Da Vinci Hoax Blog

The Cinematic Code is Dead

Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, writes the obituary over at NRO:

The Da Vinci Code is dead. Four weeks after release, its box-office grosses this past weekend came in at a remarkably anemic $10 million. That’s dead.

The Da Vinci Code opened four weeks ago with an ungodly amount of free publicity and returned a whopping $77 million in its first week of release. It should have broken all records — it had that kind of momentum. But then it dropped like a stone. In four weeks it went from $77 million to $45 million to $18 million and now to $10 million. That’s an 88-percent drop in a month. And this is while still appearing in more than 3,700 theaters. D-e-a-d.

Make no mistake, the movie made its money back, but it needed the foreign markets to do it. Its production budget was $125 million. Add another $50-$75 million for advertising/marketing and prints and so far its $189 million domestic take is under water.

Internationally, the movie has grossed $452 million in 67 countries, which will likely more than cover what must have been a substantial international advertising and marketing budget. (And shamefully, the “Catholic” countries of France, Italy, and Spain snapped up tickets to the tune of $29 million, $34 million, and $28 million respectively..)

It is expected that ancillary sales will bring in substantially more, perhaps another $50 million in DVD rentals and sales. Toss in television and cable and they are looking at nice profit.

So, how can I possibly suggest that The Da Vinci Code is dead and maybe even a failure? First, because it dropped so quickly — four weeks and poof. It can be argued that the first weekend viewers saw it because they liked the book or came in on the hype. Still, at roughly 21 million tickets sold, not even all the book-buyers saw it. What killed it was word of mouth. People hated it.

Second, it is dead because it will not make much of a profit in domestic-box-office receipts. This is particularly delicious because this is what these guys slather over the most. Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are happy when they make money in the foreign and ancillary markets but it chaps their keisters to be saved by them.

Read entire piece.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBack (0)

How is the movie different from the novel?

I've been meaning to write a bit on this question, but have been spared some of the time and effort by Greg Wright, who wrote this short but insightful review of TDVC movie when it first came out (oh so many days ago). Wright (who is not a Catholic, btw) observed the following:

Earlier today, MSNBC carried an AP story which reported that Ron Howard's movie "subtly softens" the material of Dan Brown's book. The Associated Press couldn't have it more wrong.

Yes, Tom Hanks' Robert Langdon does find some new dialogue in his mouth courtesy of screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, words that at least play devil's advocate with Ian McKellen's Leigh Teabing. But in the end, the cinematic Langdon becomes much more of a true believer than does his literary counterpart.

Three major innovations introduced by Howard's movie:

First, his film portrays Opus Dei and the "shadow council" of the Vatican as really being in cahoots, really conspiring to kill people in the name of God, really trying to supress intellectual inquiry, really turning its back on truth and righteousness. In short, Ron Howard turns the Catholic Church into a genuine villain. Shameful.

Second, the movie further fabricates ancient history, making the charge that history is unclear whether the Roman Empire or the Christians were the first agressors. Please!

Third, and most importantly, the film invests significant energy in validating the Magdalene myth. While in Brown's book Marie Chauvel basically leaves the existence of the Sangreal documents and Magdalene's bones to the world's imagination, Howard has Langdon and Neveu discover plenty of material evidence to back up the claim.

Where's the mystery that feeds the soul? Where's the adventure? You'll have to find it in the book, I'm afraid. There's no codebreaking here, just polemic.

These are excellent points — but they were missed (or ignored) by most other reviewers of the movie. For many reviewers, the unforgiveable sin of Howard's flick is that it is ponderous, boring, silly. But Wright is absolutely correct that movie, just like the novel, is much more about polemics than storytelling. Which is one reason the storytelling is so ponderous, boring, silly. Which, happily, blunts some of the polemics, but hardly exonerates the filmmakers from going to such lengths to disdainfully (or is it "dis-Dan-fully"?) attack the Catholicism, historical fact, and commonsense.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Friday, June 02, 2006 at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

GodSpy: "How Dull the Con of Ron"

GodSpy.com's John Murphy (who also lives here in Oregon) did not read TDVC, but saw the movie. He was less than impressed:

It’s not that the movie is bad. It might have been more entertaining if it was. Instead, DVC has that depressing kind of competency which signals lack of conviction married to bald-faced greed. The sets are big and expensive, but nothing interesting happens in them. The actors are top-notch, but the script doesn’t supply them with human beings to play.

Yes, indeed. Say what you will about Ron Howard, he was honest when he said he would be true to the novel. And so he was, making a movie that is tedious, pretentious, bloated, annoying, and just as arrogant and filled with error as Dan Brown's book.

