Vatican Newspaper: Golden Compass a Gnostic, Hopeless
Story from the 70's
Vatican City, Dec 19, 2007 (CNA).- The daily edition of the
official Vatican newspaper has come out with a harsh criticism of
the movie "The Golden Compass, describing it as a hopeless story
based on the ideology of the 70's.
In a long editorial article, Andrea Monda, a well known literary
and movie critic who writes for several Italian newspapers, says
"the Golden Compass of Chris Weisz, is as much of an anti-Christmas
film as it can be."
The news that during its opening weekend, the Golden Compass made
far less than what New Line expected, can be consoling, wrote
Monda. In fact, the movie critic thinks that the sales were so bad
that it will probably block immediate production of the second book
of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'.
After describing the quest of the movies heroine, Lyra, to
liberate other children imprisoned by the "Magisterium,"
L'Osservatore Romano writes: "outside the metaphor of Pullman, it
would be necessary to close Christian schools, [cease] the teaching
of religion at school, not to speak of the violence that Baptism is
to children."
"This is, in short, the 'meaning' of this first episode: a Gnostic
fantasy saga bathed in a 70's sauce, in which happiness rest in
independence, not in relationships."
No Similarity to Tolkien or Lewis
The L'Osservatore article also highlights that "in the name of his
'militant' atheism, Pullman has many times criticized and condemned
the 'religious' fantasies of C. S. Lewis and J.R. R. Tolkien, and
therefore it is surprising that those in charge of New Line have
freely launched the film with the slogan "from the same producers
of the Lord of the Rings": between the world of the Golden Compass,
which is almost completely covered in ice and the Middle Earth of
the Hobbits there is a insurmountable abyss."
The column's author recalls that also in Narnia the world lives
under a permanent winter, "but all the creatures of the universe
live in the hope of the return of Christmas."
"Instead, hope in Pullman's world simply does not exist; especially
since there is no salvation but only personal capacity,
individualism, aimed at controlling situations and dominating
events."
"In a scene somehow dark and frightening
we see Lyra, the main
character of the entire saga, repeating to herself as a
commandment: 'dominate fear, I must dominate fear'", the critic
writes.
"There is no salvation he adds- because there is no Savior: each
one is left alone with his or her own capacities and a goal to be
reached, which for Pullman is to live free and independent,
discovering the truth that the Authority hides from the people, it
is a mere personal conquest, not a 'team effort,' much less a
gift."
L'Osservatore's article says that it is not surprising then that
Pullman, "in a long interview posted few years ago on the Guardian
Online said that 'I am with Satan, certainly not with God,' or that
he unleashed time and again against Narnia and its creator, Lewis,
[who he claims is] guilty of trying to 'indoctrinate' his
readers."
Cold and Hopeless
"Watching the film based on the first book, the viewer, if honest
and mildly gifted with a critical mind, will have no particular
emotions, but a great coldness, which is not a consequence only of
the polar landscape. Pullman's world in fact is a world where there
is no natural sun shining but everything seems to be mechanized,
deprived of true life".
L'Osservatore's column also notes that "for Pullman the machine is
central, it has triumphed: there are planes and vessels all highly
mechanized, the bears are armored; and one of those, Iorek, will
become Lyra's ally. Yet, he too is devoid of emotion, he doesnt
say 'I have a covenant with you,' but 'I have a contract with you
and when Lyra discovers the identity of her father, she doesnt
experience any other emotions than bringing him the object of
power, because the main objective is to achieve the task: no filial
love, just an ideological solidarity."
"All this coldness seems to confirm the theory, certainly not to
the liking of Pullman, that when the human being leaves God out of
his horizon, everything becomes reduced, sad, cold and inhuman." In
short, for L'Osservatore Romano, The Golden Compass "is a film that
leaves you cold, because it makes present the coldness and
hopelessness of rebellion, loneliness and individualism."
