Posted on 05/17/2006 5:54:17 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
May 17, 2006
If the Da Vinci Code was already feeding the flames of controversy with its challenge to the basic tenets of Christianity, actor Ian McKellen managed to throw a refinery tank's worth of gasoline on the fire on this morning's Today show, asserting that the Bible should carry a disclaimer saying that it is "fiction."
Matt Lauer, on his second day "On The Road With The Code," was in Cannes for the film festival, where the Code will have its debut. It has already been screened to some critics, who have given it decidedly mixed reviews.
As I reported here yesterday, NBC reporter Melissa Stark timidly dipped a toe in the sea of controversy when yesterday she interviewed Code director Ron Howard, asking how he reacted to the controversy the movie has created . . . for the Church! Sounding more like the Delphic oracle than a Hollywood director, Howard offered up some ambiguous prose about it being healthy thing for people to engage their beliefs.
Lauer took the bull of controversy more directly by the horns when he interviewed the cast and director Howard today. Said Lauer:
"There have been calls from some religious groups, they wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear, if Christ survived the crucifixion, he did not die for our sins and therefore was not resurrected. What I'm saying is, people wanted this to say 'fiction, fiction, fiction'. How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? Would it have been okay with you?"
There was a pause, and then famed British actor Ian McKellen [Gandalf of Lord of the Rings], piped up:
"Well, I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they've seen it."
With the camera focused on McKellen, one could hear a distinctly nervous laugh in the background, seeming to come from either actor Tom Hanks or director Howard. McKellen's stunning bit of blasphemy is likely to test the adage that all publicity is good publicity.
Finkelstein, recently a guest on the Lars Larson Show, lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning public-access TV show 'Right Angle'. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net
Goebbels was a NAZI toady extraordinaire, and you can just see him preening to Hitler and then including every one of 'Hitler's ideas' into this film.
I think that "The Eternal Jew" is, in much the same way as "Mein Kampf", a direct look inside the deranged ideology of 'der Fuhrer'...
DOH!
They should have asked him what he thought about NAMBLA not carrying legal disclaimers. Or about whether condoms should carry warning disclaimers that they can't prevent the spread of HIV during aggravated or rough anal sex.
Yes, there are, but they never had MTV before....One of the popular techniques I have noticed involves either flashing images (which can be easily used for subliminal 'messages' whether they are spelled out or merely conveyed via images).
Another is jigging the camera around when they really don't have anything to show you that would hold interest in a steady shot--just to make something appear to be significant--while obscuring what you are looking at. That can work with subliminals, too.
Freeze frames may reveal background elements which spin the images differently, but you see them anyway, whether you realize it or not.
I don't watch those sort of spastic images any more, and never did much (A Clockwork Orange, the reprogramming sequence comes to mind). (FWIW, I always thought MTV (and the music video) was a personal waste of time as well.)
And I really like parental lockouts on TV sets/cable, at least I can leave the kids in the room.
He would be more human if he sinned too, wouldn't he?
Perhaps, but that would wreck the God part of Him, don't you think?
Definitely not, less then Pippin.
What Pippin lacks in wisdom and range of imagination, he more that makes up for in courage and fidelity.
McKellen made a silly comment, but I doubt that he is capable of the fidelity of a Hobbit.
Hopefully, his eyes and ears will be opened one day soon.
tell me this should be taken literaslly:
=1st day god said let ther be light and wandered overed waters ...evening morning first day
=2nd day he created firmament dividing waters and heavens...evening morning second day
=3rd day vegetation and such waters begin receding evening morning third day
=4th day he created moon, sun stars for reason of navigation, of times of day, of years, of new day and such...
now tell me how it is that you know evening from morning from a new day without the sun or moon ???
Derivative, trite, and new agey drivel.
Sounds like Hollyweird to me.
Good points, and as I think about it, it's hard to separate wisdom from courage and fidelity. Pippin is looking wiser by the minute.
liberallarry: That's a real Chistian sentiment.
So you're NOT a liberal, leftist, socialist, marxist? Could have fooled me.
I've always thought Ron Howard's movies were overrated. BAckDraft and Apollo 13 are the only ones I can name, even though I've not seen them in their entirety. If they were good, I would have been able to sit through them by now.
Easily apparently, since you don't do even a minimum of homework.
It's TV vs. the Internet. Never easy.
They know it, too, or they would've let critics see it before this week.
Well, I didn't care about the Church boycott, or the story line. I was planning on seeing this movie because I can discern fiction from fact. But now hearing Mckellen's comments I think I will sit this one out.
Then please enlighten me as to what else he wrote about Richard Harris.
I think your post would have been more effective if you had included "the secular humanist, Nazi, communist, wealthy elite, neo-Christian conspiracy to pollute our precious bodily fluids and flouridate the water supply."
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