Da Vinci Code (script, history, document, watched)

[Nea1]

I may be late, but what was with all the hub bub about that movie? I just rented and watched it, it was good, so what was the deal with all the press and up roar?

[BlueWillowPlate]

Well, the Catholic Church, for obvious reasons, wasn't too crazy about it.
People were reading that stuff and believing it.
To me, the book's style was like something written for a middle schooler, but secret societies and codes are fun. You just can't take this stuff too seriously.

[Nea1]

Originally Posted by cil

Well, the Catholic Church, for obvious reasons, wasn't too crazy about it.
People were reading that stuff and believing it.
To me, the book's style was like something written for a middle schooler, but secret societies and codes are fun. You just can't take this stuff too seriously.

Yea, it was fiction, not non-fiction. My neighbor watched it with us and at the end said " he thought the catholic church was protesting to much, like it was fearfull." I only start to wonder about things when their is a immediate strong negative reation to these things. Why be fearfull if it isnt true, or you have nothing to hide.

[Lannie]

Did you read the book? It's fabulous! But controversial. The Catholic church got it's panties all in wad! According to the book (fiction) the church is hiding the true nature of Jesus, writing that he was really just a human being, married to Mary Magdalene, and that he has a royal bloodline that continues to this day. The church tries to hide the true nature of Jesus by destroying the earlier gnostic (sp??) gospels that had the evidence of Jesus' humanity. The author writes that secret societies like Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion had members like Leonardo Da Vinci and are involved in CIA-type cover-up operations over Jesus' true identity. Really controversial stuff for the chuch. When I was reading it, I had to remind myself that "it is just a book" :-)


The story also has allegations that the New Testament is based on pagan mythology, that there was goddess worship (the "sacred feminine") early on in the history of the church, and that all this was suppressed in a play for patriarchal power. (See movie critics reviews)
Critics charge that Brown's claim, in the beginning of the book, that "all descriptions of art, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" (see the book cover).

The Da Vinci Code brought up a number of questions:

Was Jesus Married?
Did the Early Church suppress 80 Gospels and keep them from inclusion in the New Testament?
Are the New Testament documents reliable history?
Did the Council of Nicea vote to make Jesus divine?
Was the "Sacred Feminine" part of early Christian belief?

There's a lot more on internet ~ this is just a touch of it. Great stuff...and fun! :-)

[Housemartin]

Two things.

The first one, IMO the movie isn't bad but isn't good either. So I can't understand its great success if the evaluation tool is only the quality. There are other explications to understand that success.

And that's the second one: the sensationalism. Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely controversial, loud, or attention-grabbing, and they use that way to pay attention and earn a lot of money. And IMO that's not good because we have to respect the truth and the History and we can't change it for all the gold on the earth.

Ah! I'm not Catholic but, you can see it, I can't stand sensationalism.

[compltlyme]

I just watched it last night and thought it was a really good thought provoking movie!

Yes it was non fiction… with that in mind I was ready to be entertained and have to admit I love a movie that creates such conversation afterwards. It is just one more theory among the many already out there.

And if I were to put out a movie I would welcome the controversy…after all it would be free publicity!!! Just ask Mel Gibson!!!

[dullnboring]

Terrific book. I haven't seen the movie yet. I hear it's nowhere near as good as the book but I really want to see it regardless. Anytime the Catholic Church or any other group, comes out in favor of banning or censoring a product, whether it be the Da Vinci Code or the Danish Mohammed cartoons or an Eminem album, it draws more attention and becomes more popular than it otherwise would have. The makers of the Da Vinci Code should send a check to the Pope for all the tickets they helped sell.

[SpeedyAZ]

I'm Catholic but it's a very well-written book and the movie is equally great. When the Catholic Church came out and completely bashed this book, it raised a few questions. Do they have anything to hide? Was something in that book hitting pretty close to home? There are quite a few facts in the movie itself though the plot may be fiction.

The author writes that secret societies like Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion had members like Leonardo Da Vinci and are involved in CIA-type cover-up operations over Jesus' true identity.

Opus Dei isn't really a "secret society" in the sense of the word even though many people didn't know what it was before the Da Vinci Code. A friend that I've known for a very long time is a member of Opus Dei. He does wear a clice for 1 hour per day but it isn't nearly as gory as the movie projects. It's simply a tight belt-like thing that he puts around his ankle which leaves no flesh wound (although the place where he wears it does get red). And no, he doesn't practice corporal mortification.

[ExNYC]

If you liked reading Da Vinci Code, read his other book, Angels and Demons. It's very similar - a real page-turner.

The Catholic Church is paranoid about its image these days and maybe was overly sensitive about the contents of the book. By speaking out, the book got even more publicity than it might have otherwise. Not very smart...

[christina0001]

I didn't watch the movie. The book was excellent, and I knew the book would only disappoint me.