IronMan: The "Catholic Batman"?
Anywhichway, it's fun reading.
Labels: Movies, pop culture
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Pa·pist: n. A Catholic who is a strong advocate of the papacy.
"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." - Ephesians 5:11 |
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Labels: Movies, pop culture
This news should be of special interest to some readers. Marjorie gives us the goods:They are looking for submissions spanning 3-5 minutes in 3 categories: high school, college and open. For each there is a cash prize of $250 and a Canon HG10 High Definition Camcorder (value $1100)."The Cinema Vita Film Festival has been established to encourage young, emerging filmmakers and to showcase movies about contemporary issues concerning the meaning and value of life. Coordinated by the San Francisco Archdiocesan Office of Public Policy, the Oakland Diocesan Respect Life Ministry, Marriage for Life, and Ignatius Press, the festival is based on the recognition that art, especially the medium of film, shapes the popular imagination and has a tremendous influence on culture."
The winning films will be shown at the festival on March 7, 2008 at the Delancy Street Theater in downtown San Francisco, along with the award-winning feature film After the Truth, a provocative look at a fictional trial of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Angel of Death at Auschwitz.Ignatius Insight has an extensive article explaining the motivation and goal of the festival.
Labels: Catholic culture, catholic events, catholic tips, information, Movies, pro-life
This afternoon I took a break from by preparations for this weekend's pro-life activities to unwind a bit by sitting in a darkened movie environment immersed in dolby digital surround.Labels: Movies, papist ponderings, pop culture
Labels: catholic controversy, Movies, the golden compass
You heard that right. Plans that had previously fallen through have now been patched up.An interesting comment from Lew Harris, editor of Movies.com:Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson has settled a feud with Hollywood studio New Line and will make two films based on J.R.R Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a statement said Tuesday....
.... As with the "Lord of the Rings," the movies will be shot simultaneously before being released separately. Principal photography was likely to begin in 2009 before the release of the films in 2010 and 2011.
New Line have discovered with 'The Golden Compass' that not anybody can make a movie like this," he added referring to the studio's recent fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman which has struggled at the US box-office.Correction: "Not anything (that includes anti-Christian fantasy) can make a movie like this."
... and there's already an official "The Hobbit Movie Blog."
There ya have it!
Labels: Movies, pop culture, the hobbit
ph/t: Insight Scoop.Today the U.S. bishops withdrew the review of the film “The Golden Compass,” which opened in theaters in the United States Dec. 7. The review was written by Harry Forbes and John Mulderig, the director and staff reviewer respectively of the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The review was released and posted on the CNS Web site Nov. 29. The USCCB gave no reason for withdrawing the review.
Since CNS is a distributor of media reviews of the OFB, it must respect the office’s withdrawal of its review. Effective Dec. 10, the review of “The Golden Compass” will not be available on the CNS Web site. It will not be included in subsequent listings of USCCB film reviews and classifications. - CNS News Hub
"Awkwardly and ironically, Harry Forbes and John Mulderig of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting appear to have been left holding the bag by the mainstream reviewers."And what do you do with a bag when you're left holding it? Well, if you're smart, you drop it.
update 3: CNA chimes in, and LifeSiteNews demands an explanation for the USCCB.The poor box-office performance and indifferent critical buzz — just a 44 percent share of favorable reviews at the popular site Rotten Tomatoes — put the church in the unexpected position of being one of the film's highest-profile champions. The original USCCB review, written by Mr. Forbes, has been cited in the film's ads.
"Secular critics were panning the movie as a poor piece of art, while Catholic critics were concerned with Pullman's underlying agenda," Mr. [Pete] Vere said. "Thus the USCCB review was out of touch with both the secular culture and the Catholic subculture. The bishops need to revisit how that office is run."
From what I've heard, the best way to be noticed is a physical letter, followed by a phone call.USCCB President
Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archdiocese of Chicago
155 E. Superior Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312-751- 8200
Labels: catholic controversy, Movies, the golden compass
Okay, presuming that the advertisement is genuine....
First, the ad conflates the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the official leadership body of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting. They aren't the same.
But this first point is a minor complaint compared to this advertisement's claim, in quotation marks, that this movie is "An exciting adventure story entirely in harmony with church teaching".
This line never appears in the USCCB's Office for Film and Broadcasting review.
