Sunday, April 30, 2006

DaVinci Code Media Hype

After working for a number of years for a marketing and propaganda department before getting completely fed up with the lies and audience manipulation that goes on, it doesn't surprise me that all of this media hype is happening immediately before the opening of a new Hollywood film. While I am more than aware that the Xian paranoia and persecution complex has kicked in about something that questions their indoctrinated and cherished beliefs, I also smell Hollywood marketing propaganda at work. The controversy, no matter how contrived is bringing much attention to Dan Brown's book , along with Sony Pictures. Many other books have been written that question bible historicity, and some are chosen to be hyped up by the media while most are ignored by the media circus crews. Similar to all the publicity of The Passion of the Christ, once the movie is out, and profits are made off of xians and non-xians alike, DaVinci Code will become another film at the video rental store.

What do you think? Is this just media hype started by Sony and movie promoters or do Xians really have their panties in a knot about this?


SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian church group has launched a Web site and a series of cinema advertisements challenging theories in the blockbuster book "The Da Vinci Code" to coincide with the release of the movie version.

The $38,000 campaign by Anglican Sydney Media urges viewers of the film and readers of Dan Brown's novel to seek the truth about Jesus Christ.

"Our concern is that 'The Da Vinci Code' will mislead people about the truth," said Bishop Robert Forsyth, the chairman of the group, which promotes the Sydney diocese of the Anglican church in the media.

"We are not afraid of the film. We are not seeking to discourage people from seeing it," he said Sunday. "But we are well aware of the power popular films have in filling the information void about Jesus."

Among other disputed claims, "The Da Vinci Code" contends that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants.

The film version of "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks, is due to open worldwide May 17-19.

6 comments:

jhbowden said...

Churchies really are freaking out over what the guy at the local bookstore tells me is just a very crappy piece of fiction.

One of my friends invited me to go to his Easter Church service, and the Easter sermon was about not loving your neighbor or being forgiven or anything you might expect, but the movie version of the DaVinci Code. The preacher went on and on about how people have different versions of Jesus, but there is only one true Jesus on the grounds of, well, the Bible tells us so.

Books like the Bible, the Koran and so forth are what Sam Harris calls "epistemological blackholes."

There are less important truths than anything that might be found in the DaVinci Code that refute claims about the divinity of Christ -- human beings can't walk on water, virgins don't give birth, dead humans tend to remain dead -- if Churchies seriously believed these propositions, their other beliefs about Jesus would fall into doubt.

Stardust said...

The preacher went on and on about how people have different versions of Jesus, but there is only one true Jesus on the grounds of, well, the Bible tells us so.

Funny how every xian claims that their cult members are "True Christians" and that they somehow have the "true interpretation" of the babble.

There are less important truths than anything that might be found in the DaVinci Code that refute claims about the divinity of Christ -- human beings can't walk on water, virgins don't give birth, dead humans tend to remain dead -- if Churchies seriously believed these propositions, their other beliefs about Jesus would fall into doubt.

Didn't you mean that if churchies seriously considered these propositions about Jeebus walking on water, etc. that their other beliefs about him would fall into doubt?

I don't think that DaVinci Code is deserving of all the attention it is getting. It is the opinion of many people I have talked to that it is mediocre at best.Also, being FICTION... it is filled with "what if's" from the author's thinking and ideas...and authors of fiction do this all the time. They stir questioning, and some are better at it than others. Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale is one example, and is excellently done with believable characters, an interesting plot and an analogical message of what the would MIGHT possible evolve into if we lose the freedoms and liberties we now cherish. Many may not agree with her pessimistic vision of the future...however we know that it is one author's viewpoint, and is a FICTIONAL TALE just like DaVinci Code...and as is much of the Holy Babble.

Stardust said...

seven - I will not let my blog be used as a tool to promote your e-book . . . the topic at hand is DaVinci code media hype...not how your delusional beliefs are the TRUTH, and you are the messiah, and so on, and so forth...yadda yadda yadda. WTF?????

Stardust said...

Further explanation as to why I deleted seven star hand's post is because of this:

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How do these fruitballs find me?

Stardust said...

seven - I have read some of your stuff, and it is fiction. More delusional (yet creative) stuff made up in the minds of some humans. There are many, many religions in the world and each one claims them to the the "True" religion.

Please stop the sales pitches...I am not buying. Thanks.

Jay Denari said...

"But we are well aware of the power popular films have in filling the information void about Jesus."

I doubt the minister meant this the way I read it: as an acknowledgment that the FACTS surrounding Jesus's physical existence, if any, are sketchy at best.

I can't speak about The DaVinci Code, but I read the book it's often been compared to, The Messianic Legacy, several years ago. While I think it plausible Jesus (if he lived at all) had children as both books suggest, I find it incredibly hard to believe TML's suggestion his family fled to Europe and ultimately became the Carolingian emperors' line. Almost EVERY imperial family doctors records to claim descent from some deity or other, as justification for their brutality, and this is probably no different.