Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Bad popcorn is still popcorn

Oh well this was bound to happen.

"One of the key religious themes of Philip Pullman's award-winning series of children's novels, His Dark Materials, has been watered down to appeal to a wider audience in the new Hollywood film version of the first book. The original story's rejection of organised religion, and in particular of the historic abuse of power in the Catholic Church, has been altered to avoid offending followers of the faith in the UK and in America."

The message of the film now seems to be 'any overreaching authority is bad, but specifics may piss off some imagined authority that we're going to need to bankroll this.. well whatever this is.'
His Dark Materials is a fantastic trilogy, meatier and more evocative than Harry ever was; and it's kind of a shame to denude the whole point of the story just make it more palatable.
Of course if one doesn't have a palate to speak of, then any old spray on flavour will do.
That's entertainment.
I can't wait to not see the film.

Posted by Dave

1 comment:

Clare said...

It's a bit disturbing, to be sure, but I wouldn't write the film off yet. Philip Pullman has been pretty involved throughout and the trailers look really good. I'm going to see him in Toronto next week and I'm hoping he gets a chance to address it.

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