{"id":687,"date":"2006-07-09T22:36:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-09T22:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=687"},"modified":"2006-07-09T22:36:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-09T22:36:00","slug":"the-da-vinci-code-a-pagan-date-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=687","title":{"rendered":"The Da Vinci Code: A Pagan date movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

M. and I are not what you would call “early adopters,” other than perhaps when we bought a Jeep TJ right after they were introduced in 1997. (We still have it.) So this is not exactly a cutting-edge review of The Da Vinci Code<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is rated PG, which could just as well stand for “Partially or Predominately or Pretty Gnostic.” Given that two newer films, The Devil Wears Prada<\/em><\/a> and A Prairie Home Companion<\/em><\/a> had opened in Colorado Springs, site of our delayed anniversary Day in the City, I was surprised that M. voted for Da Vinci<\/em>. But she argued that it would be the best to see on the big screen (the “Euro porn” factor<\/a>\u2014old buildings, cityscapes, conspiracies) and, of course, we would be voting with our ticket dollars against those who called for a boycott.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, eating at Shuga’s<\/a> on South Cascade Avenue, we decided that this was one case where the movie was better than the book. For me, the book just went \u201cin one eye and out the other.\u201d Having read Holy Blood, Holy Grail<\/em> back when it was published, I knew the whole Priory of Sion story, and not much about Dan Brown\u2019s<\/a> novel, other than perhaps the initial murder of the curator in the Louvre, stayed with me. <\/p>\n

As to the story’s cinematic incarnation, Tom Hanks has evolved into the thinking man\u2019s action hero, Audrey Tautou\u2019s wide-eyed \u201cWho? Me?\u201d expression is bearable, and, most of all, Ian McKellen<\/a> as the duplicitous Grail expert seems to have such a twinkle in his eye, as though he is saying, \u201cLook at me! An old man, yet I have this juicy part. And I don\u2019t have to endure a long fake beard as I did for Gandalf.\u201d) <\/p>\n

He is such a pleasure to watch. I was late in discovering him as an actor\u2014I did not realize how good he was until the \u201cEnglish fascist\u201d Richard III<\/a> of 1995. At that movie’s opening scene, when the glass-domed ticker-tape machine chatters out \u201cRichard . . . Gloucester . . . is . . . at . . . Shrewsbury\u201d\u2014or however it went\u2014my jaw dropped, and I said, \u201cThis is going to be wonderful.\u201d And it was. (Perhaps it\u2019s time to rent it again.)<\/p>\n

Alfred Molina turns in a competent performance as the scheming Opus Dei bishop. <\/p>\n

The story of Sophie (Audrey Tautou) fits the archetype of the Lost Princess\u2014one archetype that Jung never mentioned. Back when I was researching Gleb Botkin and the Church of Aphrodite for Her Hidden Children<\/em><\/a>, I read an article discussing the Anastasia claimant<\/a>, the woman who was known here as \u201cAnna Anderson.\u201d <\/p>\n

Botkin, who had known the real Anastasia, the daughter of the last Russian czar, had supported the claimant<\/a> when she surfaced in Berlin in the 1920s. He was living in New York City at the time, and a newspaper paid his way to Berlin. Later, around 1968, he officiated at her wedding to one of her American supporters<\/a>, in his capacity as hierarch of the Church of Aphrodite\u2014that was just months before he died. <\/p>\n

At any rate, the article said that the Anastasia story captured so many people\u2019s imaginations because of the \u201clost princess\u201d theme. And if you equate \u201cprincess\u201d with \u201cpsyche,\u201d you could put a psychologically Gnostic twist on it. Or \u201cprincess\u201d with Sophia, of course. <\/p>\n

All the mainstream Catholic denouncers of the movie, however, cannot confront one thing. They can go on and on<\/a> about how the Church canonized Mary Magdalene and does not really oppress women (don’t get my ex-Catholic wife started on that), but they refuse to confront how the book and movie speak to a need for the Divine Feminine. They just can’t. It’s not in their playbook. <\/p>\n

I am not equating Paganism with Gnosticism. Briefly, I consider the key difference to be that most Gnosticism considers this world to be a trap, a tomb, a mistake\u2014pick your metaphor. Michael York discusses the difference at length in his book Pagan Theology<\/em>. It’s a short, pithy book, and you should buy it<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But I do think that Pagans, like Gnostics, can stand outside the current religious mainstream and see what is missing.<\/p>\n

But be careful with Dan Brown: he does make up some stuff wholesale. Alexander Pope did not give the eulogy at Isaac Newton’s funeral<\/a>. <\/p>\n

You want a conspiracy theory<\/a>? Maybe movies like this are the result of a plot by European ministries of tourism, who know that some viewers will want to see all the locations.<\/p>\n

Tags: Da Vinci Code<\/a>, Paganism<\/a>, Gnosticism<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. and I are not what you would call “early adopters,” other than perhaps when we bought a Jeep TJ right after they were introduced in 1997. (We still have it.) So this is not exactly a cutting-edge review of The Da Vinci Code. It is rated PG, which could just as well stand for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-b5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":659,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=659","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":0},"title":"Gnostic-bashingWith The Da Vinci Code\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Gnostic-bashingWith The Da Vinci Code movie about to open, the anti-Gnostic reaction is heating up. One Catholic screenwriter-blogger urges her readers to watch the vapid Over the Hedge instead. (It's an \"othercott,\" not a boycott.)This film is based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=529","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":1},"title":"\"Pseudo-factual claptrap . . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Pseudo-factual claptrap . . . half-baked historical revisionism\"The Da Vinci Code movie is viewed with alarm.It's nice to be a Pagan on the sidelines. Heck, we're still in the parking lot eating chile off the tailgate. Then we'll enter the stadium with our lap robes and hip flasks and watch\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=302","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":2},"title":"National Treasure \"Hey,\" says M.,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"National Treasure \"Hey,\" says M., watching the trailer for Nicholas Cage's new movie, \"It's a heist movie.\" (She likes heists and capers.) I think it looks more like The Da Vinci Code for Deists. We shall have to find out whose judgment is more correct.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":174,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=174","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":3},"title":"Counter-attack on The Da Vinci\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Counter-attack on The Da Vinci Code Cronaca and Bookslut (27 April entry) both have entries on the flood of new books out to counter the spurious history, not to mention the \"feminism, anticlericalism and pagan forms of worship\" of The Da Vinci Code. From the New York Times: \"The Rev.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":284,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=284","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":4},"title":"Living by the Code I\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Living by the Code I have blogged before about certain Christians' horrified response to the success of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. At least a dozen books are devoted to \"exposing\" it. But Curtis White's review essay in the Voice Literary Supplement makes the best point: \"The Da Vinci\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1278,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1278","url_meta":{"origin":687,"position":5},"title":"Our Secret Order Will Rule the Empire","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What is it with secret societies and magical orders in the movies these days? The Da Vinci Code. National Treasure: Book of Secrets. . . I could go on.Now M. and I are back from watching the new Sherlock Holmes, which felt like \"screenplay by Dan Brown and Dion Fortune,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}