ROTTEN TOMATOES: Golden Compass Author Doesn't Care for Narnia, Lord of the Rings Comments

Golden Compass Author Doesn't Care for Narnia, Lord of the Rings

by Jeff Giles | November 05, 2007

Summary

It won't reach theaters until December 7, but The Golden Compass -- which adapts the first installment in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy -- already has some people up in arms, and the author doesn't seem to mind one bit. Back to Article

(21-40 of 141 posts) | Reply

Armless Penguin writes:
on Nov 05 2007 09:49 AM

In reply to this comment (#1252981)
Elixor--Are you kidding? The Chronicles of Narnia was the most of overtly Christian book series I've ever read. It certainly was preachy, at least as much as His Dark Materials, if not more so. Yes, His Dark Materials was rather preachy, but I never saw it as preaching anti-Catholicism or any thing like that. Instead, it was preachy against organized religion in general, which is a much broader concept and much more effective.

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Vitamin M writes:
on Nov 05 2007 09:53 AM

I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.

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highdough writes:
on Nov 05 2007 09:55 AM

I've never read the books, but the trailers make me want to see it. As for his opinion, well I have a problem with how the Catholic Church conducts itself, too, so his thoughts about it doesn't bother me at all.

As for C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, he isnt the first one to criticize them. Tolkien has been criticized many times for being WAAY too descriptive. I know quite a few people who couldn't read his books because it just took too long to get anywhere in the story.

And is it just me, or whenever there is a protest of a movie, does that movie always seem to benefit from the free publicity? Quite frankly, I really question anyone who tries to tell others not to see or read something. I would never think of banning my children from seeing or reading something just because I disagree with it's premise. In fact, the more enlightened they are, the better choices they will make. I guess some Catholics simply want to shield their children from any viewpoints which are in opposition to their own. Sad. Very sad.

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moviefan10304 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 09:58 AM

Hey, you can mess with Jesus, but don't mess with the rings man. lol

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supersean1984 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:02 AM

Hmmm, notice towards the top which side of the camp started the name calling and bickering. Anyway, between the books and the movie, color me unimpressed. I'm a Christian that believes people have the right to express themselves however they choose (shocking, i know), but I don't see one truly outstanding idea anywhere in the literature or in the film. I don't need to cite the stuff; you've read it dozens of times before the books were written and you've seen it dozens of times since Lord of the Rings became a hit. Pullman isn't even creative in answering his "big questions." Lord of the Rings and Narnia both have messages laced into them based on the authors' beliefs, but you might never know it. Count the number of times "God" or "religion" appear in those books. Pullman, however, doesn't appear able to disguise his opinions. Read the books from all three authors and tell me Pullman's aren't the most preachy. He took tired concepts, built them around his opinion, and from this article, he thinks he did a better job than Lewis and Tolkien. Excuse me a second... hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Now, about the Christian stance on this movie: if someone fires a bullet in your direction, are you just going to stand there? Probably not; you'll either run or shoot back, and either way you'd defend yourself. So why should it be any surprise to anyone that if Pullman considers his series a bullet against our faith, we'd defend ourselves in some way? Should it come as a shock that we'd let our friends know about it? I'm sorry to say, but it shouldn't even be surprising if Catholics do indeed protest the movie. I think protesting movies is generally stupid (the exceptions being "Pro child labor movie getting wide release" and things like that), and I don't plan on protesting this one. But humans tend to think alike. Remember the reaction people had to the Creation Museum earlier this year? Guess what, chief: the door swings both ways.

This movie is definitely dividing people. Some are going to strongly advise people not to see it, some are going to see it out of spite, and some will see it because they genuinely wanted to. To each his own; that's your right as a human and as an American. Personally, I think poop stinks, and I'll save the 8.50 I'd spend on this turd for a week and see I Am Legend instead.

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CaptainSiberia writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:14 AM

Whitewashed the religious themes? Why not just leave them?

Otherwise, you tell the Catholic League you're glad that you don't ever have to do anything they tell you to.

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frunced writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:26 AM

In reply to this comment (#1252434)
1.7 billion people aren't.

I am, though.

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frunced writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:33 AM

In reply to this comment (#1252434)
At least 1.5 billion people aren't.

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oldnoakes writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:36 AM

Pullman is a good/decent writer, with an axe to grind about Christianity/Catholicism. I don't really care about his agenda because I'm not a practicing Christian or easily offended. However, he is very pompous however to dismiss the Lord of the Rings as trivial because it doesn't question/examine religion.

Lord of the Rings is set in a pre-christian fantasy world. Middle Earth is supposed to be like our world, and that was Tolkien's goal, but there wasn't dwarves, dragons, hobbits, ents, elves and anything similar in the Earth's past. Lord of the Rings is about many things but significantly, the passage of these wondrous things, like elves, from the world we know, and the world of men taking over the world after all these wonders are gone. But it's also about courage and hope prevailing where it appears the situation is hopeless, and mortality, addiction, evironmental concerns, etc. LOTR doesn't center around religion, but they're are "powers of good" unseen that work against evil. Evil is shown to betray itself through it's own selfious designs. What's so trivial about these themes? Just because LOTR doesn't pick apart Christianity, it's not significant? Does all fiction examine religion? No, and certainly not necessarily as a central focus.

