While many fans are furious about the religious themes being removed from The Golden Compass, a religious group called The Catholic League has launched a boycott of the movie on the day the trailer for that movie is released.
The group acknowledges that the religious themes have been watered down, but it is still launching a boycott because the movie lures kids and their "unsuspecting parents" into reading the books.
The Catholic League also says The Golden Compass is "the least offensive of the three books" and warns that The Subtle Knife is "more overt in its hatred of Catholicism" and The Amber Spyglass "even more blatant".
To "educate" the unsuspecting parents who may take their children to see the movie or may be "impelled" to buy His Dark Materials as a Christmas present, the group have released an undoubtely objective booklet titled "The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked." to reveal the true, dark message behind the books.
Seeing that The Golden Compass has been in development for over three years now, we're surprised it took them so long to come up with this.
18 comments - Add yours
#1
Two words: Free publicity
# October 9, 2007 22:28 by asrielsman
#2
Ha I knew that this was coming. Unsuspecting Parents thats a Laugh lol.
# October 9, 2007 22:37 by TowerDragon
#3
YAY! Publicity.
Seriously… do they realise they are promoting this movie?
# October 9, 2007 23:59 by edd8990
#4
What is wrong with people!! It is just a story about a young girl.
# October 10, 2007 00:00 by Dark Fantasies
#5
Oh, please...I hate this kind of stuff. I say sorry in name of all catholics with a little bit of brain in their head!
# October 10, 2007 09:08 by Lyrael
#6
Hoorah!
Thank god. It’s MEANT to piss them off. I was worried that the toning down would eliminate this but it’s good to see they’re still offended, and hopefully this will make the less informed viewer more aware of the anti-catholicism the story is SUPPOSED to include.
# October 10, 2007 09:25 by Mumblingidiot
#7
In the US, I’m not sure there that Catholic sponsored boycotts will cause any problems for the film. I am curious about how much of a reaction there will be from evangelical Christians. I don’t think the movie is really on their radar screens yet, but as it draws closer I expect it will get their attention. The potential objections will unlikely be caused by the Golden Compass, but by people becoming more aware of what happens in the next two books.
I’m not sure that will harm the film’s popularity – it may actually draw attention to it as others have pointed out. It’s a shame that so many people want to protect others from being exposed to ideas and thinking for themselves.
# October 10, 2007 12:46 by Larry
#8
I’m also curious to see where The Golden Compass pops up on radar screens. It should be just beginning to become very accessible.
# October 10, 2007 13:28 by Phit
#9
“Thank god. It’s MEANT to piss them off.” - Mumblingidiot
And thát makes you exactly as narrow minded as them. I thought everybody here agreed this was a book about a little girl…
Anyways, I can imagine their position. You can’t deny the fact that Pullman uses the same techniques as Lewis does with Narnia, only for another purpose…
# October 10, 2007 13:50 by Samwise
#10 There's not enough buggery in the books
…for them to be an attack upon the Catholic Church. If anything, they paint a more positive picture.
# October 10, 2007 18:33 by subversive
#11
Somehow, this bull never ceases to amaze.
# October 11, 2007 02:19 by AryaAurora
#12 Ironic
Just like the trailer says, the magisterium (in this case the catholic league) tries to control all of humanity, and (thinks) it’s greatest threat is a golden compass (in this case a movie.) I mean come on it’s just a book about coming of age, with a religious subplot. It’s amazing how it’s okay to promote one religion (there’s) but not atheism. I don’t know about you, but I think God would want people helping others, not boycotting a film because it doesn’t promote their views.
# October 11, 2007 22:05 by orangePenguin
#13 Good.
I personally don’t think the books promote atheism. They do, however, promote taking a critical look at some accepted power structures. And if some people, after seeing this movie, stop accepting church dogma and authority, so much the better.
# October 13, 2007 21:37 by DigiEmissary
#14 I support Pullman
“I’m delighted to have brought such excitement into what must be very dull lives.”
~P. Pullman
I couldn’t have put it in better words. Why the heck is the Catholic League complaining about a movie when they could be helping the poor or doing something thats actually productive? And why have they only started complaining now? The books have been around for years. They should just shut up and deal because there are millions of fans whose opinions won’t change and there are a lot of worse problems in this world then this. The Golden Compass has themes such as love, bravery, friendship, good versus evil, etc, so unless the Catholic League has an issue with the above, they should just SHUT THE F*** UP!
# October 15, 2007 00:38 by little_miss_georgie
#15
Children thinking independently about religious matters? Oh my stars the horror of it all.
# October 15, 2007 03:22 by CS
#16
Well its official the Evangelical Christians are speaking out. The were on CNN today along with the authors of the Left Behind series. They went on and on about how “dangerous” this movie is for children. And how hollywood has tremendous influence on this young minds and this movie could seriously damage them. Shame on hollywood for making such a movie. Are you kidding me??!!
What a bunch of hypocrits. If the movie jams relgion down the throats of children thats ok (so long as its christian relgion..dont dare make a movie about Islam or Buddism). But they’re all for movies like Left Behind, The Ten Commandments, The Lion the Withch and the Wardrobe, and the Passion of the Christ.
But now a movie from an author who was an atheist and proud of it and they’re ready to start the lynching. Well Id planned on taking my daughter to see this movie even before the controversy arose but now...rather than deter me they only make me want to see it more and further more I think I’ll bring a few dozen friends with me!
# October 16, 2007 09:28 by Sabriyah
#17
Oh and I love this part.....
The group acknowledges that the religious themes have been watered down, but it is still launching a boycott because the movie lures kids and their “unsuspecting parents” into reading the books.
Yea..god forbid we encourage children to read books....oh nooooooooo, what monsters we’ve become!!! LOL
# October 16, 2007 09:30 by Sabriyah
#18
If the Vatican had their way, Christians would still be illiterate. Martin Luther was the one who pushed for the common man to be able to read the Bible. Even then, there’s still a great tendency among both Catholics and Protestants to label many other books as “heresy,” “witchcraft,” etc.
# October 16, 2007 22:52 by DigiEmissary