| The
season of the megaplex blockbuster is upon us once more,
and along with the smell of stale popcorn and the distraction of some
idiots cell phone, something which seems to be developing a tradition
of its own in certain monotheistic quarters, even before you've forked
out your ten bucks for a seat...although now that I look at it- "mono
and quarters" doesn’t seem quite a cohesive concept-but I digress.
I’m
talking of course about the latest furor, surrounding the imminent release
of The Golden Compass-that spectacle you’ve seen
trailblazing for months in the run up to the holidays, starring Nicole
Kidman, Daniel Craig and an army of polar bears.
Having not read Pullman’s triumvirate of books, or seen
the movie yet, I couldn’t seriously comment about how clever-“cleverly”
the author interweaves anti-dogmatic analogy into his plot, or how his
book besmirches the echelons of Christianity and Catholicism et al.
I recall a similar legion of
finger wagging and hand wringing over Harry Potter-another phenomenon
which seems to have completely passed me by-not to mention the rocketing
sales in brimstone and fire during the run up to the Da Vinci code.
Curtailing the obvious ones like The Exorcist, the introduction
of movie critique from the pulpit seems like a rather recent inclination,
and perhaps I’m lacking perspective, but it does seem a little out
of place when old testament thinking parks its big, lofty doctrinaire
head, in the seat, before your own.
Of
course, the worry of the church, is that movies like The Golden
Compass, promote aethesism ,staining
the innocent minds of indoctrinated little children everywhere. I didn’t
see any aetheist gnashing of teeth pronouncing the same, when some years
back, the Christian right seemed beside itself with glee, when the Chronicles
of Narnia was revealed to be a dressed up biblical analogy. Nor do I recall
any Greek classicists, calling on the host of Olympus to boycott The Matrix
series?
Come to think of it, where was the voice of dissenters in my head, when
it was revealed during Return of the Jedi, that Luke had a wanted to do
the nasty with his sister all along?
And that’s my point-at no time during my childhood, did I see anything
beyond what was up on the screen in all its beautiul 70mm cinemascopic
glory. Two hours, where I was transported along the spectacle of cgi (or
blue screens and stop animation as it was then)-all, whoosh, bang , wallop-and
wow, did you see the monster? It had nothing to do with the adult world
of choosing denominations,sex or political agenda,and the only taking
of sides that you were aware of, was goodies vs baddies.
Hell,
Lukas’s Stormtroopers were in white and nobody blinked an eye. For
me, and my freinds, it was all about escape-period.
So, impressionable little minds, aren’t going to be suddenly turning
to mommy after the movie, and questioning the subtle nuances of how the
bad guys must represent oppressive dogma, and how it is they aren’t
ever going to go to Sunday school anymore.
More likely they are going to ask-'why can't I have big cuddly white bear
for Christmas?'
In
the end, its two hours of soda pop entertainment, versus two thousand
years of extreme fundamental religious foundation.
I hardly see the fight as fair.
So
instead of concentrating on the effect a movie is having on impressionable
minds, how about thinking about what a detrimental, devestating effect
it had on all those little boys who were mercilessly buggered in the choir
pit for all those years.
No, I didn't think so. |
