You down with DVC?
Hey, you know me.
Roger Ebert likes The Da Vinci Code, which makes him practically unique.
Empire doesn't, though, claiming that it's "inert and borderline dreary."
Neither does Slant magazine. They describe it as "A marriage made in mediocrity" between a "middlebrow filmmaker" and a "convoluted piece of historical fiction twaddle".
Variety thought it was pretty bad as well. In their extended coverage of the film's showing at the Cannes film festival, they noted that the audience sometimes laughed at dramatic moments, and that no one applauded when it was over.
I may have been wrong when I assumed the film would do well - word of mouth may kill it.
Barbara Nocolosi's "othercott" is starting to look better all the time ... although I still disagree with most of her statements. She claims that there's no possibility for dialogue with DVC believers, because all of the questions "start with Satan's presumptions". According to her, any attempt to discuss will only lead to being shouted down. She's right, insofar as discussion with the type of fanatic she describes is generally useless; but she's wrong to extend that to anyone who's asking questions based on the film. She's angry over the lies in the book, and that's not wrong, but her anger is pushing her into anger at people, not at ideas, and it's making her want to disengage from them. It's an easy attitude to have; we get angry at something like the Da Vinci Code, or gay marriage, or whatever, and we lose sight of our opponents. We don't fight against Dan Brown, or GLAD, or liberals, or conservatives; we fight against the darkness and evil that stands behind them. Our enemy hides himself behind those he uses, cloaking his actions in theirs, tempting us to hate the ones we can see - and far too often, we do. This is what love is; while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. While any man or woman on the face of this earth are still sinners, Christ died for them. This is what love is. Remember that when you get angry with someone who doesn't know Christ. Don't fall into the enemy's trap; don't hate, don't demonize, don't disengage from people. The ideas? Those you can safely hate. As C.S. Lewis said, some ideas are damned nonsense; "nonsense that is ... under God's curse, and will (apart from God's grace) lead those who believe it to eternal death.." Fight those ideas and the one who inspires them, but remember that the people he uses are still those for whom Christ died, no matter how obnoxious they may be.
Roger Ebert likes The Da Vinci Code, which makes him practically unique.
Empire doesn't, though, claiming that it's "inert and borderline dreary."
Neither does Slant magazine. They describe it as "A marriage made in mediocrity" between a "middlebrow filmmaker" and a "convoluted piece of historical fiction twaddle".
Variety thought it was pretty bad as well. In their extended coverage of the film's showing at the Cannes film festival, they noted that the audience sometimes laughed at dramatic moments, and that no one applauded when it was over.
I may have been wrong when I assumed the film would do well - word of mouth may kill it.
Barbara Nocolosi's "othercott" is starting to look better all the time ... although I still disagree with most of her statements. She claims that there's no possibility for dialogue with DVC believers, because all of the questions "start with Satan's presumptions". According to her, any attempt to discuss will only lead to being shouted down. She's right, insofar as discussion with the type of fanatic she describes is generally useless; but she's wrong to extend that to anyone who's asking questions based on the film. She's angry over the lies in the book, and that's not wrong, but her anger is pushing her into anger at people, not at ideas, and it's making her want to disengage from them. It's an easy attitude to have; we get angry at something like the Da Vinci Code, or gay marriage, or whatever, and we lose sight of our opponents. We don't fight against Dan Brown, or GLAD, or liberals, or conservatives; we fight against the darkness and evil that stands behind them. Our enemy hides himself behind those he uses, cloaking his actions in theirs, tempting us to hate the ones we can see - and far too often, we do. This is what love is; while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. While any man or woman on the face of this earth are still sinners, Christ died for them. This is what love is. Remember that when you get angry with someone who doesn't know Christ. Don't fall into the enemy's trap; don't hate, don't demonize, don't disengage from people. The ideas? Those you can safely hate. As C.S. Lewis said, some ideas are damned nonsense; "nonsense that is ... under God's curse, and will (apart from God's grace) lead those who believe it to eternal death.." Fight those ideas and the one who inspires them, but remember that the people he uses are still those for whom Christ died, no matter how obnoxious they may be.
posted by Scott at 11:32 AM
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