Pullman does an excellence job in his books, but if his goal was to take down Christianity, as apparently his quoted saying, than he failed on some levels: (spoilers!)

True, organized faith and Catholicism in particular looks poor, and the salvation that many look for supposedly doesn't exist, and the Christian God isn't what he appears to be. However, when all is said and done, Pullman's message appears to be: people can make heaven on Earth, if they seach/work for grace. That sounds a lot Protestant dogma to me. Anybody but Catholics should be clicking their heels with joy at the ending. If not for that apologist, or faux-spiritualistic ending, then the story would have been everything Pullman wanted it to be. (spoilers end)

Pullman is a good writer, but too big for his britches if he wants to criticize Tolkien, especially on the terms he uses.

(Reply to this)

bookworm1994 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:38 AM

People are boycotting this? What the heck? I'm sorry, but my church is getting a group together to GO when this comes out; fyi, this is a good depiction of good and evil and blah, but honestly who cares about movies? Ugh, when I was asked if I would protest Da Vinci Code I was like "It's a freakng fictional movie!"

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oldnoakes writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:43 AM

In reply to this comment (#1253254)
agreed!

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oldnoakes writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:47 AM

In reply to this comment (#1253295)
I'm pretty upset when fiction gets watered in a movie, there's no need to try to appease or not offend anyone. People are already offended because hollywood "has the gall" to make an anti-christian religion. Who cares? If you make a movie out of book, be true to theme and make no appologies.

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Warheart1188 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:50 AM

This author's just jealous that Tolkien and Lewis wrote amazing novels and are critically acclaimed writers. I, personally, grew up with the stories of Narnia and Middle-Earth but this Golden Compass crap, I just heard about a few months ago and the movie looks awful.

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jaqu7 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:50 AM

Pullman is a decent writer. The Golden Compass is the best of the three, in my opinion. But he WANTS controversy. He is trying to pick a fight, as William Wallace would say... although Pullman is hardly someone most people will feel compelled to rally around. He is a bit of a prick. I think many and possibly most writers who takes their beliefs seriously pack more into their novels than just entertainment. Whether people like it or not, preaching is part of what writers do. Pullman has every right to preach, and since he's preaching, people have every right to reject his message. People can get annoyed because they see it as "Christians protesting entertainment". But entertainment obviously is a reflection of culture, and I think that is really what is at the core of all of this; people voicing their beliefs. That's just part of what people do. We voice our beliefs. Case and point are all these posts.

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Merlin235 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 10:52 AM

I love this website....except for the 'reply' feature, I can't believe that still isn't worked out.
I do find it odd that people who share my faith are so suprised to learn that there are people out there making movies, writing books, recording music, or posting on websites who don't share their belifs. And, in fact, will try to undermine them. Why organize a boycott? Who cares? Afterall, the 'founder' of Christianity (that would be Jesus) was killed because of it. So why all the suprise when people make a movie about their beliefs? It isn't personal to us, it's personal to God. I can understand people's feeling the need to defend it, but Christ commandment wasn't to "go out into the world, making sure to argue on all the forums about how right you are and how dumb they are." His command was "love God, and love eachother." Further, I never understood why Christ's message was so insulting to people. Every Christmas we fight over this. We fight about religious-themed movies, about public displays of Christianity, about saying "Merry Christmas" to people coming into your store..... why? When you break it down, what is so insulting about the message that "God loves you so much, He died for you?" It's the reason for the season, baby.

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crudebob writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:01 AM

It seems to me that whenever these posts are related to Catholic or Christian topics, we have all these non Catholic or no Christian posters standing in their pulpits screaming against all these so called Catholic or Christian zealots protesting movies or books because it goes against their beliefs. First of all if you are non Catholic or non Christian, what's it to you? Go to these movies, read these books. Who cares? Secondly, it certainly seems we have far more non Catholic and non Christian zealots out there than there are Carholic or Christain zealots.

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ninjaandy writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:02 AM

Never fails -- any chance he gets, Gimy will insult religion, and then say religious people are intolerant.

I can't believe some of you still make assumptions about an entire group from the actions of a few.

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fuj_ball writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:31 AM

People will always twist reality to suit their own purpose, whether it is seeing evil in a book and protesting or seeing no evil and leaving people alone about it.

I do look forward to seeing an Inuit James Bond battling ninja Jesus in the movie, though.

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highdough writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:42 AM

Merlin235,

Most people's problem with Christianity, has nothing to do with Jesus' teaching. Personally, my problem is that the religion of Christianity, and the Catholic Church specifically, are a corrupted form of some say Jesus believed. I think what Jesus stood for is quite admirable, but that's not Christianity. Christianity is a religion that is simply based on several people's versions of what Jesus stood for. I could write a very long post detailing my problems with it, but suffice is to say, it has nothing to do with Jesus, as a person, and what he was supposed to have believed.

(Reply to this)

Jaimon writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:46 AM

can we please keep religion out of middle earth?

yeesh

(Reply to this)

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