DVC is more than anti-Catholic, though. Any movie with a plot that hinges on Christ having married Mary Magdalene and spawned a line of dissolute French monarchs (oh, and was also definitely not God) safely falls within the parameters of a more general kind of anti-Christianity. However, DVC is also anti-plausibility, anti-character development, anti-subtlety, and anti-fun. So I’m all for anything this movie is against. Frankly, I’m more offended by the ways in which the film insults my intelligence than I am by the ways in which it insults my faith. ...

If the movie is anything like the book (and I’ve heard it’s a faithful adaptation), then I am truly worried about the state of literacy in the world. What happened to the days when Dickens was hugely popular? Or Shakespeare could pack’em in at the Globe? I enjoy a good beach read, like anybody. But there is suspend-your-disbelief fun and then there is brain-frying stupidity. There are moments in this movie that border on self-parody.

I think it's safe to say that Shakespeare and Dickens aren't part of the vocabulary of most fourteen to twenty-two-year-old kids these days. I hardly had a top-notch public education, but in my senior English class I had to read Macbeth, Ivanhoe, My Name Is Asher Lev, Brave New World, and excerpts from Hemingway, Ambrose Pierce, and a few others. My English teacher retired soon thereafter and eight years later my sister was taught English literature  by a young teacher obsessed with Bram Stoker's Dracula — to the degree his class spent an entire semester on that single book. Anyhow, I am inclined to think that the "brain-frying stupidity" of TDVC novel/movie are so successful because such stupidity has become the genius of our time. And heaven help anyone who announces that the emperor is both naked and stupid. As Chesterton wrote in one of his bazillion columns: "These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." Even when those creeds involve little more than mocking the Creed...

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBack (0)

Ya think?

From the "What were ya'll thinkin'?" department comes this news (via Agape Press):

A Christian leader is criticizing the way some churches have handled the controversy surrounding the recent film version of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. He believes it was a mistake to use the movie as an evangelistic tool. ...

... audiences are turning out in great numbers to see the highly publicized film starring Tom Hanks. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council says much of that audience comes from churches that have encouraged their members to go see it. He believes that was not a good idea.

"Urging people to go and see it to make it an evangelistic opportunity I think was a big mistake," the ministry leader says, "and will backfire and will only lead people down the wrong road."

Schenck feels people should have been warned not to spend their money in support of a film considered blasphemous by numerous religious leaders and groups. "We probably would have been better to ignore it," he laments.

He adds that the movie turnout will only encourage Hollywood to make more anti-Christian films. "[T]his was clearly made to make a statement against the gospel," says Schenck.

Too bad nobody thought of that earlier. Oh, wait a second...

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

TDVC Movie: A Bungled (But Influential) Hate Crime

Here is a great review of the cinematic version of the Coded Craziness, written by Rev. Paul W. McNellis, S.J., an assistant adjunct professor of philosophy at Boston College. Excerpts:

Though thoroughly anti-Christian, it is such a bad movie it can’t even get the bigotry right. ...

Nevertheless, the movie pulls off what I would have thought was next to impossible: it is both  mind-numbingly boring and stridently anti-Christian. ...

As for recognizing blasphemy, we hear the objection, “But it’s only fiction.” Would the same defense be offered if Hollywood produced The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or The Satanic Verses? Furthermore, if Ron Howard had wanted to make a fast-paced murder mystery, there are many scenes he could have cut, all to the movie’s advantage. Scenes of a deranged, nude, sadomasochistic “monk” praying before a crucifix as preparatory to committing murder, intentionally mock Christian faith, and Ron Howard’s decision to include them shows that he shares Dan Brown’s contempt for Christianity. Any normal Christian would be offended. That many will not be offended is an indication of the extent to which our society has become post-Christian. ...

And the coup de grace:

A society incapable of recognizing blasphemy against the God that 80% of its citizens claim to worship, is a post-Christian society lacking self-respect. Those without self-respect will be incapable of seeing why their fellow citizens deserve respect. Such a society becomes capable of believing and tolerating almost anything if it contributes to comfort and demands no sacrifice. This is not a mark of sophistication or virtue; it’s evidence of profound decadence.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Who's right: The Da Vinci Code or The Da Vinci Hoax?

That's the question posed on this Yahoo! forum and here are some of the erudite and thoughtful answers:

• We can ask this question forever, but the truth is, no-one will ever really know cause no-one can prove either beyond a shadow of a doubt.

•  I think the code is right

•  I think its too late. too many people have gotten carried away. Its a book. It has some ideas and theories. Thats all. Its not a book that can change the world. And the only reason why its effecting the Christian faith is because they are taking it way too personal.

•  It is a book.It is not right or wrong

•  who cares! the story is good!

And the winner:

•  Who r we 2 decide? ultimately in time 2 the truth will be revealed. just wait n watch. Thou alot of details in da book make u wonder (the priory of zion, the templars knights, the blood of jesus cud it have meant a bloodline?) ... After all jesus walked this earth as a human n definatley had human needs...

