[UPDATE: The Da Vinci Challenge site is suddenly out of service. Is it a glitch? Or was it shut down for some reason?]
The New York Times has already noticed a new Web site, just launched today, created by Sony Pictures and Grace Hill Media called The Da Vinci Challenge, where Christian writers will bring all kinds of extra attention to the movie of The Da Vinci Code by discrediting it right and left.
Amy Wellborn raises interesting questions about the whole endeavor here.
Me, I hope I can steer clear of The Da Vinci Code debate. The writing is nothing to shout about. Dan Brown treats a long-buried (albeit imaginative) heresy like hot stuff. And the movie’s being directed by Ron Howard, who has yet to make a movie that I really enjoy. I can’t wait for all of this to become ancient history, so we can look back and shrug and see how trivial all of the hoopla really was.
2006 has far, far more interesting films in store for us. Let’s not waste time, folks. Let’s direct people’s attention to the feasts, not the carefully packaged, over-hyped Happy Meals.
For example…
Where are the networks of Christians organizing to encourage people to see Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, one of the most stirring portrayals of faith ever to reach the big screen?
Cinderella Man? A Beautiful Mind?
But yes, not expecting much from this one…
By the way, I just noticed your “must see list” in your sodebar – that’s a really good idea – very helpful, thanks
Matt
So you didn’t like _Gung Ho_? _The Paper_? _EdTV_?
Honestly, I’m a big fan of _Apollo 13_, but that’s just me.
Nick,
No, no, no. And “Apollo 13” fulfilled what it set out to do, but it didn’t give me any reason to revisit it.
Howard is an entertainer, but he’s not an artist. He deals in straight storytelling, not metaphor; crowdpleasing, not challenges; craftsmanship, not creativity.
In fact, he may be the perfect example of the American moviemaker.
which is why, isn’t it, that this movie could be dangerous. the american public has already shown itself woefully mis- and under- informed when it comes to issues of religion (really, any organized religion, not just Christianity).
the da vinci code may be hackneyed in all of its aspects, but that won’t stop people from believing it and embracing it en masse (‘left behind’ anybody?)
i’m not saying we should protest it or anything (never seen a howard flick i like either – even ‘splash’!), just that we should be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within us.