‘Angels’ Not So Demonic?
by Tom TappThe first review of “Angels & Demons” hit the streets today and apparently director Ron Howard took a different tack with his second adaptation of Dan Brown novel.
The Hollywood Reporter says the “Da Vinci Code” prequel treats The Vatican “as a fairly ‘normal’ nation-state, and not as some all-powerful SMERSH-like nemesis.”
THR:
And in the end, most of those who attacked the film before seeing it on grounds of its being anti-Catholic will have to eat their words, as the warm-hearted ending casts a rosy glow around the College of Cardinals, the papacy (sic.) and the faithful throngs in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican itself seems to think the film is less a threat than “Da Vinci” was. Or maybe humor is now part of its press strategy.
“I’ll comment only if the film production buys 1,000, 10-year subscriptions to our official newspaper,” Papal press secretary, Father Federico Lombardi, joked recently.
But there are holdouts.
Catholic League president William Donohue wants a disclaimer placed at the opening of the picture designating it a work of fiction.
In Italy, 102-year-old bishop Monsignor Antonio Rosario called the film “highly denigrating, defamatory and offensive.”
The Hollywood Reporter, for its part, says the film is a standard thriller, more concerned with creating “a thrilling, faster-paced walk in the park” than attacking Catholicism.
In fact, Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon now works to save the church: He’s racing to rescue four top Papal candidates who’ve been kidnapped.
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20 Comments
Well…do they change the book?
The ending of the book (Spoilers for those who care) is that the "evil" forces out to kill the church are not the Illuminati but indeed an evil Catholic priest himself who is out to frame the Illuminati. It is also revealed that the Pope is progressive and pro-science because he had a son through IVF. The book is also littered with more factural inaccuracies about how the church butered and slaughtered intellectual and scientists for centuries and blah blah blah.
Unless all of this is changed………someone's lying.
I've thought this was a tempest in a teapot anyway. Even if everything that had been rumored about the movie had been true, The Da Vinci Code removed any doubt that this stuff was pure fiction–bad fiction. If it takes a disclaimer to convince someone that the movie isn't about anything real, it's hopeless. I've been guessing all along that the sequel could only be a boon to the Catholic Church. At least you get to see great interior (and prohibited) scenes inside the Vatican. Ron Howard has probably done more for the Church than almost anyone since Mother Teresa. Only difference–it's what she intended.
The controversy over the Catholic Church's portrayal really doesn't matter to me. The fact that this movie is from Ron Howard who hasn't made an entertaining movie since Apollo 13 is more than enough reason to keep me away from Angels & Demons. His batting average is starting to resemble Rob Reiner's.
I wish you were right, Lawhawk SF. But, people buy into it. Catholicism is becoming "Dan Browned" and "Nikos Kazantzakisized". This is how religions fracture over time – new theologies takes hold. Newscaster Elizabeth Vargas hosted a show about the "evidence" for Jesus being married and having a child.
http://www.slate.com/id/2090640/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3229829….
Ms. Vargas said this in reaction to the idea of Jesus being married and having a child – ""For me, it's made religion more real and, ironically, much more interesting."
I'm neither a Catholic, nor a Christian. But, if I were Catholic, I'd be protesting this film, too. Just because you see things clearly doesn't mean that you don't need to articulate the case CONSTANTLY.
You have a good point. I'm so used to living in Babylon by the Bay, that I think voodoo would be orthodox Christianity to many of our local pagans. I am Christian, but not Catholic, and I have found myself on more than one occasion vigorously defending the Catholic Church.
great points from someone who is neither Catholic nor Christian… sometimes it takes someone looking in to see the truth. And the truth is there is a war against Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. The Dan Brown 'sacred feminine' is not just blasphemy but flat out wrong. Misinterpretation of Coptic texts and a bizarre reading of DaVinci's Last Supper has brought about a series of false and hateful attacks against the church. It's origins are atheistic, which has a handmaiden in feminism and mysticism. Nancy Pelosi actually believes she is Catholic and sees the Pope- the Vatican gave a terse audience- and would not allow a photo-op.
This is coming to a head. It is one thing not to believe, but to conciously attack a belief system several thousand years old followed by over two billion people is flat out evil…
Opie has directorial talent, that is uncontested. But looking back I think he jumped the shark with Backdraft.
Like I believe the Hollywood Reporter.
Appreciate your sparing me the need to dredge the swamp of Brown's cheesy prose.
We Catholics are apparently supposed to be grateful to Opie because, in his version, we've STOPPED beating our wife.
Speaks volumes about the shallows of Ms. Vargas' faith life. A Jesus who isn't who he says he is can be tucked in the corner and ingored.
When all is said and done, I believe the Catholic Church will survive Dan Brown's poor prose and Opie's harvesting low hanging fruit. Tom Hanks is a great actor approaching the autumn of his career but like Penn and others, his opinions about some subjects are self-serving and highly suspect. Although I appreciate the spoiler, given Brown's previous work, it only figures he would return to the same plot device for this conspiracy theorist's manifesto. Next he'll write a book about a highly placed government official who betrays his ethics and plots to destroy the government.
Quick, somebody go over to KOS and proclaim that Opie has sold out to the Pope.
Vargas should be ashamed of her unprogressive heterocentrism.
It is interesting when these guys think their point of view is more important than a good story.
Sad but true. I think Hanks and Ron are over the hill.
But, Clint is still going strong.
I thought it was a not-all-that-subtle "if we could fake miracles today, just think what cons Jesus could have gotten away with." I read this before Da Vinci Code was published, on the advise of my sister who told me, "Sometimes it's like he's bashing Christianity, and then he's like defending it." It seemed clear to me what his overall message was–and it wasn't an attempt to defend Christianity at all. But since my sister missed it and she's pretty smart, maybe it's more subtle than I thought it was.
In any case, I still abhor Dan Brown's writing skills. That's what miffed me most about Da Vinci. People who'd say, "His theology is bad, but his writing is good!" No. His writing is worse than his theology, and that's saying something. Brown owns the seminar on how to write a one dimensional character that no one can empathize with.
The average liberal actor/director has it in for Mormons, Catholics, and Protestants, but he has a wealth of love for Islamic radicals and nature-first Democrats. He must be an empty man. If only he’d make films about beheadings in the Middle East, but that requires balls, right?
lol I wonder if the movie actually portrays the henchman as a Muslim who thinks he's helping to bring down the Catholic Church, or just some random "cult" guy following orders.
I think WE are taking this too seriously. Take it for what it is, a big budget summer movie based on a FICTION novel. They won't get my $10, but I already pay for cable.
Perhaps it is becoming clear that we have an increased fear of CLEARITY…we think if positions are exact , common, normal, boring, etc. we are not diverse and broadminded…maybe, its time to embrace precise sunshine for what it is CLEAR…
When they're not adapting comic books, they're adapting….Dan Brown. Hollywood is as dead as Detroit.
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