The actual quotation reads as follows (underlining mine):
To the extent, moreover, that Lyra and her allies are taking a stand on behalf of free will in opposition to the coercive force of the Magisterium, they are of course acting entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.
(the previous part of the artificial quotation about the "exciting adventure story" appears elsewhere.)
A spokesperson for the Catholic League observed in response to this problematic line:
In what the League calls "mind-boggling", the USCCB review actually congratulates the screenwriter for portraying the characters as demonstrating "free will" for their opposition to the Magisterium and then suggests that this is a reflection "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching"."
... The League countered: "Nazis are portrayed as having free will in movies, too. Should the screenwriters of this film be commended for reflecting Catholic values? Free will is indeed a Catholic value, but it is the object of free will that carries moral weight."
Never when I began covering this story back in August did I think I would see New Line Cinema actually claiming its movie The Golden Compass to be "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching."
And even when I reported that New Line Cinema is approaching Catholic publications to advertise their new film did I suspect they would jump way beyond claiming the movie to be neutral and instead promote the idea that it is in fact "entirely in harmony with Church teaching."
I mean, I didn't think they they would be that stupid. To make the obvious semantic point:
The advertisement makes the universal claim that the entire movie is "in harmony with Church teaching." Even the problematic review warns that the film contains "anti-clerical subtext, standard genre occult elements, a character born out of wedlock...."
So are all those things now "entirely in harmony with Church teaching"?!
As the advertisement stands, it is a bald falsehood, and the U.S. Bishops should speak out against New Line Cinema for attempting to mislead Catholics about the character its movie.
In a way, this is a "good" development, because it takes what (up to this point) has been somewhat arguable problems and makes this a very clear case of grave misrepresentation.
For all my previous posts on this story, click here.
update: I found a nibble:
On BeliefNet's CrunchyCon blog (of all things?) I found this advertisement. I've taken a screenshot of it for verification. Judging by the font and accompanying art, I believe this lends credence to my original post's claim that New Line actually produced the original false advertisement as well.
And of course, they could still be running that previous ad elsewhere on the internet. It's also entirely possible that the New Line advertising staff read blogs like this one or CurtJester, and that they've quickly withdrawn the first (more offensive) advertisement.
This new advertisement still falsely claims the blanket endorsement of the USCCB, which I've already noted does not express opinions on movies except through its Office for Film and Broadcasting, which contracts various people to write the actual reviews.
I think this second advertismenet is a good sampling of what we can expect "quite a few" Catholic publications to publish in the next week, as I previously reported here.
So, are Catholic newspapers and publications going to cast their lot in with New Line on this one? Are the U.S. Bishops going to sit back and let New Line claim their wholehearted endorsement of a movie which contains "elements of the occult" and "anti-clerical subtext"?
I don't need to dabble in the occult or have any sentiments of anti-clericalism to have a strong feeling that some scrambling is going on behind the scenes at 3211 4th Street.
Labels: catholic controversy, Catholic culture, Movies, outrageous, the golden compass
This is a very busy week for me, but I will be sitting down at some point to sketch out a brief review of the Human Experience by Grassroots Films, which I had the privilege of seeing at an advance screening this weekend.In the meantime, the Dominican Friars who generously hosted the screenings have a post covering the events.
Labels: american papist exclusive, American Papist on the road, grassroots films, human experience, Movies
Using the positive review of the[the Golden Compass] that has come to us from the USCCB film office, a review penned by Harry Forbes and John Mulderig, New Line’s advertising agency is reaching out to diocesan publications.Amy then reproduces an email sent from New Line Cinema to diocesan publications. Most notably in it:
"We’ve spoken extensively about this film with Harry Forbes, Director of the USCCB’s Office of Film and Broadcasting."I echo Amy in asking, what is that supposed to mean?
Labels: american papist exclusive, catholic controversy, Catholic culture, Movies, the golden compass
LifeSiteNews interviewed the Catholic League for their response to the USCCB's recent positive review of the Golden Compass, which I took issue with yesterday in my extensive post on the topic.A litte zing that I passed over:Forbes has for many years been the Director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office for Film and Broadcasting. In 2005, LifeSiteNews.com pointed out that Forbes issued a glowingly positive review of the homosexual propaganda film "Brokeback Mountain". Yesterday, Forbes issued another positive review, this time for the film adaptation of the specifically anti-Catholic novel "The Golden Compass."
