Posted on 05/18/2009 8:29:20 AM PDT by kellynla
Bill Donohue saw “Angels & Demons” today. Here is his take:
The movie is so spectacularly stupid that it blunts its anti-Catholic elements. But there are problems, nonetheless.
In the movie, the Catholic Church is said to have murdered members of the Illuminati, of which Galileo was a member. In real life, the Catholic Church never laid a hand on any member of the secret society and Galileo died almost a century and a half before the Illuminati were founded. In the movie, even Church officials admit that the Illuminati have reason for revenge, when, of course, this is pure nonsense. In the movie, we learn how the Church has worked against the march of progress, when, in fact, the historical record shows the opposite: the scientific achievements and contributions to higher education made by priests are incredible. In the movie, Catholics are portrayed as believing “Stem Cell Research Is Murder,” when, in fact, the Church is pro-stem cell research, save for procedures which destroy embryos. In the movie, Pope Pius IX is said to have bludgeoned the genitalia of male statues (so anti-sex was he), when, of course, this never happened. Indeed, Pius IX lavishly funded the arts. And so on. There are a few bones thrown our way, but they hardly make up for the lies.
In the end, however, director Ron Howard turned out to be a blessing: his melodramatic characterization, and positively James Bondish type absurdities, have the effect of undercutting Dan Brown’s malicious portrayal of Catholicism.
ping
People need to treat this as entertainment.....not fact. It’s like watching a movie about WWII and knowing it’s all fiction. Someday, these people will say that Star Wars was history. Maybe we should start saying the Mickey Mouse is actually historical.
I enjoyed the book “The DaVinci Code” as an interesting fiction, but the movie was just awful: Tom Hanks and that female lead were like cardboard cutouts, and it was boring.
I was watching a special on the History Channel this weekend where Tom Hanks, of all people, was trying to sell the “meticulously researched” Dan Brown version of the Church v. the Illuminati. It screened like one giant plug for the movie.
We get it Brown - you hate Catholicism. Can’t wait for your next “meticulously researched” novel that distorts facts and steals sources.
Maybe we should start saying the Mickey Mouse is actually historical...
Yes he is!!! He’s called Obama :)
His mousketeers are the new youth-service-corps !!!
The History Channel over the weekend did not do a good job either as they spent two hours showing the “facts” vs “fiction” in the movie.
And we need to acknowledge that the propaganda from the MSM just isn't true, so let's not worry about and try to point out its falsehoods. And those anti-Iraq war films were just entertainment, too.
And, no, fiction doesn't get a free-pass.
Conspiracy theories always pull elements of history out of the past. Their damage is in their attempt to weave a new “truth” out of those historical elements. It is that weaving that needs to be pulled apart by cogent analysis.
everyone i know said oh you HAVE to read the di vinci code it is sooooo good. i read the book. it was mediocre and i was bored by a good half of it. i never bothered with the movie. i will skip this one from the start. wasting my time with boring drivel is not on my list of fun things to do.
I’m pretty sure that the setting is supposed to be an alternate reality but I may be mistaken. Unfortunately, there are idiot liberals who will treat it like fact. They cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
It just gets old after a while. And then the people making these movies pat themselves on the back and boast about what courage it took for them to take on big, bad Christianity, while cowering at the thought of taking on Islam.
“Someday, these people will say that Star Wars was history.”
But it was history...it happened “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!” Who said wasn’t history, hunh...I’ll bet it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster people again...trying to say the “force” isn’t real...sheesh!(sarcasm on)
Hanks has BAD hair. That dye job is atrocious! The girls is a skank!
Any truth to any of them? Well....no. But then, I didn't go to the theatre to seek "the truth" (what a monumental waste of time that would be, no?).
I went to the theater to be entertained.
I will go see Angels and Demons to be entertained. I like most of Tom Hanks' work; I'm sure I'll like this one too.
If you, dear kellynla, are looking for historical fact and truth in a movie theatre, you're wasting your time and money. If you're really interested in this subject....try reading. Just make sure you read both sides of the story!
As for the rest of us....please get out of the way. We'd like to get into the theater and don't need you standing out front in your sack cloth and ashes moaning about the "historicity" or lack thereof, of any movie, let alone this one.
Can do?
Thanks!
I do like to watch some of the shows on the History Channel. Some are well done. However, I always remind myself that the History Channel is a VERY political cable channel.
Recently, I read that the American Psychological Association had overturned their previous announcements and had decided that there is no genetic linkage to being homosexual. And yet, generations of ill-informed idiots will still insist there is a link, because the proclamation was covered on page one above the fold, and the retraction printed on page 321 of Section Z.
Too much contemporary fiction is written with the screen play/movie rights in mind; explosions replace intrigue, and the medium suffers. Umberto Eco published Foucault's Pendulum in the late '80s and provided a much better treatment of the Templers, secret societies and their sub rosa manipulation of history. Whereas Brown took a lot of liberties with his art history, Eco pieced together snippets of actual historical documents and produced a much more cerebral novel.
FWIW, Eco is not exactly a fan of Roman Catholicism either, but a much better author than Brown.
Everybody knows Hollywood is really controlled by the Stonecutters (Who made Steve Gutenberg a Star?)
Well, the book may well be stupid and the film stupider, but they can be looked at as entertainment not factual. I found the DaVinci Code rather fun to watch. Had a lot of twists and turns that were interesting, especially the ending. I KNOW Jesus and Mary Magdelene weren’t married or had children so I wasn’t influenced by the movie spiritually. And that’s what matters. I won’t lose my faith because of any of these movies.
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