Review of The DaVinci Code Movie - 5/22/06

The DaVinci Code Is a Good Movie

We went to see The DaVinci Code on its opening day and enjoyed this suspenseful and thought-provoking movie. I haven't read the book but am very familiar with the plot, the alternative view of history that the story presents, and many other true historical details that are touched upon in the story. I may have enjoyed the movie more than other people because I'm one of those history nerds who loves tales that provide a glimpse into conspiracies and secrets like the numerous ones the Catholic Church has been involved with since the time of its founding.

But there were compelling villains in this film, including an amazing Paul Bettany as the scary monk, Silas, and a superb cast of other supporting characters including my favorite French actor, Jean Reno, and the hugely-entertaining Ian McKellen. McKellen always looks like he is having a blast with whatever role he is playing, and this infectious joy really comes through whether he is a villain or a "good guy" in a movie.

Since this has already been revealed in all of the newspapers and magazines, I'm not spoiling the movie for you if I, too, talk about the central premise of the story. The idea is that there are two warring factions - the Catholic Church and more specifically, a secret arm of the Church called Opus Dei (a real organization clouded in secrecy, whose members include extremely powerful people like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia) and another group referred to in the story as the Priory of Scion/Zion, a group who has a very different view about the life of Jesus than is supported in traditional church doctrine. The Priory's members believe that Jesus not only married Mary Magdalene but that he fathered children with her, founding what would later become the Merovingian line. The Knights Templar are presented as an early group that supported this view, and when the Knights Templar were persecuted and wiped out their members supposedly went underground, surfacing later (as presented in this tale) as the Priory of Scion.

The DaVinci Code is an exciting scavenger hunt involving ancient relics, alternative religious history, and spirituality, although the main characters are presented here as being very grounded and non-metaphysical in their beliefs. Robert Langdon, played by a very serious and centered Tom Hanks, is a religious symbolism expert and professor who gets caught up in the mystery as he is pulled into investigating a murder. Sophie Neveu, played by the beautiful and soulful Audrey Tatou, is a young police cryptologist who works with Langdon to uncover deepening layers of this complex mystery.

In the novel, Langon and Neveu are a romantic item, but director Ron Howard wisely avoids that here. This was probably partly due to the age difference between Hanks and the young Tatou, and possibly also due to pacing. You really don't have time in this complex, suspenseful story to due justice to both a romance AND a mystery, so I for one was glad that the pace didn't get bogged down in a romantic subplot.

Ron Howard takes on a very complex story and lays out the historical elements very cleanly. There are many cool "flashback" techniques where the audience gets to see the various historic events played out while the contemporary characters do their research and talk about the mysteries they are uncovering. These flashbacks, which include glimpses of the Knights Templar and their Crusades and moments of ancient Roman pagans clashing with early Christians, are visually exciting and add a lot of variety to the story. So the history isn't just presented through the characters talking about it. You get to see it acted out, happening in front of you with these flashbacks to various points in time.

The movie shows us gorgeous locations like the Louvre, and many mysterious and lovely French cathedrals. Audiences even get to see a little of London.

Overall, Howard is very true to the European flavor of the story, and Hanks as a hero is not as flat and jarringly American you might expect. He gives a restrained performance that works well with the more lively and emotional character played by Audrey Tatou. Her Sophie is intelligent, thoughtful, and haunted by the past, and all of her ghosts are addressed as the story unfolds. I liked both of them in these roles very much.

Religious Protests Against The DaVinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ

While I can see that the idea of Jesus expressing more "mortal" desires and having a family can be threatening to many, the protestors really are barking up the wrong tree in trying to boycott this movie. I saw the same thing happen when Martin Scorcese's haunting and affecting movie The Last Temptation of Christ was released in the late 80's. The protestors were all lining up to boycott the movie because, the protestors had been told, the movie supposes that Christ did NOT die on the cross but survived to marry and have children with Mary Magdalene.

Those protestors should have done a little research and read the book that The Last Temptation of Christ was based on. They should have also stopped to read the TITLE of the movie and book. "The Last Temptation of Christ" should have given them some clues about what the story was really about. They were basing their protests on inaccurate assumptions about the movie.

The Last Temptation of Christ is a beautiful, deeply moving movie, and Willem Dafoe is excellent as Jesus. It's not about Jesus getting married. It's about Jesus experiencing one last "temptation" in the final moments of his life as he is being crucified, as Satan presents him with a long vision about what his life might have been like if he hadn't taken the path he had, if he had kept out of public life and settled down to live a more "selfish" and happy life with a wife and kids, with his beloved Mary Magdalene as his bride. In the end of this vision, Jesus rebuffs Satan and makes a clear choice - that he will follow his destiny and serve God in the way he knows he is meant to, making the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

That movie in NO way sets up the idea that Jesus actually DID marry. It is a movie about "What if Jesus thought about what MIGHT had been, what if Satan tempts him one last time with the idea that he still might survive and have a family? And what if Jesus fought off that final temptation to fulfill his destiny?"