... The League did not take issue with the USCCB review praising the film for its artistic merit, but for its winking at the devastating anti-Catholicism.
... Forbes' 2005 USCCB glowing review of the homosexual film Brokeback Mountain was substantially altered after a LifeSiteNews.com readers issued numerous concerns to the Bishops Conference. (See coverage here.) LifeSiteNews.com has retained a copy of the original glowing review for those interested.
In what the League calls "mind-boggling", the USCCB review actually congratulates the screenwriter for portraying the characters as demonstrating "free will" for their opposition to the Magisterium and then suggests that this is a reflection "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching".CPT Tom and Freder1ck in the comments thread to my original post also brought up the USCCB's prior "glowing" review of Brokeback Mountain. I think it is important to make clear once again that there is nothing outrageous, properly speaking, in criticizing a USCCB-sponsored movie review. These are journalists hired by the USCCB, not U.S. Bishops invoking their teaching authority.
"To the extent, moreover, that Lyra (the central character) and her allies are taking a stand on behalf of free will in opposition to the coercive force of the Magisterium, they are of course acting entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching," writes Forbes. "The heroism and self-sacrifice that they demonstrate provide appropriate moral lessons for viewers."
The League countered: "Nazis are portrayed as having free will in movies, too. Should the screenwriters of this film be commended for reflecting Catholic values? Free will is indeed a Catholic value, but it is the object of free will that carries moral weight."
British author Philip Pullman's anti-religious children's fantasy stories will become a multi-million dollar Hollywood "super series", according to a Reuter's report, along the lines of Lord of the Rings and the still unfinished Chronicles of Narnia. At the same time, opposition to the anti-religious, and specifically anti-Catholic themes of the book are coming under greater scrutiny with the US Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights calling for a boycott.Carl Olson, who has long been following this story, notes how the book is explicitly anti-Catholic:
I recently sat down and read a few chapters of The Golden Compass. Chapter 21 is especially notable, what with its remarks about "the Church," "the doctrines of the Church," "exorcisms," "original sin," "God," "Adam and Eve," quotes from Genesis 1-2, the Bible, castratos, Church music, etc. (all of which, needless to say, are presented in a most negative way).Yeah, sure sounds to me like Pullman is thinking of one organized religion in particular: Catholicism.
Labels: american papist exclusive, catholic controversy, Catholic culture, Movies, the golden compass
I will be attending one or more of the screenings of The Human Experience hosted by the Dominican Friars in DC at the John Paul II Cultural center this weekend.Labels: American Papist on the road, Movies
This post is rather long and is divided into two parts. If you want to skip down to my short essay on why I find this movie problematic, scroll down until you see the text bolded in red.The film has already caused some concern in Catholic circles because of the author's professed atheism, and the more overt issue of the novels' negative portrayal of his (very much fictionalized) church, a stand-in for all organized religion.The fact that the church described in the novels is "fictionalized" does not matter so much in this case. Pullman wrongly proposes his caricature of the Church not as caricature but as the actual reality.
Most moviegoers with no foreknowledge of the books or Pullman's personal belief system will scarcely be aware of religious connotations, and can approach the movie as a pure fantasy-adventure. This is not the blatant real-world anti-Catholicism of, say, the recent "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" or "The Da Vinci Code." Religious elements, as such, are practically nil.Just because this movie is not the blatant real-world anti-Catholicism of the movies noted does not rule out the possibility that the Golden Compass may also be offensive for different, but significant reasons.
Even if Pullman's fanciful universe has a patchwork feel, with elements culled from other fantasy-adventure stories -- most especially "The Chronicles of Narnia" (a work Pullman disdains) -- there's hardly a dull moment, and the effects are beautifully realized, including the anthropomorphized creatures like the polar bears whose climactic fight is superbly done."Disdains" is a very sublimated way of describing Pullman's systematic, energetic rejection of C.S. Lewis's art and belief. To use a culinary analogy to make my point: if I only disdained domino's pizza I would not set out to create an alternative pizza that I marketed as better, more appealing and then insult anyone who still professed a preference for domino's pizza. Pullman more than disdains C.S Lewis, that's certain.
