Posted on 05/11/2006 2:24:48 PM PDT by freakboy
The row over the imminent release of the Da Vinci Code film grew today when star Tom Hanks hit out at its Catholic critics.
Cardinals, speaking with the authorisation of the Vatican, have called for the Hollywood version of Dan Brown's bestselling novel to be boycotted.
They say the theme of the film - that Jesus Christ had children with Mary Magdalene and that hardline Catholic movement Opus Dei covered up his secret life - is highly blasphemous.
But Oscar-winner Hanks said objectors to The Da Vinci Code are taking the film too seriously, telling the Evening Standard: "We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown.
"But the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.
"If you are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, you'd be making a very big mistake.
"It's a damn good story and a lot of fun... all it is is dialogue. That never hurts."
The Da Vinci Code book has sold more than 40 million copies since it was published in 2003. The film, released by Sony Pictures division Columbia Pictures, is set to be one of the year's most successful when it is released worldwide on 19 May.
As well as Hanks, it stars Audrey Tautou and Sir Ian McKellen and is directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard.
The Da Vinci Code receives its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next Wednesday.
Calls for Christians to boycott it have been led by Archbishop Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office, which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year.
Amato described the novel as "stridently anti-Christian" and called for believers to "reject the lies and gratuitous defamation" in the book.
He added: "If such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran and Holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising.
"Instead, if they are directed against the church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will boycott the film."
Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian tipped to be Pope last year, went even further.
He said: "Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and forget. Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical.
"Some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others."
The Catholic church here is taking a more relaxed line, arguing that in the face of the film's blockbuster appeal, calling for a boycott would be pointless.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, told the Jonathan Dimbleby programme on ITV1 on Sunday: "I think it's a harmless thriller. If people want to read it they can and people who read it should realise it is fiction."
But some prominent UK Catholics favour a harder stance. Piers Paul Read, himself a best-selling novelist, said:
"I am for the boycott. I don't think Catholics should put money into the pockets of people who have invented lies about the church."
Another eminent Catholic, socialite Claus Von Bülow, said: "I am not going to see The Da Vinci Code. This has nothing to do with its historical claims but because I found the book unreadable."
Hanks has not been in a decent movie since
'The Green Mile'
I got turned off on him when he started "issue" films like "Philadelphia".
He's pseudo-deep and pseudo-wholesome.
I kinda thought he did okay in Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan.
You're right, it's an absolute double-standard. That should be the basis for the uproar.
I have a hard time with people who are upset about the movie because some people, even Christians, will believe that this fictional account of Jesus is real. There are already many current myths about Jesus, and anyone who gets their information about Him from a movie is a ding-a-ling.
We can't wipe out ignorance, but we can stand up to the promotion of double-standards.
LOL!!
Another rant from a Hollywood Idiot. Especially when the promotional posters for the film state:
"DISCOVER THE TRUTH"
What a hippocrite.
A man named Pierre Plantard forged documents purporting that Jesus and Mary Magdalene has children whose descendants became the royal family of France. Plantard seeded various archives with these forgeries, then arranged for his cohorts to "discover" them. It was a hoax that forms the supposed "factual" basis for Brown's novel.
All of this is in the service of persuading people that Christian sexual morality is a lie, imposed on us power-mad, killjoy priests.
Boo Hoo Tom Hanks....
Wonder if Da Vinci will to better than Terminal?
I agree that the double standard is the issue here. Had a similar film been made about Islam, it would never see the light of day. As with the Danish cartoons, it would be supressed at the altar of "religious sensitivity". A sensitivity that appears to only be applicable to muslims.
Would you consider someone writing about John Wilkes Booth, two hundred years after Booth assassinated President Lincoln, claiming that Booth and Lincoln were in fact wonderfully close friends and that Lincoln asked Booth to assassinate him in order to end the Civil War and assure his place in American History as a revered figure, which he was not at that time, or would you rather read things written by people who were alive at the assignation, knew each man, and even perhaps witnessed the event, may have even been friends and/or family members, doctors, etc.?
That is the same "historical references" as defined by Brown.
I always kind of liked Tom Hanks. Now I think he's a piece of trash.
yes you are correct. he forged the "ancient" documents totally this all is known and admitted. But the author acts like it's true because well, he wants to make a gazillion dollars.
He's pseudo-fine, gonna blow my pseudo-mind!
I hear a Carla Thomas song in there somewhere.
-- Truman Capote
>>It's a damn good story and a lot of fun... all it is is
>>dialogue. That never hurts"
>What an incredibly stupid statement.
>Perhaps there should be an independent film that contains
>dialogue describing Mr. Hanks attempt at intercourse with an
>8 month old child? Surely such fiction would never hurt.
Thank you, for exploding a lie, in all of it's multicultural, diversity pushing, worthlessness.
A+. Head of the class.
Tell that to all the people prosecuted for "hate crimes".
Maybe that's "Claus Von Bulow"?
I hear a Carla Thomas song in there somewhere.
The Chiffons did that one. And George Harrison plagiarized them in My Sweet Lord.
"A sensitivity that appears to only be applicable to muslims."...........
.......and any other "people of color". Don't forget, Tammy Bruce, former head of NOW, was chastised by her fellow feminists for showing "racial insensitivity" when she organized a rally on behalf of battered women after OJ Simpson was aquitted.
If you're a person of color, you can kill your wife and beat the crap out of gays, and the feminists and gay rights activists won't say a word because you're already "oppressed" and therefore, cannot be an "oppressor".
That's Cultural Marxism 101.
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