Is “The Golden Compass” a sinister piece of anti-religious propaganda, designed to convert impressionable young viewers into atheist heathens?
This movie should be so lucky.
Call it trilogy fatigue, or talking-animal ennui, but New Line’s new family fantasy isn’t packing a whole lot of buzz in advance of its Friday release – except amongst members of the Catholic League, who have been stridently protesting what they see as a candy-coated delivery vehicle for subversive rhetoric.
Director Chris Weitz (“About a Boy”) made his views on the subject clear in an MTV online chat: “[‘Golden Compass’ author Philip] Pullman asks us to question a lot of cherished and engrained beliefs,” he said.
“If I had to boil it down, I would say that Pullman is against the abuse of religion for political power. He is against forcing people to believe what you believe, and against accepting something you are told without thinking about it. Which makes it ironic that none of the people who have attacked the film from a religious angle have seen the film!”
Weitz also pointed out that he’s been walking a tightrope since Day One between Christian alarmists and devoted fans of the book, who fretted that the novel’s free-thinking spirit would be lost in translation – which, the director said, sort of missed the point in equal measure.
“Some people will only be satisfied if the film I’ve made is an outright attack on religion, which to me shows they have misapprehended the meaning of Pullman’s books as much as the ‘other side,’ ” he said.
“Compass,” which cost a reported $180 million and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, is based on the first book of the “His Dark Materials” young-adult literary trilogy, which is generally considered to be the least incendiary of the three. The film’s trailers strive to connect it to Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” (also New Line), but its closer thematic relative is C.S. Lewis’ Jesus allegory “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Pullman, a former teacher and stated atheist, has said that “His Dark Materials” was, in part, written to counter the overt Christian sentiment of the “Narnia” books – which the British writer has variously described as “infantile,” “morally loathsome” and “nauseating drivel.”
His more sophisticated sci-fi trilogy, a twist on Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” tells the story of a world similar to our own, in which two children ultimately destroy an impostor deity who has been passing himself off as God. Published between 1995 and 2000, the series garnered a lengthy list of awards and won a rabid following among both children and adults, many of whom saw it as a welcome alternative to the relatively weak literary stylings of J.K. Rowling. Pullman, never one to shy from a controversial remark, addressed that competing series in a 2003 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, noting that his books had been “flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.”
And that, it seems, is where much of the current trouble began. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, launched a boycott campaign in October, saying, “We don’t want unsuspecting Christian parents to . . . take the kids to the film, buy the trilogy, and unknowingly introduce their children to the wonders of atheism and the damnation of Catholicism.”
(Donohue’s fears that the movie will be a gateway drug for the books do seem to be well-founded. Reuters reported that “His Dark Materials” has seen a 500 percent increase in sales in the past three months.) But for all Donohue’s bluster, he hadn’t actually seen the film – which is heavy on action and CGI animals, most impressively a showdown between two armored polar bears, and light on the allegory.
To be sure, there are certain allusions that will be easily visible to anyone who’s looking for them. Most notably, a panoramic view of the headquarters of the Magisterium – the institution that, in the book, is called the Church – bears a striking resemblance to Vatican City.
But Weitz has always maintained that the movies, while faithful to the plot in many ways, weren’t going to attempt to encapsulate the philosophical and theological scope of the books. “It’s very important,” he told MTV, “that people understand that nobody just hands you a couple hundred million dollars and says ‘Go ahead, knock yourself out!'”
To that end, he said, “I realized that the overt stating of some of the themes in ‘The Golden Compass’ would never – this is important to make clear – never ever get across the goal line.”
So if you take out all the juicy controversial stuff, what’s left?
Reviews in the UK, where the film was released last week, were mixed: “Some folks are going to get antsy over the fact that many of the religious references found in the novels are missing,” said the Daily Mail. “But frankly, that would have led to a $180 million bore of a movie. At least this has a sexy villain [Nicole Kidman], a not-to-be-messed-with heroine, super-cool polar bears and a couple of good battles.”
“The film doesn’t mention the C-word [church], still less the G-word [God],” said the less-pleased Telegraph. “It’s just too vague, leaving the whole plot puzzlingly under-motivated. ”
Kidman and Craig, meanwhile, have made dutiful statements about the film not being anti-religious – though one wonders why someone isn’t coaching the actors to keep their mouths shut. The last thing “The Golden Compass” needs is anyone taking more wind out of its sails.
New Line echoed the sentiment, though, releasing a statement that “the film has been praised by countless clergy and religious scholars, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.” Even the Catholic News Service (much to Donohue’s chagrin, we imagine) ran a thoughtful and glowing review of the film, going so far as to note approvingly that “Pullman is perhaps drawing parallels to the Catholic Church’s restrictive stance toward the early alchemists and, later, Galileo.” That’s a viewpoint even hardcore “His Dark Materials” fans can get behind; but will it put butts in seats? “It doesn’t look like it’s gonna blaze any new box-office trails,” says Jeffrey Wells of movie site Hollywood Elsewhere. “The main thing I’ve heard is people feel like they’ve seen it before – the polar bears look kind of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’-y. ”
Pullman, who hasn’t been doing much publicity for the film, gave a recent interview to religious site Beliefnet in which he threw in his two cents regarding fearful parents of potential readers and viewers.
“Trust your children,” he advised. “If you brought them up decent, open-minded, wise and clear-sighted, you don’t need to worry about them turning into little monsters or little atheists or anything.”