If anything, conventional Christians would have their beliefs reaffirmed from viewing that movie. In my opinion, the church should have gotten behind that film instead of crucifying it and director Scorcese, himself a devout and thoughtful Catholic.

Instead, they all got behind Mel Gibson's horrific Satanic sacrifice of a movie years later. Churches all over the world bought tickets for their congregations and forced their members to view 2004's The Passion of Christ, which was essentially one long snuff film and extremely disturbing and Luciferian. For millions of people, they will now be carrying the horrific image of Jim Cavaziels' Jesus being tortured, maimed, and covered in bloody gore, whenever they contemplate Jesus. Just which guiding force do you think inspired THAT movie? When a piece of art is all about blood sacrifice, blood letting and blood lust, remember that THOSE are the hallmarks of Lucifer, not a loving God. Subjecting so many people to that gruesome imagery and even encouraging CHILDREN to see it was really messed up.

The Last Temptation of Christ isn't like that at all. It has haunting music by Peter Gabriel, evocative and deeply moving, and a very loving portrayal of an amazing man who, in that tale, chooses divinity over life as a more conventionally mortal man. That should have pleased the church. It didn't. It's an uplifting story, a heartwarming one.

Now protests are being staged about this movie, The DaVinci Code, and this is absolutely insane. The movie doesn't state that Jesus definitely married and had children. It presents the FACT that there have been groups of people throughout time who have strongly believed this. The Priory of Scion may or may not be a real organization, as some have called its existence a hoax. But the Knights Templar were real. They still are real, actually.

I used to know a woman who married a European man from the Merovingian bloodline. They were married in ancient church and the mysterious marriage ritual including invocations and prayers spoken in an ancient language. It was a Knights Templar ceremony. These traditions aren't dead. They are still kept alive among many of the ancient lineages of Europe.

Some of the Templars did believe that Jesus married, others didn't. There are many divergent views.

There were many divergent views about Christ's essence and his teaching even during his life, and right after his crucifixion the Gnostics, who believed in Jesus as a spiritual teacher and guide but NOT as a "son of God," eventually lost control over the evolution of Christian beliefs as the others exerted their interpretation of him as being purely divine. The Gnostic and their hundreds of gospels and other writings were later denounced as heresy and the Gnostics had to go underground to keep their version of Christian spirituality alive. Today, there are many who unconciously "know" that something is wrong about the traditional Christian path, but they don't realize that thousands of their ancestors know this, too, and in fact they approached their spiritual appreciation of Jesus in a very different way.

And that way IS legimate, despite the bloody persecution, killings, and repression that the Catholic and Protestant movements have been engaged in throughout the centuries. They obviously don't want people to know this. Yet the incredible success of the movie and the book seem to prove that people have an unconscious drive to find out about the manipulation that went into creating the Catholic Church as an institution.

The Sons of God and the Elohim in the Bible

In the old Testament there is a lot of writing about the "Sons of God" and the "Daughters of God" in the plural, and this is all mixed up with the group of mysterious beings who call themselves the "Elohim." And then there is God talking about himself in the plural all the time. The Bible was translated in such a way that most of the original references where God talks about "we" have been changed to "I." So there is a lot of funny business going on there that becomes obvious as you look at the history of different translations and what was excised or added.

The protestors of The DaVinci Code are, yet again, treating people like morons. Obviously, we are not allowed to be exposed to an adventure story which includes some references to a historical group of people who believed that Jesus married and had kids. We are not allowed to discern for ourselves what is in alignment with our personal spiritual beliefs, because we are children who need to be spoonfed "truth" according to a "daddy" figure like the Church. We are not allowed to be exposed to alternative ideas, neither are we allowed to learn about some of the very real, very bloody and very weird business this Church has been involved with over time.

Nonsense. Seeing this movie should reaffirm the faith of people who choose to view Jesus as wholly divine, because it they are truly clear in their beliefs, what threat would a little movie pose to their faith?

And those who have half a brain and choose to think for themselves may or may not choose to believe in Jesus as a mortal married man after watching this film. That's entirely up to them.

This film isn't about shoving a belief down people's throats. It's a compelling adventure film, for goodness sake. It's an Indiana Jones type adventure with religious overtones. Did the Catholic Church protest the first Indiana Jones movie just because it depicted an alternative reality in which Nazi relic hunters found the Lost Ark of the Covenant? No. So why would they protest this? It's insanity.

I encourage people to check out the movie for themselves, and don't expect it to be a terribly religious movie, because it really isn't. It's an adventure story ABOUT religious relics and ideas, but the lead characters are simply detective types unravelling the enticing mysteries of history.

If being a detective, using your mind, and learning about life are against Church doctrine, perhaps we need to start questioning the repressive forces and organizations which encourage ignorance over education.