The Golden Compass Controversy
The opening date for the movie The Golden Compass is December 7, and the controversy continues to grow. For weeks now, some in the Christian community have been sending out warning e-mails and announcements about the contents of the movie and the books, His Dark Materials Trilogy, that the movie is based on.
So what is all the hype really about?
After visiting the official site for the movie and reading some of the interviews with the books’ author, Philip Pullman, the controversy is clearly more about the books than the movie. Pullman is a self-professed atheist, and the His Dark Materials Trilogy contains many anti-Christian and anti-organized religion overtones. In the final book, God is killed. But in The Golden Compass movie, many of the overtly anti-religious elements were removed or watered down to gain wider appeal. And in actuality, some of the concepts contained in the movie are nothing new, simply presented in a new and fantastical way.
In the world of The Golden Compass, each human has an animal counterpart, called a daemon, that is that person’s soul and resides alongside them throughout life. Animals as spiritual connections are also an integral part of the Aztec culture. Although the Aztecs believed your animal spirit resided in the dream world, there were Sleep Walkers who learned to traverse the world of dreams and contact their animal spirits. Those with ill-intent, witches, were believed to be able to curse those animals and bring about sickness or death in the human being. In The Golden Compass, a person without his or her daemon would be horribly mutilated. In an interview transcript on MSNBC.com, Pullman is asked where he got the concept of daemons. He replied, “The idea of daemons came to me very suddenly and from nowhere that I can be sure of.” The basic concept is far from sudden, though, as the Aztec religion has believed in animals-as-souls for centuries.
The central focus of The Golden Compass is, of course, a compass. This compass has the power to reveal the future and the Magisterium want it for themselves. The compass and the points of a compass have been believed to hold magical and mystical power for millenia. Religions old and new around the world hold references to a compass. Even Christianity holds the belief that Jesus will reappear from the east, and in the past people were buried facing east so they would be facing Jesus upon his return. It is not much of a jump to consider a compass with the power to reveal what will be.
The Golden Compass does contain witches, a young girl in peril, good and bad animals, and a group of people bent on world domination. It is so wrapped up in special effects, larger-than-life characters, and obvious fantasy, that I find it hard to believe any teen or older child would gain any sort of religious message from it. It is simply an overbudgeted film from the mind of a writer and director with the ability to put a new creative spin on old ideas.
The conroversy is over whether seeing the movie will make kids want to read the books. As pointed out in an article from CitizenLink.org, ” ‘The problem is that kids may see the film and ask their parents for the books,’ said Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League.” She went on to say, “The danger is that parents will not realize, from the film, what Pullman is promoting. Pullman’s trilogy shows a world where there is no God.” If the Catholic League does not think parents will see the danger in the movie, then there is no danger. The lay organization is well known for its speed to take offense across the spectrum.
Should you buy the books? Probably not for children and young teenagers (although my personal belief is that older teens should be allowed to read what they wish, and I would never censor my child’s reading short of pornography once he reaches 16.) I asked another writer who has read the books about the message in them, and there are clear anti-religion overtones in them. There is a lesson for kids here in how movies made from books often do not stay true to the original print. Movies are about making money, and The Golden Compass cost over $150 million to produce. Without the widest appeal possible, they could never hope to recoup that kind of money.
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December 6th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Just a thought:
I hear alot of people throwing around the phrase “not for children” when it comes to movies like “The Golden Compass”. I think we need to consider the message we are sending our kids. Do they have to wait until they’re older to look at and listen to evil? If we say it’s not appropriate for children, do we really think it’s appropriate for us? Isn’t evil - evil. If something insults God - does it insult Him less if adult eyes are looking at it? No big heavy or anything - it’s just a thought…
December 6th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Personally, I think many Christians do a disservice to their children by trying to shield them. We live in a global age, when information is available from anywhere at any time instantaneously. On that global scales, Christians are a distinct minority and oft ridiculed. We must teach our children about what they will encounter and how to deal with it. Keeping it from them only confuses them when they enter and try to compete in the world on their own. Evil is evil, for children or adults. But your children will hear about this movie. They will see the commercials, the games, the merchandising, and hear about it from their friends. Only we as Christian parents can show them what it is truly about and how to answer to it. If you isolate your children while they are at home, you stand a great chance of losing them to the world when they leave.