“So why has this trilogy been touted by the London Telegraph and
countless grumpy evangelicals as anti-Christian?” Annalee Newitz of
AlterNet asks. “Probably because Pullman portrays the ruling Christian
sects in a parallel England as bloodthirsty and cruel . . .” The book however isn’t critical of Christianity itself,
just “a bunch of antipleasure adults” she claims.
Many people however do not agree. As one irate blogger puts it: “Many
sincere, concerned Christians may be very uncomfortable reading these
books. You pick them up expecting a cosmic fantasy-adventure. . and you
gradually realize that you have never had your faith so directly and
belligerently confronted; you have never seen your morality so thoroughly
turned upside down; and you have never seen everything you hold to be
sacred and true, subjected to such hostile treatment in a work of
fantasy-fiction.”
No wonder one film critic gleefully wrote: “Clergymen who kidnap children.
Witches who aren't wicked. Even a pair of sexually ambiguous angels! If
you thought Harry Potter was blasphemous, wait till you get a look at
[this] trilogy.”
Most fans of the books however fail to see the issue at all. “It is a
children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will
charm even the most hardened realist,” one reader writes on Amazon.com. A
“glittering gem” another Amazon customer gushes.
New Line is obviously hoping that any religious controversy will simply
disappear and that the movie will appeal to hardcore fans of the book as
well as newcomers. It would be quite the tightrope act however. Obviously
fans of the books have thus far nitpicked about petty details such as
Kidman’s character being a blonde in the movie (in the book she is a
brunette) as die-hard fans tend to do. More worrisome however is that they
have complained that Hollywood might water down the source material. “Note
to Hollywood,” one Dark Materials fan posted on a forum, “if you don't
have the balls to handle controversy and keep a story intact, don't bother
making it into a movie!”
Chris Weitz, the movie’s director has thus far tried walking this
particular tightrope —
but without much success. Weitz, the director of
About a Boy and American Pie, has previously quit the project despite
declaring that he regarded Pullman’s novel as “one of the few books to
have changed my life”, claiming to be overwhelmed by the huge “technical
challenges” involved. However when his replacement also left, citing the
more traditional “creative differences” excuse, Weitz was tempted back
into the fold again.
Describing himself as “a lapsed-Catholic crypto-Buddhist”, Weitz defended
himself to one fan site thusly: “I have visited Pullman and spoken with
him about this subject at great length. His feeling, and I say this with
absolute certainty that I am not unfairly paraphrasing him, is that the
‘Authority’ in question could represent any arbitrary establishment that
curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious,
political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you. This
gives me a certain amount of leeway in navigating the very treacherous
issues that beset adapting His Dark Materials for the screen.”
Next: "You will be seeing a
totally CG polar bear in The Golden Compass but it is shockingly
life-like."
