Narnia Its Not (The Golden Compass's Atheism Doesn't Refute Deep Magic Of Faith Alert)

Frontpagemag.com ^ | 12/13/2007 | Don Feder

[goldstategop]

Last week, The Golden Compass bombed at the box office. Phillip Pullman may believe a world without God can make moderns better. In truth, faith has a deep magic that gives color and hope to the world. We need the things above as much the things below to understand why Man is unique and why life on Earth is not the result of blind chance. Atheists only see half of the equation. The rest of us see all of it and that reinforces rather than detracts from, our belief in God.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Slapshot68]

“Last week, The Golden Compass bombed at the box office”

And that’s the best way to protest Hollywood...hit them in the pockets.

[Borges]

Hollywood has been bashing believers for decades. In movies like "V for Vendetta," "King Arthur," "The DaVinci Code," "Kingdom of Heaven," "The Saint," "The Name of the Rose," and "The Magdalene Sisters,"

Haven't heard those last two mentioned in a long time. TMS was an British film. 'Name of the Rose' was Europudding production based on a book I thought a lot of Catholics liked?

[Borges]

Ever read Eco? Do you regard him as anti-Catholic?

[jdege]

"I don't think it's possible there is a God,"

"I am all for the death of God."

Aren't these two statements are mutually exclusive?

Pullman's not an atheist. His books aren't about a world in which there is no God, they're about a world in which God is a fraud. Pullmnan is very much a believer in God, he just hates Him.

[Borges]

The 2nd statement presumable refers to the Death of God as a concept in the Nietzschian sense.

[goldstategop]

The common theme behind Hollywood's treatment of Christianity is that its repressive, vile, monstrous, joyless and lacking in appreciation for world pleasures. Depictions of the positive side of Christian spirituality is so rare as to be non-existent.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Hegemony Cricket]

Bombed at the box office - Whaaaaaat? My TV just told me this morning that it was the #1 movie in the country...

Oh, da-da-da-dear - what to believe?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

The Magisterium experiments on children, separating them from their animal spirits (called daemons) and turning them into zombies, in an attempt to create a more compliant, docile populace. Sounds like public education.

Good line.

[domenad]

Plus, this means the next two are basically locked out. End of the line for you, Pullman.

[Sherman Logan]

'Name of the Rose' was Europudding production based on a book I thought a lot of Catholics liked?

Not Catholic, but I liked the book. I wasn't even aware it had been made into a movie.

The evil characters in the book are Catholics, but then so are the good ones. It's set in a medieval monastery, what are the villains going to be, Buddhists?

I got nothing anti-religious or anti-Catholic from the book.

[Borges]

Being Number 1 at the Box Office doesn’t mean anything. If you made 5 dollars because no one else made more doesn’t make you rich.

[Borges]

The movie wasn’t very good.

[twntaipan]

This is an excellent article.

It lays to rest those here on FR who say this is “just a movie”. GC is a part of a plan to destroy the basis of belief in God. To say otherwise is to play the ostrich with his head in the sand.

[ontap]

Bombed in the sense it is doubtful it will make a profit. At 180,000,000 it has to do more than simply be number one. On top of 180mn. to make it they also spent 30-40-mn in advertising.

[agere_contra]

IMO Eco was profoundly pro-catholic at the end of ‘Foucault’s Pendulum’. And the NotR text wasn’t anti-catholic, however the film might have been.

But damn that man needs an editor. His text is so flabby. I skipped practically every other chapter of FP on the first read, and missed nothing important to the plot.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Bombed at the box office - Whaaaaaat? My TV just told me this morning that it was the #1 movie in the country...

Yes, it did well compared with other movies this week, but at a pace that might make New Line think twice about sinking $200 million into a sequel.

From BoxOfficeMojo:

The Golden Compass pointed to $25.8 million on approximately 5,600 screens at 3,528 theaters, which was about average for a live action fantasy. The turnout was well below half that of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Lord of the Rings movies, and the picture was clearly gunning for that league with its reportedly $180 million plus production budget, high screen count and December release date. It was more on par with the less hyped Eragon and Bridge to Terabithia, albeit those pictures had much lower screen counts and more crowded release dates.

[Neoliberalnot]

Without the internet, this movie would have drawn much larger crowds and likely would have made money. Thank God that the old media no longer has a monopoly on information.

[maica]

bttt

[fortunecookie]

Wow. A great read by Don Feder. Pullman is a bitter, hateful man who seems to have almost a childlike 'I'm mad at you' attitude toward God, rather than the belief of no God that he claims. It must be sad to be in his dark world. His portrayal of children, the petulant, bratty, almost sexualized 'little' girl in the film serves for me as an example of what he thinks of children. He seems to need our pity, and our prayers.

The way the studio and the movie's promoters are bending over backwards to intentionally water down and deceive the audience, an intended audience of parents and their children in the weeks before many in this audience celebrate Christmas is borderline criminal, sinister. And all because they know if they present the first installment as written, it would be a huge (more huge) turn off. Despicable.

Last week, The Golden Compass bombed at the box office. Phillip Pullman may believe a world without God can make moderns better.

If the movie is an idea of this world without God that he hopes for, well, it's a dark, sad place.