The Golden Compass premiered in December 2007 with a distinguished cast including Christopher Lee, Ian McKellan, Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.
The Story
The story is very complex but this is an extremely simplified synopsis.
Lyra is a young girl living in Oxford at the university. This is an Oxford in an alternate universe. In this universe people's souls are represented by an animal “daemon” which is attached to them by an invisible cord. Adults have a daemon with a fixed shape but children's daemons can still change shape. In Lyra's world there is a sinister religious group called the Magesterium. Lyra's Uncle Asriel is on an exhibition, which is funded by the university but opposed by the Magisterium, to find a mysterious substance called Dust. Meanwhile two of Lyra's friends are taken by a mysterious group of child snatchers called the Gobblers. Lyra goes in search of them to try to rescue all of the children who have gone missing. It later is revealed that the Gobblers are actually an arm of the Magesterium called the General Obligation Board and are run by an ice-hearted woman called Mrs Coulter. They are conducting experiments called “intercision” on children's daemons. This first book in a trilogy centres around the Magesterium, the General Obligation Board and Lyra's quest (with a cast of thousands) to save the children. Of course there are Gyptians, witches, polar bears and a Golden Compass in all of this but that is a whole other 60,000 words so for now the basics will do.
What Is the Fuss About?
Despite its many fans some Christians called for a boycott of the film based on the His Dark Materials trilogy of books by admitted atheist Philip Pullman. Some of its critics believe that the books and movie attack religion in general and Christianity and Catholicism in particular. The biggest critics of the film are the Catholic League who are particularly concerned by statements which Pullman is reported to have said that his books are about killing God and that "Religion is at its best when it is furthest away from power. As soon as it gets its hands on power, it's no good." Pullman has also stated that his books are a direct response to the Chronicles of Narnia series by Christian author C.S. Lewis.
The Critics and Supporters
- Bill Donahue of the Catholic League believes that the books teach atheism to children through a stealth approach. He also believes that a sinister scientific group which steal children's souls portray the Catholic Church.
- Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League believes that "The three novels are extremely anti-faith in general, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic in particular, and pro-atheism. In each successive book, the anti-God agenda gets progressively stronger."
- Ellen Johnson of the American Atheists argues that the movie isn't about atheism but about questioning authority which is not an anti-Catholic attack. She goes on to say why pick out that one fictional book when there are many outright atheism books on sale.
- Nicole Kidman, who made a recent return to Catholicism, feels that anyone who sees the movie will not feel it is promoting atheism.
- In interviews with Cybercast News, director Chris Weitz says that he does not buy in to the Catholic League's stealth opinion and believes that the first book is not anti-Catholic and of the second and third books says “I think that an accurate adaptation of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass would not be anti-Catholic. What would be anti-Catholic would be to go out of one’s way to attack people’s beliefs.” He goes on to say “It’s true that Pullman takes issue with dogma and with the abuse of religion for political power, but the critique about dogma applies far more widely than Catholicism or even religion. The last time that the Catholic church directly exerted political power on a state level was during the middle ages....I think Pullman probably has an issue with a certain view of God – which is to say, as a subject worth killing people over. In that regard, the institution that I think most closely resembles the Magisterium is the government of Iran.”
- Daniel Craig's opinion is perhaps the most level headed to leave with whether the book is anti-Catholic or not when he says “I think the Catholic Church will survive. It's survived much worse things than this.”
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