Whatever author Pullman's putative motives in writing the story, writer-director Chris Weitz's film, taken purely on its own cinematic terms, can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with, at its core, a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism.First of all, Pullman's motives aren't "putative", they are explicit and intentional. The traditional struggle of good and evil, and the rejection of authoritarianism, moreover, are warped in his storyline into an invective against the Church, again falsely attributing to it the attributes of "evil" and "authoritarian." Movies are cultural moments, and those who resist this movie are doing so to build up a culture of respect for the Catholic Church and in so doing militantly oppose those artists who insult and denigrate it. Correctly, I would argue.
There is, admittedly, a spirit of rebellion and stark individualism pervading the story. Lyra is continually drawn to characters who reject authority in favor of doing as they please. Equally, only by defying the powers that be, can a scientist like Lord Asriel achieve progress. Pullman is perhaps drawing parallels to the Catholic Church's restrictive stance towards the early alchemists and, later, Galileo.Again, Pullman is not "perhaps drawing parallels." This is to grant him an absurdly-merciful benefit of the doubt. And since when do we support drudging up the hackneyed relationship between the Catholic Church and Galileo? Isn't that getting old? Even a cursory analysis of the myriad of circumstances that obtained in that controversy make it clear that focusing on a minor aberration in Church history does a disservice to the Catholic Church's vibrant, pervasive tradition of encouraging the sciences! Fair's fair.
The script also makes use of some of the occult concepts found in the books, such as the diabolically named "daemons" -- animal companions to each person, identified as their human counterpart's visible soul.Again, occult? daemons? visible souls? Such material in a children's book is a serious matter. A child's imagination is a precious thing that should be guarded carefully.
Will seeing this film inspire teens to read the books, which many have found problematic? Rather than banning the movie or books, parents might instead take the opportunity to talk through any thorny philosophical issues with their teens.Clearly, it's absurd to argue that every child who sees this movie is in danger of losing their faith. Parents, however, are charged with the education and formation of their children. "Thorny philosophical issues" are constantly the proximate cause of genuine crisis among youth, and sometimes it's best to nip them in the bud, not buy popcorn and absorb them in vivid technicolor dolby surround at a theater.
The religious themes of the later books may be more prominent in the follow-up films which Weitz has vowed will be less watered down. For now, this film -- altered, as it is, from its source material -- rates as intelligent and well-crafted entertainment.Intelligent, well-crafted entertainment is not an end in itself if it betrays fundamental human goods and divorces beauty from truth. The fact that New Line is evaluating the sustainability of these latter, presumably more offensive films based on the ticket sales of this first one further council a prudent consideration of whether one can support it. In essence, there is more at-stake here that artistic integrity. Let me elaborate:
If you found this post informative, please digg it so others will find it!
Labels: american papist exclusive, catholic controversy, Catholic culture, Movies, the golden compass
Actor Daniel Craig (of recent James Bond fame) attended the London premier of The Golden Compass last night (previously blogged here), a movie in which he stars.Gee, thanks for the tip, Craig! I'll be sure to place my order with amazon.vatican.va real soon!"I'm not surprised at the criticism," said Craig. "I get that. But I think the majority of people who are criticising it haven't read it. These books are not anti-religious. Mainly they're anti-misuse of power - whether it's religious or political. They sell [The Da Vinci Code author] Dan Brown now in the Vatican so I'm sure they'll be selling this there too eventually because it presents a very healthy debate.
"It's interesting that people should get so angry because the morals in this book are solid and really good," the actor added. "Any child should read this."
Labels: catholic controversy, Huh, Movies, the golden compass
I've been noticing an ongoing stream of headlines relating to the Golden Compass in recent weeks (it opens Dec. 7th), and also to the Catholic League's initiative to boycott the film because it is based on Philip Pullman's anti-Catholic series, His Dark Materials. The author of this children's fantasy is Philip Pullman, a noted English atheist. It is his objective to bash Catholicism and promote atheism. To kids. "The Golden Compass" is a film version of the book by that name, and it is being toned down so that Catholics, as well as Protestants, are not enraged.
The second book of the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, is more overt in its hatred of Catholicism than the first book, and the third entry, The Amber Spyglass, is even more blatant. Because "The Golden Compass" is based on the least offensive of the three books, and because it is being further watered down for the big screen, some might wonder why a boycott is warranted.
The Catholic League wants Christians to boycott this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books.