seeing that movie and tell them why. If they continue, tell them why again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I am hoping this movie bombs so it is out of the theaters quickly. It gets tiring after a while.
More movies like Apocolyptica need to be made, about the wonders of pagan cultures.
A Catholic perspective on the crusades would be nice too.
Or how about a story about a Catholic missionary converting Northern European pagan kings, without threatening to slit their throats.
A science fiction alternative universe dystopia about a world where Jesus was never born.
In the book, the "altered" humans are more readily identified as vampires... unlike the "mutant" angle used in The Omega Man. The "Legend" part comes from the protagonist realizing at the end that he had become the new legendary monster (viewed as such by the "rest of the world").
It's been years since I read the book, but I think that's the point where it ends. In The Omega Man, the death scene is added to give Neville a Christ-like dimension (he dies protecting others, ensuring that he provides the means (serum taken from his own blood) to protect them from the plague.
I can see how the latter ending would be more appealing to writers and directors; the original ending is a bit hard to get across on film. It'll be interesting to see which way this new film ends.
How many kids asked to read The Trilogy Of The Ring? and saw what it really meant after seeing the movie. And how many of them actually read a book that is not required by the school they attend?
I’d be interested to know from parents how many of their kids voluntarily ask their parents...”Please buy me this book to read because I see a deeper meaning in the movie.”
It might get their attention if it were written in “internet-speak”. TGLDNCMPS
If you saw the movie “The Omega Man” with Charleton Heston, or the Vincent Price movie “The Last Man on Earth”, you have seen an adaptation of the book this movie is based on.
The book, “I Am Legend”, by Richard Matheson has vampiric zombies & a pandemic.
I can see going several ways with the story politically. We’ll have to see, I guess.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic Ping List:
Please ping me to all note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Excellent movie - we balled our eyes out through the whole thing.
That’s the point, and it’s the way the books are set up, too, to suck you in and get its point across at the end -
the first one is just a rousing fantasy tale with protagonists and antagonists.
By the end of the last book, the protagonists “kill God” and free the people to do as they wish, unconstrained by the morality imposed by God.
>>Also, the anti-Christian bias is not very evident in the first volume, but grows as the trilogy progresses. Also deliberate, so kids will be drawn in before they realize what they are getting into.<<
Sounds like a certain LARGE Pseudo-Christian cult that began in the mid 1800’s in the US.
>>I was a kid, yes, saw Omega Man. Very good, but typical 70s “bad ending”. Think about it, all the movies back then, the good guy died at the end. I hated that...<<
Did you notice that, after they used his blood to “save the world” and he died, he was in a position that looked like Jesus on the cross?
>>A science fiction alternative universe dystopia about a world where Jesus was never born.<<
That theme fascinates me.
As a professing Christian who owns and has read pretty much everything C. S. Lewis ever wrote - more than once - I would like to see this movie for education/research purposes.
However, I believe that when you buy a product, you are voting for it, so I will pass. That is, unless I can download it off limewire.
He leaves a question that’s needing to be begged. If he does believe that there is no “God”, but just a very powerful and hateful angelic being that filled a power vacuum, who is to say that the angelic being that filled the vacuum wasn’t good?
The allure of kids riding polar bears will be too much for kids and parents to resist during Christmas (er, "Winter") vacation. Sadly, even most Christians are unaware of Pullman's agenda.
Great title. Enormously disappointing movie.
I’m with Chuck on this.
The last thing you should do is cringe and censor. By all means read through and discuss the books.
Furthermore, if I were a crafty Hollywood director seeking to gin up maximum publicity for a harmless kid’s adventure movie...
As far as I can tell, in the movie the bad guys are called “The Magisterium.”
Big. Deal. Didn’t our own beloved R.A. Heinlein set at least one of his novels in a period when earth was dominated by an oppressive theocratic state?
At least we know the usual suspects will knee-jerkingly cover it with glory, assuming—sight unseen—it to be christian-kicking.
“I believe it’s being made by Walden Media; who gave us Narnia. “
Not to just echo other posters...
but even though there lots of “marriages of conveniences” in Hollyweird
I don’t think Walden has anything to do with the movie “The Golden Compass”.
Except to give the copy-cats of “The Golden Compass” a recipe for
the visuals of their film!
From imdb.com:
Walden Media
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0073388/
(Narnia is at #17 on the list at this time; and IIRC Walden did partner
with Disney to get more distribution/publicity?)
New Line
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0046718/
(Golden Compass is at #51 on the list at this time)
If there is any working/business connection between Walden and
New Line on “The Golden Compass”...I’ve just missed it.
Ping! This is that movie.
Of course, he actually (as I understand it) believes there's no God and he wishes to kill belief, not the being, but you make a good point. I love it when atheists start talking about good and evil, it's always good for a chuckle.
I understand the "don't give them publicity" argument, but if you think Pullman is not anti-Christianity, you have not done your homework.
As far as I can tell, in the movie the bad guys are called “The Magisterium.”
Also, consider this para from the Wikipedia entry for the book trilogy. Note that The Northern Lights is the original title of The Golden Compass.
In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own; its society seems to resemble the 19th century with Victorian era dress style and steampunk technology level. It could also be speculated that in this world The Reformation never took place; John Calvin is referred to as a Pope. The church (often referred to as the "Magisterium") controls all of the western world and probably the entire planet.
Hope that cleared things up.
I presume this movie will be better, as those scifi movies of the seventies were B movies at best.
Get it through neflix, if like me you have quick turnaround neflix only cost me $.75 per movie, with a next day return mail i’ve gotten an average of 22 movies a month. Surly very little of that goes to MR. Pullman.
I rip the movie to my media center pc and watch it at my convenience then delete it when done.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.