Golden trash

Dec 21, 2007
Vatican condemns The Golden Compass


'ANTI-CHRISTMAS': The Vatican says the movie promotes a cold and hopeless world without God. -- PHOTO: WARNER BROS

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has criticised the American children's film, The Golden Compass, saying it is 'anti-Christmas' and promotes a cold and hopeless world without God.
In a long editorial on Wednesday, the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano also slammed Philip Pullman, the best-selling British author of the book on which the movie is based.

It was the Vatican's most stinging broadside against an author and a film since it roundly condemned The Da Vinci Code in 2005 and last year.

'In Pullman's world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events,' the editorial said.

The film, which premiered earlier this month in the United States and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, is an adaptation of Pullman's acclaimed novel, Northern Lights.

The editorial said 'honest' viewers would find it 'devoid of any particular emotion apart from a great chill'.

In the fantasy world in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the Church and its governing body, the Magisterium, are linked to cruel experiments on children aimed at discovering the nature of sin and attempts to suppress facts that would undermine the Church's legitimacy and power.

In the film, all references to the Church have been stripped, with director Chris Weitz keen to avoid offending religious cinema goers.

Still, some Catholic groups in the US have called for a boycott, fearing even a diluted version of the book might draw people to read the best-selling trilogy.

The Vatican newspaper called the movie 'the most anti-Christmas film possible' and said that it was 'consoling' that its first weekend ticket sales in the US were a disappointing US$26 million (S$38 million).

The film, packed with special effects, cost US$150 million to make.

AFP, Reuters