Hmmm. I sense a common theme in many of the "answers": We really cannot know what happened. There's no way to find out the truth about Jesus. We can't figure out the truth nor should we try to push it on others.

Coincidentally (ha!), that general notion comes through loud and clear (and heavy-handedly) in the movie, which has the main characters making absurd assertions and then, in the next breath, opining about how the most important thing is not knowing the truth (since you can't know it!), but "is what you believe." In the words of a former ("Christian") boss of mine: "The most important thing is finding a spirituality that works for you." That, in essence, is a major message of the novel and the movie. The other central message is just as noxious: Christianity is a sham and a lie. Avoid it. Deny it. Mock it.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"What Do Christians Know?" | Carl E. Olson for Human Events Online

A piece written while in New Jersey this past Thursday, after traveling to Washington, D.C. and New York City and giving a bazillion radio and television interviews.

What Do Christians Know?

by Carl E. Olson
Posted May 19, 2006

The way some pundits and journalists are telling it, you might think that many Christians are too narrow-minded and emotionally fragile to understand that "The Da Vinci Code" is just a novel (and a movie and an industry). The common theme of more than few recent articles and editorials has been, "Hey, Christians, lighten up and realize that it's only fiction!"

Such pieces miss two important facts.

Continue reading...

BTW, the original version of my essay included another, final paragraph:

Howard, to be fair, is simply following in the footsteps of Dan Brown. The novelist has had it both ways for three years now, saying his story is based on truth and fact while hiding behind the skirts of fiction whenever criticism comes his way. As G.K. Chesterton noted a century ago, “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. It does much more than that, it tells us the truth about its readers; and, oddly enough, it tell us this all the more the more cynical and immoral be the motive of its manufacture.” But, of course, Chesterton was a Christian, so what did he know?

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Monday, May 22, 2006 at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

I saw TDVC and I almost lost my faith...

... in decent screenwriting and filmmaking. One word: pathetic. If I were Dan Brown I would sue Sony and Ron Howard for doing what I thought was impossible: making a movie that was worse than the novel, which is like Isaiah Thomas taking over the Knicks and making that team even worse. Hey, it can be done, but it takes a special sort of, um, genius to do so.

Anyhow, sports comparisons aside, Steve Greydanus's review of The Da Vinci Code is excellent and right on the money. The changes made to the movie do not, as he rightly points out, "soften" the anti-Catholicism, but merely make it that much more insidious. I nearly laughed aloud a couple of times when Langdon and Teabing disagreed about this or that historical point -- and both were wildly wrong. The not-so-funny aspect of such exchanges is that some viewers will see this is as an example of serious debate between two scholars, but will never bother to see if the "competing" perspectives offered have any basis in real scholarship.

The movie is painfully long and dreadfully self-important. It is, in fact, very much like the novel, which is a poorly written, overwrought, pseudo-intellectual piece of anti-Catholic rot. In The Da Vinci Hoax, Sandra Miesel and I offered a description of the novel that fits the movie just as well: "The Da Vinci Code is custom-made fiction for our time: pretentious, posturing, self-serving, arrogant, self-congratulatory, condescending, glib, illogical, superficial, and deviant." Thus, it's irritating to read so many reviews (not Steve's, of course) insisting that the movie lacks the magic, charm, wit, excitement, intensity, blah, blah, blah of the novel. Poppycock. The movie simply reveals many of the serious artistic flaws of the novel; it hardly could avoid doing so, unless the screenplay had completely departed from the novel. It seems to me that most people today make more demands of what they see in a theater than they make of what they read on the page. Part of that, I'm sure, is because many fans of TDVC don't read many books, or, to be more precise, many good books.

The movie, like the novel, takes its message very, very seriously. This is blatantly obvious in the final 15 minutes, when Langdon (Tom Hanks) yammers endlessly about how the most important thing is what you believe -- not whether or not it is true, good, or right. While deviating in exact language from the novel, this is essentially Brown's message (as he as expressed in interviews): we must be able to create our own truth and not have truth shoved down our throats by nasty old men who are selling us the lie called Christianity. This is a misleading and false choice, of course, but one that plays very well in today's culture.

Finally, I figured (as did nearly everyone else) that the opening weekend would be huge for this movie. And it was. But I also thought that its numbers would substantially decrease after the first weekend. However, I wonder now if I was wrong in thinking so. Like the novel, the movie will continue to attract attention. The only advantage held by the novel, so to speak, was that it came out of the blue; the movie has been met with a flood of criticism and response, which has, to some extent, changed perceptions of the movie, if only to cause nearly every review on the planet to condescendingly point out that it's "just a movie" and "just entertainment." And why is it so entertaining to millions of people? Well, it's not because of the writing, the characters, or the plot. In large part it's because many people want to be told that it's alright to reject and bash Catholicism, and feel as though they are smart and sophisticated in doing so. However, if, as I think is the case, people do take their movies more seriously then their reading material, perhaps the movie will end up sinking quickly.

