December is a busy time for us priests, so I just yesterday had a chance to see the movie version of The Golden Compass, even though it has been in wide release for over a week. In earlier posts, I reflected on the first book of the series by Philip Pullman, on which the movie is based. Here are my thoughts on the movie ...
Overall, I was not impressed. As with most movie versions of books, this movie took quite a few liberties with the plot, and for some of them, I'm not sure why the changes were made. I never really got invested in the movie - there was nothing about the characters that made me care too much what was happening to them. Having read the book, I know that the plot is fairly complicated, but in the movie, most of the complications were taken out, leaving a plot that was so thin that I was never quite sure why we should be interested in what was going on. The best parts of the movie were the visuals of the world that were created, a world much like ours but where people's souls live outside their bodies in the form of animals. There seemed to be so much effort given to the visuals, that there was little time left over to be concerned about the plot. As for the anti-Christian elements - in some ways, they were more visible in the movie than the books (such as a more visible role for the leaders of the Magisterium), but in other ways were so much on the periphery that they did not matter too much.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, recently wrote an article on the movie - a summary and news report can be found here. The article verbalizes well my own feelings after seeing the movie, that "It's a film that leaves one cold, because it brings with it the coldness and the desperation of rebellion, solitude and individualism. ... In the world of Pullman, hope simply doesn't exist, in part because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events. ...The spectator of this film, if he is honest and gifted with a critical spirit, will feel no particular emotion, except for a great coldness -- which is not only due to the polar scenes." There is a real absence of love in the movie. Ultimately, I don't think Christians will be led to atheism because of this movie, but rather led to sadness at the world it depicts, and great joy and hope at our own world which is filled with love. For a depiction of a world without love, see The Golden Compass. If anything, it may help you appreciate more what we do have in our God-created and love-filled world.
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