Rows Over Religious Themes In The Golden Compass
Filed under: Film News, News | By: Lucy
Posted on: November 28, 2007 | 3 Comments
Last night saw the UK premiere of The Golden Compass starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman despite fears that it would be tarred with the controversy which plagued the US premiere. The Golden Compass features key religious themes, which were watered down in the movie so it would not offend Catholic Church worshippers in both America and Britain.
Despite the religious factors being watered down, Catholics have criticized the movie for encouraging atheism. The Catholic League have said that they believe by taking out the anti-religious themes in the movie is simply a plot to encourage children to read the pro-atheism books written by Philip Pullman.
Pullman has denied his books are ‘pro-atheism’ saying, “I always mistrust people who tell us how we should understand something.” He also said of the film, “the outline of the story is faithful to what I wrote, given my knowledge of what they have done”.
Hollywood have obviously piled a lot of money into this project, so in order to justify the spending they’ve had to make sure they don’t alienate any of the audience. This isn’t the first time religion has hindered a movie’s performance in the US - Christians also protested against the release of The Da Vinci Code.
Will the row continue into this country? I personally don’t think so. The English seem to be a little more reserved and tend not to speak out over things like this. However, all the publicity will just lure in the UK crowds. Movie critic James King has said,
“It won’t affect the box office. If the religious right get on board, then they will get extra people into the cinema. But, if they are against it, then the movie studio won’t suffer a big drop in people (at the box office) because many would not have gone if there wasn’t any controversy.”
Would you boycott a movie because of it’s religious themes?
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You bet….if Christians don’t stand up for they believe (this country by the way was found on God) then our rights will be chipped away little by little. If there are so few athiest then why would a book or movie like this be successful.. Christians it time to WAKE UP>
Boycotting films on religious grounds is unacceptable and “ducks” issues which christians should tackle head-on. If christians need to repond to atheism or anti-christian entertainment they must be aware of what they are opposing. (true) Faith is strong enough to withstand Hollywoods distorted eye.
This country was not founded on god. It was founded by people who wanted to be free of taxation and persecution by the church. The true motto of the USA is E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) Most of our founding fathers were not Christians. There are very few books that I fear my children reading because they have minds to think and reason. They only one that I fear getting in to their hands in the so called Holy Bible, which is filled with hatred, anger, oppression and enslavement of the mind and spirit-written by people so fearful that people might try and think for themselves. I saw Narnia and was not offended by it regardless of it’s Christian agenda and my kids enjoyed it too.