Posted on 05/05/2009 10:46:53 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Tom Hanks, who plays the character Robert Langdon in the controversial new film Angels & Demons, has described the plot as “playing fast and loose with the truth”.
The plot of the film sees a secret society known as the Illuminati try to destroy the Vatican in order to take revenge for a massacre against its members by the Catholic Church.
The film is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, which claimed that the Church covered up Jesus’ secret marriage to Mary Magdalene.
Leaders within the Catholic Church have already condemned the film as offensive to Catholics. The Catholic Bishop of Nottingham, the Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon described the film as “total rubbish” and “far removed from the truth", reports The Telegraph.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Tom Hanks, 52, said of the film, "Why would I hand this gig to someone else? I'm not stupid. If you can make sense of The Da Vinci Code, you realise Langdon is a highly intelligent, interdisciplinary genius, and that's the sort of part selfish actors try to land.
"We play fast and loose with an awful lot of fact, but a trickle of authenticity makes it plausible. It's not important, but it's fun."
Hanks also spoke of how the previous film, The Da Vinci Code, was not well received by critics.
He said, "The movie did OK with its faked contrivances and goofy hunt through the Priory of Sion, but you should have been in Cannes with us when it opened. The reception couldn't have been worse. Everyone slunk out of town with their heads between their shoulders.
"We called it the 'Bonfire of the Unsold Tickets'. Everything ended up in its proper perspective, which usually happens. The audience wins out.”
Welllllll, it is fiction after all.
fast and loose with the truth....
yeah, ya think???
If they would just promote it that way and not keep trying to quietly deny that it isn’t all somehow secretly true, maybe you’d get fewer people pissing on you.
But they need more people pissing on them, so why should I help them..
I liked Tom Hanks a lot more when he was making movies like “Bachelor Party.”
The trick is the liar sets a historic context which the viewer or reader will learn some history from--even some false misleading history.
But they made the second one anyway...
So Hanks is saying that there are aspects of “truth” in the movie?
“Deep serious thriller” movies are not Tom’s acting forte.
Welfare for Tom. He’s gotta eat too.
It took two posts this time to educate us fools that it is fiction (therefore we must accept it!)
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
Must have had something to do with the $760 million gross on the first one.
“It’s not important, but it’s fun.”
Well, I guess that makes it all right then.
I’m supposed to account for the bad taste of the world, now?
Well...there really is a Rome in Italy...there really is a Vatican in Rome...and there really is a Pope in the Vatican. Other than that the truth gets pretty thin.
Well, if someone can do that then can they please explain the attraction of Jim Carey?
Opie is a Catholic hater. Who knew?
It’s done with mirrors.
“Sit on it, Richie!”
I heard Opie on with Bob Costas Sunday radio show. He was a stammering idiot. Um’s, Uh’s and Ya’know’s.
I guess there weren’t as many unsold tickets as he thought. lol
I've no doubt that the millions he made off the first one went a long way towards assuaging any guilt he may have had over slamming the church.
This movie might not be bad. A&D is my favorite of his four books. But, Brown’s books don’t translate very well into movies, so we’ll see I guess.
Um, people DO realize this is a Hollywood production, right? The land of make-believe? Escapism to the max? To my knowledge the film has not been promoted as a "documentary." Entertainment usually is "loose with the truth."
Non-threatening, incompetent, generally nice white guy acting ridiculous.
I'm waiting for the same people to accuse the makers of the "National Treasure" movies of treason against the United States.
I know people who base their belief system upon facets of TDVC: that Jesus was not God, that Magdala was his wife and designated by Jesus to be leader of the Christian Church.
If TDVC, and its predecessor, “Angels and Demons”, weren’t written as if it were based upon the truth, things would not be so bad. As it is, the intent seems to be to lead people astray from the Truth. That’s a real danger, and very sad for the participants in the deceptions.
“assuaging any guilt”
Opie don’t need any money. He’s promoting his own crusade now: Obamachev, gay rights, etc
And it’s clear he hates Catholics.
I’ve been told that you don’t go to the movies to learn history or to the media to learn truth ....
Doesn’t Dan Brown claim it is true? I thought he said it is all based on true secret knowledge he has uncovered that the Church was hiding. And I take it lotsa stupid folks believe him, so I reckon it is OK to tell them they are wrong.
Freegards
If TDVC, and its predecessor, “Angels and Demons”, weren’t written as if it were based upon the truth, things would not be so bad. As it is, the intent seems to be to lead people astray from the Truth. That’s a real danger, and very sad for the participants in the deceptions.
I'm sure we all know people who add things to their (factual) belief system, taken from any number of fictitious sources. I don't think that we can prevent that, so long as fiction gets labeled as such. IMO people will choose beliefs that match their character, not vise versa. Unredeemed/unrepentant people can be expected to "exchange the truth of God for a lie" (Romans 1:18-20), no matter how thoroughly or how loudly that lie is called out as such.
For example, I know someone who once argued against lending (their own) money to people, claiming the Bible as proof. Her proof? A verse that states "neither a borrower nor a lender be", which is nowhere in the Bible. It actually comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet!
Just like his hero, Bill Clinton.
The author of the books promotes its "facts".
The ending in the book made no sense at all.
I still can’t get over how there was that flurry of magazine covers going on and on and on about Secret Line of Christ.
Hollywood and news are now intertwined.
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