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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Author
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Topic: _The Da Vinci Code_ protest letter
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-26-2006 05:02 AM
quote: Chad Souder
...what is interesting is that so many so quickly jump on the case of a letter-writer who is well within his or her rights to support what they believe in, but those same people will defend an "artist" who might think he was doing the same.
I would personally support both the letter-writer and the 'artist' being able to express their thoughts, within legal limits - it's just that in this case, I disagree with the letter-writer. OK, he's expressed what is probably an unpopular view - but there's a big difference between asking a theatre politely not to show a film because it offends your religious beliefs and (for example) threatening to blow the theatre up if the film is shown.
Unless I'm missing something, this is a completely different scenario from, for example, Paradise Now; a film which is widely understood to celebrate the actions of Islamic suicide bombers. It has caused riots in Germany, and I gather that far-right organisations in Britain have threatened cinema managers with unspecified action if it is ever shown here. Unsurprisingly enough, it hasn't got a UK distributor as yet. In this case I do think there's a valid argument for heavily restricting the film's availability, as it could clearly be understood to encourage or promote suicide bombing - thereby crossing the line from acceptable free speech to incitement to murder. But I can't see that there's any incitement argument which could be applied to The Da Vinci Code.
quote: Bobby Henderson
Robert Mapplethorpe can shove a bullwhip up his ass and take photos of it to his heart's delight.
Forgive my naivete, but how is it possible to bugger oneself with a bullwhip, while photographing the event at the same time? That would call for quite a feat of manual dexterity, to put it mildly! ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) But I, too, have no particular wish to see the result.
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-26-2006 10:11 AM
quote:
Unless I'm missing something, this is a completely different scenario from, for example, Paradise Now; a film which is widely understood to celebrate the actions of Islamic suicide bombers.
Paradise Now doesn't celebrate the actions if Islamic suicide bombers. It attempts to show how a Palestinian suicide bomber comes to be a suicide bomber. In fact while it was being filmed, they had protests from the Israelis and the Palestinians, so the filmmaker figured he must be doing something right, if he is pissing everybody off.
The film presents the moral conflict in two young men in Palestine, albeit, not very bright young men. All of the arguments for martyring yourself and for not martyring yourself are presented. It attempts, without being a documentary film, to show how this might happen. The entire film is moral conflict, with the actual act hardly mattering at all. Quite brave of the filmmakers if you ask me.
Of course we in the West, and most places find the act abhorrent and that sets up the tension in the film. We know what they plan to do, we don't like it, and waiting for it is excruciating. Just like a thriller or a mystery. Will they do it, won't they do it? Will they get caught, will they get killed before they get to the target? Will their parents find out? Will the girlfriend talk them out of it? Will they see the light and have a change of conscience? Will it be messy or gory? Stay tuned to this Bat Channel for the answers! !Pow! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Those that think it celebrates the actions of the bombers are a) missing the point, and b) haven't seen the film. After seeing the film, I came away with the impression that it pointed out how usurious the clerics were to convince young men to martyr them selves to feed on their emotional pain. Why in the Vietnam war you saw Buddhist monks immolating themselves as protest. How come you never hear of a Moslem Cleric setting off a bomb? And my apologies to Moslem Clerics, I'm not even sure that the Palestinian rebels portrayed in the film were even Clerics.
Interesting film to watch. Made you think.
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 03-26-2006 06:29 PM
The DaVinci Code and the Vatican:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20060313.htm
quote:
Vatican officials relatively quiet about 'The Da Vinci Code'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Is "The Da Vinci Code" on the Vatican's radar? You wouldn't know it by public pronouncements. Vatican officials have said little or nothing about the book, which has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, or the upcoming movie, expected to open the Cannes Film Festival in May. The dominant school of thought at the Vatican is that it is always best to ignore a book or film that presents the church unfairly. "You're only feeding the publicity," said one Vatican official. "I don't think the Vatican will say much about this movie when it comes out -- if anything." But not everyone feels that way, and there are signs that the Code phenomenon may be reaching the critical mass necessary to provoke something stronger from the Vatican. Last year, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, formerly No. 2 at the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, said it was "truly sad and terrible" that "The Da Vinci Code" had become such a popular book among Italian high school students. What left him aghast was that young people were uncritically accepting the novel's premise that the Catholic Church had tried to obliterate the feminine aspect from the Gospel narratives and from the life of the church. "There is nothing more false," Cardinal Bertone said. He pointed to the importance the church gives to Mary and the attention given in the Gospel to Jesus' female disciples, including the women who announced to the male disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-27-2006 01:58 AM
It's annoying when you come across people who can get away with it like that, isn't it? My favourite example of an exception which proves the rule is the 104 year-old father of a friend. He smokes 80 a day (and has done since he was a teenager) and apparently puts away the best part of a bottle of whisky a week, but is still in very good health. Needless to say, he isn't inclined to take the endless stream of nanny state, healthy eating/drinking diktats very seriously!
quote: Bobby Henderson
One way is using a time delayed shutter release, what many photographers call the "bulb" function. Another is by using a shutter release cable.
Well if he used the former, I can only assume that his camera had a longer shutter timer than the one on my Nikon. 10 seconds is not that long to get into position and, err, 'officiate' with the bullwhip! Anyhow, I can't see myself going out of my way to see the result. Now, if he'd used a soldering iron or a Black & Decker (fitted with a 30mm metal bit, on its highest torque setting and set to hammer action, of course)... ![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
quote: Bobby Henderson
American laziness is a big problem. Worse, our popular culture looks down on those who want to do well academically.
If it's any consolation, we have our fair share of that syndrome, too. I'd have to express some potentially controversial political views to fully explain what I feel is behind it, and therefore won't go there. But like you, I'm seeing what could almost be called an anti-work ethic culture coming through in people only 5-10 years younger than me, which I'm sure has something to do with the UK having slipped from 4th to 12th in the world economic output (i.e. GDP per capita) rankings in the last seven years.
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