I plan to post a few more thoughts about the movie and reaction to it in the next couple of days. Again, Steve's review is an excellent and accurate assessment of the movie.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Monday, May 22, 2006 at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (27) | TrackBack (2)

Cinematic version of the Code getting raked over the coals

Some readers of TDVC (both fans and non-fans) have suggested that the novel is about as ready-made for a movie as can be. I've always disagreed with this notion, believing the novel has far more in common with soap operas than with successful summertime movie fare. Some of the similar elements include: thin characters, laughable dialogue, endless conversations, constant posturing (by characters and novelist), silliness/stupidity, and a complete absence of nuance. Oh -- and the plot is even more thin than the characters, which is saying something. Last summer I was interviewed by The New York Times (for this article) and I said this:

"There's no way you can take out the central point of the novel, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and the Catholic Church has done everything in its power, including murdering millions of people, to cover it up," said Carl Olson, co-author of "The Da Vinci Hoax," a book refuting the "The Da Vinci Code." He predicted that many devout people would be offended "unless they make a movie that bears a pale resemblance to the book, in which case they'd have a lot of irritated fans."

Oddly enough, the first reviews of the movie indicate that Ron Howard has apparently achieved something remarkable, if not altogether commendable for a director: he has made a movie that will both irritate fans and bore and confuse non-fans. The Reuters review calls the movie a "bloated puzzle" and adds:

Strictly as a movie and ignoring the current swirl of controversy no amount of studio money could ever buy, the Ron Howard-directed film features one of Tom Hanks' more remote, even wooden performances in a role that admittedly demands all the wrong sort of things from a thriller protagonist; an only slightly more animated performance from his French co-star, Audrey Tautou; and polished Hollywood production values where camera cranes sweep viewers up to God-like points of view and famous locations and deliciously sinister interiors heighten tension where the movie threatens to turn into a historical treatise.

The movie really only catches fire at the midway point, when Ian McKellen hobbles on the scene as the story's Sphinx-like Sir Leigh Teabing. Here is the one actor having fun with his role and playing a character rather than a piece to a puzzle.

True believers and those who want to understand what all the fuss is about will jam cinemas worldwide in the coming weeks in sufficient numbers so as to fulfill probably even the most optimistic projections of Sony execs. But the movie is so drenched in dialogue musing over arcane mythological and historical lore and scenes grow so static that even camera movement can't disguise the dramatic inertia. Such sins could cut into those rosy projections.

The BBC reviewer, Caroline Briggs, is also underwhelmed:

Taking its cue from the book, conservative Catholic group Opus Dei is depicted as a murderous and power-crazed organisation.

But Howard, who won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, faced a tougher challenge in translating Brown's narrative to the big screen. And his fondness for historic flashbacks and other gimmicks to tell the story border on patronising.

They are too obviously used to help gel together the two-and-a-half hour screenplay whose storyline may prove confusing for those who have not read the book.

One of the book's triumphs is the way in which it allows the reader to solve the clues before Langdon and Neveu, giving the reader a smug satisfaction at their own perceived intelligence.

The film does not allow the same satisfaction, but instead must join protagonists Langdon and Neveu on their convoluted journey.

Briggs is quite right in describing the "books' triumph", since the novel has certainly been, for many readers, a revelatory text filled with secret knowledge and exciting ideas (How about it, National Geographic? Have a cover with the DVC displayed and the headline: "The Gospel of Dan Brown," Discovered in 2003. Is it true?). But it appears that the movie is actually revealing something else: that the novel is a pile of pseudo-intellectual blatherings that lacks both historical veracity and logical coherence. Of course, we've been saying that all along. But it's rather touching that Sony, Ron Howard, and Co. would spend tens of millions of dollars to prove our point.  For the record, I'll be seeing the movie this Friday night and hope to write a few thoughts here soon thereafter.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

I'll be on "Scarborough Country" (MSNBC) tonight...

UPDATE: Alas, cancelled! Trumped by Jimmy Hoffa...

... to talk about the Coded Craziness, especially reactions to the movie. Scarborough Country airs at 9:00 p.m. EST on MSNBC.

Posted by Carl E. Olson on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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Recent Posts

  • The Cinematic Code is Dead
  • Atheist scholar: I dislike TDVC as much as Christians do. And here's why...
  • How is the movie different from the novel?
  • GodSpy: "How Dull the Con of Ron"
  • Ya think?
  • TDVC Movie: A Bungled (But Influential) Hate Crime
  • Who's right: The Da Vinci Code or The Da Vinci Hoax?
  • "What Do Christians Know?" | Carl E. Olson for Human Events Online
  • I saw TDVC and I almost lost my faith...
  • Who is historically illiterate?
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