Compass Facing South
I’ve seen a number of great movies lately, Wall-E and Hancock just to name a few. I also recently started using my library’s hi-tech movie service to request movies I haven’t seen like Russian Ark and most recently Casino Royale. I even have my own movies I’m working on as you well know such as The Good Sitter, which begins shooting this Saturday.
Last November, I blogged on The Golden Compass being anti-religious propaganda and I said I would probably give it a shot when it came out on DVD. Tonight I watched a downloaded copy, and I thought I’d follow up on the old post with my thoughts on the film.
The fun parts of the film lie within it’s creative usage of the fantasy genre. Talking animals has been done before, but in this movie, people’s souls are represented by daemons who walk beside them and their lifelines are synchronized so that what happens to one happens to the other. The daemon’s take the form of the animal that best resembles the soul of it’s owner and since children’s personalities are in the process of molding, their daemon’s are constantly changing form. Talking bear warriors, flying machines, witches and other fantastic elements take the wheel and are brought to life beautifully here.
The premise of The Golden Compass had promise as well. It exists in a parallel universe where all these things are possible and a governing body called the Magisterium, which wants to take over everything, all lands and all universes. A young girl named Lyra is given a golden compass that leads to the truth and is told to keep it hidden from the officials. This secret causes her to become an enemy of the state. She runs away to the North where she joins a group of rebels and witches who plan on fighting the Magisterium and it’s power.
The bad news is, as toned down as they are, the anti-Christian elements are still there. The Magisterium is like it sounds, a governing church run by priests and the like. Their plan is to indoctrinate everyone to their way of life. Freedom of thought is their enemy and the indoctrination of children while their daemon’s are still changing is imminent. Nicole Kidman’s character, Mrs. Coulter who works for the Magisterium, sends the message home over halfway through the movie when she tells Lyra that their ancestor’s disobeyed authority and thus created “dust” which people have been struggling with ever since as it causes people to do nasty things. It wasn’t in those exact words, but it was there.
What I heard her saying was “Adam and Eve disobeyed God and thus sin was created, which people have been struggling with ever since.” If this is the case, then authority is God. The “dust” referred to is a special dust that somehow encourages the non-believing rebels, or as they call them in the movie, the Gyptians.
All throughout the movie, Lyra has trouble with authority. Everyone who imposes a rule, i.e. the Magisterium and it’s employees, is painted in a bad light and ultimately, Lyra is rewarded by her resistance to authority. She is the good guy for resisting God and the compass that answers her every question guides her to the truth, which taking everything into consideration is that there is no God. If you think I’m overanalyzing the movie, I did do my research on the series. Dust IS sin and made to be the better way to go.
Knowing that this movie was ultimately meant to discourage Christianity really puts a damper on enjoying the movie as a whole, but even fans of the books will tell you that the movie didn’t do the books justice. Coming from a non-religious perspective, even the ending leaves something more to be desired. It’s meant, obviously, to be continued in case of a sequel, but it’s still somehow flat. Ultimately, what you have here is a fantasy film that cost a fortune to make but only turned out adequate and yet somehow managed to turn out a huge profit worldwide. Overall, I’d say this movie wasn’t the worst movie ever made. It was cute, action-packed, had a star cast, had some fun and magical parts in it, but the treatment was poor from all angles. It makes me want to buy Prince Caspian and watch it again when it comes out on DVD. But hey, I was going to do that anyway.
Last November, I blogged on The Golden Compass being anti-religious propaganda and I said I would probably give it a shot when it came out on DVD. Tonight I watched a downloaded copy, and I thought I’d follow up on the old post with my thoughts on the film.
The fun parts of the film lie within it’s creative usage of the fantasy genre. Talking animals has been done before, but in this movie, people’s souls are represented by daemons who walk beside them and their lifelines are synchronized so that what happens to one happens to the other. The daemon’s take the form of the animal that best resembles the soul of it’s owner and since children’s personalities are in the process of molding, their daemon’s are constantly changing form. Talking bear warriors, flying machines, witches and other fantastic elements take the wheel and are brought to life beautifully here.
The premise of The Golden Compass had promise as well. It exists in a parallel universe where all these things are possible and a governing body called the Magisterium, which wants to take over everything, all lands and all universes. A young girl named Lyra is given a golden compass that leads to the truth and is told to keep it hidden from the officials. This secret causes her to become an enemy of the state. She runs away to the North where she joins a group of rebels and witches who plan on fighting the Magisterium and it’s power.
The bad news is, as toned down as they are, the anti-Christian elements are still there. The Magisterium is like it sounds, a governing church run by priests and the like. Their plan is to indoctrinate everyone to their way of life. Freedom of thought is their enemy and the indoctrination of children while their daemon’s are still changing is imminent. Nicole Kidman’s character, Mrs. Coulter who works for the Magisterium, sends the message home over halfway through the movie when she tells Lyra that their ancestor’s disobeyed authority and thus created “dust” which people have been struggling with ever since as it causes people to do nasty things. It wasn’t in those exact words, but it was there.
What I heard her saying was “Adam and Eve disobeyed God and thus sin was created, which people have been struggling with ever since.” If this is the case, then authority is God. The “dust” referred to is a special dust that somehow encourages the non-believing rebels, or as they call them in the movie, the Gyptians.
All throughout the movie, Lyra has trouble with authority. Everyone who imposes a rule, i.e. the Magisterium and it’s employees, is painted in a bad light and ultimately, Lyra is rewarded by her resistance to authority. She is the good guy for resisting God and the compass that answers her every question guides her to the truth, which taking everything into consideration is that there is no God. If you think I’m overanalyzing the movie, I did do my research on the series. Dust IS sin and made to be the better way to go.
Knowing that this movie was ultimately meant to discourage Christianity really puts a damper on enjoying the movie as a whole, but even fans of the books will tell you that the movie didn’t do the books justice. Coming from a non-religious perspective, even the ending leaves something more to be desired. It’s meant, obviously, to be continued in case of a sequel, but it’s still somehow flat. Ultimately, what you have here is a fantasy film that cost a fortune to make but only turned out adequate and yet somehow managed to turn out a huge profit worldwide. Overall, I’d say this movie wasn’t the worst movie ever made. It was cute, action-packed, had a star cast, had some fun and magical parts in it, but the treatment was poor from all angles. It makes me want to buy Prince Caspian and watch it again when it comes out on DVD. But hey, I was going to do that anyway.
posted by Jaimetud at 11:21 PM
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