Materials, the trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman. In the novel, a 12-year-old girl named Lyra sets out on a quest to expose a malevolent governing body called "the Church", which answers to the "Vatican council" and kidnaps children for experimentation.
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What is so bad about an atheist movie?
Larissa Dubecki
December 24, 2007
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SO WHAT the hell is an atheist supposed to do at Christmas? Going by
debates about a children's fantasy film due to be released on Boxing Day,
I'll presumably spend the morning sacrificing kittens, move on to larger
mammals in the afternoon and by evening will be taking the Lord's name in
vain in rhyming couplets.
But that, of course, is a fantasy in itself. The church business aside,
I'll be sticking to the time-honoured tradition followed by a goodly
proportion of Australia's Christians: spending time with family and
friends, eating my bodyweight in assorted Christmas food, rueing the extra
serve of pudding and falling asleep on the couch.
Evolutionary scientist Richard Dawkins last year declared Christmas safe
for atheists, so divorced has it become from religion. Possibly it's
another inflammatory statement from the author of The God Delusion, but I
prefer to think of it as a timely and straightforward recognition that
Christmas can be an occasion for renewal and hope for the religious and
non-religious alike. Peace, joy and goodwill aren't, after all, the
exclusive domain of people who can nominate a favourite psalm.
But the culture wars that infect Christmas — the growing tradition of
lamenting the loss of tradition while finding some absurd example to hang
it all on, such as department store Santas being banned from saying "ho ho
ho" — now extend even to Boxing Day and the multiplex, where a recent spate
of fantasy films released on cinema's biggest day of the year have had
their entrails studied in the quest for God or the devil.
This year's offering is The Golden Compass, a fantasy based on His Dark
Materials, the trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman. In the novel, a
12-year-old girl named Lyra sets out on a quest to expose a malevolent
governing body called "the Church", which answers to the "Vatican council"
and kidnaps children for experimentation. The film has removed the direct
references to the church, which is relabelled the "Magisterium" — director
Chris Weitz said producers New Line Cinema feared the story's
anti-religious themes would make the film financially unviable in the US —
but that hasn't stopped the US-based Catholic League and other
fundamentalist groups calling for a boycott for pushing an atheist agenda
onto children.
But perhaps Christians who feel the need to censor material viewed in a
secular society need to be reminded they don't have a mortgage on
determining good and evil. Their objections to The Golden Compass, for
instance, overlook the fact that Pullman — and yes, he is an atheist —
presents a deeply moral world that celebrates free will and a generalised
rejection of authority, one that lauds heroism and self-sacrifice, while
holding up as an enemy a dogmatic church.
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SO WHAT the hell is an atheist supposed to do at Christmas? Going by
debates about a children's fantasy film due to be released on Boxing Day,
I'll presumably spend the morning sacrificing kittens, move on to larger
mammals in the afternoon and by evening will be taking the Lord's name in
vain in rhyming couplets.
But that, of course, is a fantasy in itself. The church business aside,
I'll be sticking to the time-honoured tradition followed by a goodly
proportion of Australia's Christians: spending time with family and
friends, eating my bodyweight in assorted Christmas food, rueing the extra
serve of pudding and falling asleep on the couch.
Evolutionary scientist Richard Dawkins last year declared Christmas safe
for atheists, so divorced has it become from religion. Possibly it's
another inflammatory statement from the author of The God Delusion, but I
prefer to think of it as a timely and straightforward recognition that
Christmas can be an occasion for renewal and hope for the religious and
non-religious alike. Peace, joy and goodwill aren't, after all, the
exclusive domain of people who can nominate a favourite psalm.
But the culture wars that infect Christmas — the growing tradition of
lamenting the loss of tradition while finding some absurd example to hang
it all on, such as department store Santas being banned from saying "ho ho
ho" — now extend even to Boxing Day and the multiplex, where a recent spate
of fantasy films released on cinema's biggest day of the year have had
their entrails studied in the quest for God or the devil.
This year's offering is The Golden Compass, a fantasy based on His Dark
Materials, the trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman. In the novel, a
12-year-old girl named Lyra sets out on a quest to expose a malevolent
governing body called "the Church", which answers to the "Vatican council"
and kidnaps children for experimentation. The film has removed the direct
references to the church, which is relabelled the "Magisterium" — director
Chris Weitz said producers New Line Cinema feared the story's
anti-religious themes would make the film financially unviable in the US —
but that hasn't stopped the US-based Catholic League and other
fundamentalist groups calling for a boycott for pushing an atheist agenda
onto children.
But perhaps Christians who feel the need to censor material viewed in a
secular society need to be reminded they don't have a mortgage on
determining good and evil. Their objections to The Golden Compass, for
instance, overlook the fact that Pullman — and yes, he is an atheist —
presents a deeply moral world that celebrates free will and a generalised
rejection of authority, one that lauds heroism and self-sacrifice, while
holding up as an enemy a dogmatic church.
Whatever your religion, there's cinema to offend. The Passion of the Christ
offended Jews for its bloodthirsty depiction of the last days of Christ;
Water offended Hindus; Bowfinger Scientologists; Hollywood Buddha Buddhists.
But despite a notable tradition of Christian writers of fantasy (including
J. R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), special fear seems to be reserved among
some extreme elements of the Christian churches for the genre, which they
see as a portal into young, impressionable minds.
You'd think that after harnessing the supposed birthday of their most
revered figure to a pagan festival that included divination and witchcraft,
they might have more tolerance for the genre, although on Boxing Day in
2005 they were happy to co-opt Narnia, the film version of the allegorical
C. S. Lewis novel in which the lion Aslan represented a muscular,
militaristic Jesus. That time it was the turn of the devoutly atheistic to
be horrified at the thought that their little ones would emerge blinking
from the cinema and demand to be taken to Sunday school.
It didn't happen, of course, just as the Harry Potter films (and books)
didn't create a junior league of Satan worshippers with their depiction of
witchcraft. It remains highly unlikely that young viewers of the latest
blockbuster popcorn fantasy fare will begin burning churches and practising
their pentagrams. You need to understand something of Christianity to
recognise the allusions; even then, they're better seen as the beginnings
of healthy debate rather than a Trojan horse for atheism.
Even before it opens in Australia, The Golden Compass is starting to
resemble Christmas turkey leftovers after taking only $30 million on its
opening weekend in the US.
Fundamentalist Christian groups and the Vatican have claimed responsibility
for a backlash, but it's more likely that an incoherent plot and Nicole
Kidman's disturbingly immovable maquillage have a significant part to play.
Perhaps atheists and Christians aren't so different after all: we both say
no to fantasy done badly.
Larissa Dubecki is a staff writer.
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