Posted by EireDreamer at 11:55am May 30 '06First of all, I don't know why so many religious groups are getting all bent out of shape about this film. It is a movie, an excellent conspiracy story, and one that is just vague enough to be plausible. The initial impression is that it is going to be a conspiracy about one of the many theories surrounding Christ's "absence" from the Gospels for 18 years of his life. In a way, it is.
The theory that Christ had a wife is not so uncommon, especially as more and more research is done into that era of humanity. It would appear that even some Christian groups believe he could very well have had a wife. The belief that Christ died without ever knowing a woman is most widely held in the Catholic Church, who also believes that Mary, throughout her long life, never once had sex. Anyone who has ever experienced marriage without sex knows what an impossibility THAT is.
The movie bends your mind around the theory with so many little almost-truths that it is hard to see what could really have been. Was Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did she carry His child? Was she at the last supper? Religious scholars have gone around in circles on these questions for centuries. So, what is the truth, and how do we begin to discover it?
Through The DaVinci Code, we follow Robert Langdon, a cryptologist and symbol expert, as he tries to unravel the mystery of a murder and a message. His hunt takes him across Europe in the mad-dash search for answers to questions he shouldn't be asking. Hot on his heels in pursuit is the Catholic Church, bound and determined to do whatever necessary to hide this secret of Christ's humanity. Whether or not Langdon believes the theory is a mystery in itself, as he will often speak of it in such reverence as to imply that he DOES believe it, while other times he will discredit the theories himself.
Through the many twists and turns in the film, you learn that you cannot trust anyone, even those in a place of confidance and trust for centuries. You learn that numbers can mean anything, if written correctly, and you learn that maybe... just maybe... the Church doesn't ALWAYS do what is right.
The most impressive moment, in my opinion, is toward the end of the film. Robert (played excellently well by Tom Hanks, who is beginning to show his age) is talking to his cohort, Sophie. They have been to hell and back, seen and heard things that no human was ever supposed to know about, and she asks him whether or not he believes that Christ was human, married, and just pumped up by the Church. His response is what I wish more people would come to understand.
"Why can't it be both?" As simple as that, walls are torn down on sides of a war that never should have happened. "Why do humanity and divinity have to be separate?" The theory that sex is bad comes from the Church, not the bible! And sex with one's own wife? There is NOTHING wrong with that. In fact, several books in the New Testament talk about the joys of intimacy with your spouse, and the honor it brings to God.
Why couldn't Christ have had a wife and still been divine? I know the film means to take it in the direction of "humanity being divine itself", but it works the other way, too. Why couldn't he have had a wife and still been the Son of God? The bible says he was without sin... but it is the Church who decreed sex as a sin, not God.
All in all, a long but fascinating movie, if you are that kind of person. If you tend to latch onto whatever conspiracy theory you see in a movie, and wave it around like a flag of indisputible truth, avoid this film like the plague. But if you have an open mind, and can accept that perhaps the Catholic Church was NOT the cleanest, purest of establishments in the past centuries, then by all means, see the movie. Enjoy it for what it is. Take a bathroom break BEFORE the film starts, as it is 2 and a half hours long. :)
They are not the catholics we see each day. Those who seek to hide this "truth" are of a small sect, a secret society, not even known to the papacy for what they are. They are deviants no matter how you look at it, and I know that most Catholics would agree.
The theory that Christ had a wife is not so uncommon, especially as more and more research is done into that era of humanity. It would appear that even some Christian groups believe he could very well have had a wife. The belief that Christ died without ever knowing a woman is most widely held in the Catholic Church, who also believes that Mary, throughout her long life, never once had sex. Anyone who has ever experienced marriage without sex knows what an impossibility THAT is.
The movie bends your mind around the theory with so many little almost-truths that it is hard to see what could really have been. Was Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did she carry His child? Was she at the last supper? Religious scholars have gone around in circles on these questions for centuries. So, what is the truth, and how do we begin to discover it?
Through The DaVinci Code, we follow Robert Langdon, a cryptologist and symbol expert, as he tries to unravel the mystery of a murder and a message. His hunt takes him across Europe in the mad-dash search for answers to questions he shouldn't be asking. Hot on his heels in pursuit is the Catholic Church, bound and determined to do whatever necessary to hide this secret of Christ's humanity. Whether or not Langdon believes the theory is a mystery in itself, as he will often speak of it in such reverence as to imply that he DOES believe it, while other times he will discredit the theories himself.
Through the many twists and turns in the film, you learn that you cannot trust anyone, even those in a place of confidance and trust for centuries. You learn that numbers can mean anything, if written correctly, and you learn that maybe... just maybe... the Church doesn't ALWAYS do what is right.
The most impressive moment, in my opinion, is toward the end of the film. Robert (played excellently well by Tom Hanks, who is beginning to show his age) is talking to his cohort, Sophie. They have been to hell and back, seen and heard things that no human was ever supposed to know about, and she asks him whether or not he believes that Christ was human, married, and just pumped up by the Church. His response is what I wish more people would come to understand.
"Why can't it be both?" As simple as that, walls are torn down on sides of a war that never should have happened. "Why do humanity and divinity have to be separate?" The theory that sex is bad comes from the Church, not the bible! And sex with one's own wife? There is NOTHING wrong with that. In fact, several books in the New Testament talk about the joys of intimacy with your spouse, and the honor it brings to God.
Why couldn't Christ have had a wife and still been divine? I know the film means to take it in the direction of "humanity being divine itself", but it works the other way, too. Why couldn't he have had a wife and still been the Son of God? The bible says he was without sin... but it is the Church who decreed sex as a sin, not God.
All in all, a long but fascinating movie, if you are that kind of person. If you tend to latch onto whatever conspiracy theory you see in a movie, and wave it around like a flag of indisputible truth, avoid this film like the plague. But if you have an open mind, and can accept that perhaps the Catholic Church was NOT the cleanest, purest of establishments in the past centuries, then by all means, see the movie. Enjoy it for what it is. Take a bathroom break BEFORE the film starts, as it is 2 and a half hours long. :)
added on 11:57am May 30 '06:
Let me clarify ONE thing (as I read over what I wrote AFTER submitting it...) about the Catholic Church in this film.They are not the catholics we see each day. Those who seek to hide this "truth" are of a small sect, a secret society, not even known to the papacy for what they are. They are deviants no matter how you look at it, and I know that most Catholics would agree.