Anti-God Elements Yanked From His Dark Materials

By Josh Tyler: 2007-08-21 01:22:11

Anti-God Elements Yanked From His Dark Materials

If Chronicles of Narnia is fantasy’s answer to Christian filmmaking then the dirty little secret of the fantasy novels on which the upcoming movie His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass is based, is that they’re pretty heavily anti-religion. In fact, it’s a critical element of the stories and since the adaptation of the first book into film was announced, fans have been scared to death that the property would be Hollywoodized to remove any controversial material in the face of growing religious fanaticism around the world. It seems those fears may have been well founded.

Nicole Kidman, who stars in the movie as one of the series’ most dastardly villains, recently spoke about the film’s potentially controversial religious elements to Entertainment Weekly via the Syndey Morning Herald and admits that the religious elements have “been watered down a little.” She may even have had something to do with watering it down. The article goes on about what devout Catholic she is, and Kidman admits she wouldn’t have done the film if she thought it was anti-Catholic.

I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Non-belief in god may be the third biggest belief system on the planet (right behind Christianity and Islam), but the religious majority loves pretending atheism and agnosticism simply don’t exist. The “His Dark Materials” series is at its core, about a group of people deciding to kill god because well… he’s kind of a douche. Along the way they fight evil Church authorities who kidnap and murder children, and get help from a pair of helpful homosexual angels. Apparently it’s ok to make a fantasy movie like Narnia, which is absolutely soaked in religion, but not ok to make a movie which is rooted in the opposing viewpoint.

The really disheartening thing here is that the first book, on which the first movie is based, is the most innocent of the three His Dark Materials novels. The Golden Compass is the most family friendly of the three, the least anti-religion, and in fact you could easily read through it and miss most of the god-hating elements entirely. If they have to water this one down, I shudder to think what garbage they’re going to turn the latter books into, should they ever get made.

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Johnny (Midvalley)
May 16, 2008 at 15:36

Okay, seriously, this pisses me off.

His Dark Materials is one of the most amazing book series' I've ever read, aside from Harry Potter of course, and all these people are bashing it because of "religion"!?

First of all, no dumbass kid would read this book and instantly want to become an atheist and hate God, that's just retarded! NOBODY is like that!

Secondly, big deal if this book is opposite of Narnia and even made to combat it? Honestly, in my opinion, this book is ten times BETTER than Narnia!

Finally, when I read this book, I didn't even think about the religious beliefs in it, I just read it for the storyline! Why don't you dumbasses out there who hate it just read it? It honestly isn't that bad.

They better make the rest of the movies, and they better make them rated PG 13 or even R because they shouldn't be toning it down like they did The Golden Compass! It just ruined it!

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Michael
November 26, 2007 at 11:18

I find it very concerning that, in this day and age, where it can be said that society is now mostly secular, that religious believers feel that they have a right to 'water down', the beliefs and views of, not just the author but the people who read and enjoy his books. If a government did this it would be called cencorship!(spelt wrong, naturally.)

It is quite possible that many people have chosen atheism simply because of the dogmatism of the leading religions.

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JMG
August 21, 2007 at 12:13

I share your concern, as His Dark Materials is a personal favorite series. I remember the buzz leading up to The Lord of The Rings release... Liv Tyler had THIRD billing on the promotional posters right behind Wood and McKellan... I was so afraid that they'd play up the role of Arwen (who has about five lines in the entire book trilogy) to such an extent that they'd make her a member of the Fellowship. Thankfully, my fears proved mostly unfounded, and I was very pleased with Jackson's adaptation.

While the challenges inherent in HDM are fundamentally different, I'd like to define myself as being cautiously optimistic. Kidman may be a Catholic, but she's also an actress who pulls in tens of millions per movie. Something tells me that more than her beliefs influenced her decision to play a lead role in a potential big-time trilogy.

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Kris
August 21, 2007 at 12:08

I hate to say it but they HAVE to make the other movies, none of them stand alone at all... if they made the first one have to make the second one... unless of course theyve changed the ending to tie it all up nicely... but that would lose the point of the series...

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