Posted on 05/08/2009 7:10:35 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
VATICAN CITY -- Reviewers at the Vatican's newspaper have passed judgment on "Angels & Demons," finding the religious thriller commercial and inaccurate, but concluding it is "harmless" entertainment and not a danger to the church.
L'Osservatore Romano ran a review and an editorial in Wednesday's edition, critiquing the movie based on the Dan Brown best-selling novel of the same name.
"Angels & Demons" had its world premiere Monday in Rome, after director Ron Howard charged that the Vatican interfered with getting film permits to shoot scenes in the city -- a contention the Vatican said was a publicity stunt.
The newspaper wrote that the movie was "a gigantic and smart commercial operation" filled with "stereotyped characters." The paper suggested moviegoers could make a game out of finding the many historical inaccuracies in the plot.
However, L'Osservatore praised Howard's "dynamic direction" and the "magnificent" reconstruction of locations like St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Much of the film was shot on sets that painstakingly recreated church landmarks.
The film offers "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity," L'Osservatore's reviewer wrote. It's "a videogame that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun."
"Angels & Demons" features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon of "The Da Vinci Code" fame, played by Tom Hanks. In the film, the Vatican turns to Langdon after an ancient secret brotherhood called the Illuminati kidnap four cardinals considered front-runners to be the next pope, and threaten to kill one an hour and then explode a bomb at the Vatican.
On Sunday, Howard said the Vatican had interfered with his efforts to get permits to shoot some scenes. A Vatican spokesman said the statement was designed purely to drum up publicity for the film.
Top church officials strongly objected to "The Da Vinci Code" because it was based on the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and depicted the conservative Catholic movement, Opus Dei, as a murderous cult.
“I haven’t heard the author say that the book is true. Honestly, I don’t see how the book could be non-fiction, when the characters are not real people. If you can show me a source for the author’s claim that the books are not fiction, that would change my opinion 180 degrees.”
Here’s the authors website. He believes that the reader should interpret the ideas in his book for themselves. Why can’t he just tell us it is made up? He also disagrees with those scholars who attempt to refute the theories in his book.
http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/faqs.html
Freegards
The Enemy loves for folks to hate the Church.
Freegards
Interesting and informative comments. As a second year Confirmation (Catholic) teacher here in So Cal this movie just makes my job that much harder. Amazing how our kids today will believe “fiction” cause it is in a cool format over fact. No sweat, will work it. Just another one of a thousand cultural issues I work with my “Confirmation angels” everyday!
Sounds like you are on the ball. It must be a helluva hard job nowadays. Trying teach teens anything, but especially the important stuff can be frustrating I bet.
Freegards, God bless
Salvation,
You know I was kidding. Just having a bit of fun in my post. You are the best Catholic I know!!! And a FRiend til the end.
“It was also a big fat bomb.”
Hardly surprising. It really wasn’t put together at much more than a kid’s level, but at that level it was pretty good.
A bomb, huh? The kids had asked when the sequel would be coming out. I shall have to break the bad news to them.
Media Slants Vatican Newspaper
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2248786/posts?page=3
Basically the media misrepresented what the reviewers said.
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