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Detroit Free Press, MI
May 28 2006
TERRY LAWSON: 'Code' review touches a nerve
May 28, 2006
Email this Print this BY TERRY LAWSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
By Tuesday, I had received 14 letters addressing my review of "The Da
Vinci Code." Now, before you start forming the words, "Fourteen? Big
deal," on your coffee-stained lips, read the sentence again: The key
word here is "letters."
I had dozens more e-mails, some of them composed by people who had
seen the movie. But letters? Journalists these days approach anything
posted by U.S. mail -- unless it's a rebate or a free magazine --
with a grimace. We figure it will fall into one of four categories:
prisoners or institutionalized people who seek our help in correcting
a horrid injustice; readers who play gotcha with writers or our copy
desks on grammatical or spelling errors; anonymous cranks who just
hate us, or elderly people who do not and never will go near a
computer keyboard.
Though not all the readers gave their ages, these 14 paper relics of
ancient times appeared to be the product of the last category.
Although only one said it plainly and uncoded, the message was
simple: I will rot in hell.
This might be the case, but I seriously doubt it will be for jumping
on the Catholic Church, which is what rankled my correspondents.
Like most of my fellow worshipers at the golden calf called the
movies, I thought "Da Vinci" and its so-called historical conclusions
were hooey.
Yet I can certainly understand why people were upset enough to take
to quill and papyrus. If it's not exactly open season on Catholics,
true believers are seeing the church's iconography used in some
pretty kinky ways these days.
Madonna may be 47 and a contented cabalist, but that doesn't mean
she's forgotten how subverting Catholic symbols translates to
publicity. She's fastening herself to a big mirrored cross to sing
"Live to Tell" in her current Confessions tour.
She checked in with her own house organ, the New York Daily News,
last week to defend herself: "I don't think Jesus would be mad at
me," she said. Of course not, Madge; he's Jesus. He has to forgive
you, not only for that "Sex" book but for "Shanghai Surprise." But
why should we be surprised if some of his followers on Earth hold a
grudge?
Meanwhile, on 6-6-06, a remake of the 1976 thriller "The Omen" comes
around, and seeing it last week at a screening, I realized I had
forgotten that secretive Catholics were to blame for covering up the
fact that the Antichrist had been unleashed on the world. I didn't
recall there being an enormous stink about this at the time; maybe
the Church was too busy explaining why it still occasionally approved
the ancient ritual at the heart of the 1973 smash hit "The Exorcist."
Yet a little research reveals the original "Omen" did have Catholic
critics complaining that the film was a Protestant attack on
Catholicism. The Anglican hero was played by Gregory Peck, who had
Catholic Armenian roots. In the new film, the character is played by
Liev Schreiber, whose mother was Jewish.
Not that I would want to start anything, but you know, the Jews do
control Hollywood, at least when they're not going to cabala lectures
or (Hindu) yoga class or mocking evangelicals. The days when
distortion and prejudice could be explained away with "Hey, it's only
a movie" are gone forever, and while postage stamps may not be far
behind, the Internet seems custom-made -- intelligently designed? --
for outrage and activism.
God may work in mysterious ways, but organized religions work the
media. Remember Kevin Smith's plan to call his "Clerks" sequel "The
Passion of the Clerks"? Put down those pens: It now has the secular
title "Clerks II."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
May 28 2006
TERRY LAWSON: 'Code' review touches a nerve
May 28, 2006
Email this Print this BY TERRY LAWSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
By Tuesday, I had received 14 letters addressing my review of "The Da
Vinci Code." Now, before you start forming the words, "Fourteen? Big
deal," on your coffee-stained lips, read the sentence again: The key
word here is "letters."
I had dozens more e-mails, some of them composed by people who had
seen the movie. But letters? Journalists these days approach anything
posted by U.S. mail -- unless it's a rebate or a free magazine --
with a grimace. We figure it will fall into one of four categories:
prisoners or institutionalized people who seek our help in correcting
a horrid injustice; readers who play gotcha with writers or our copy
desks on grammatical or spelling errors; anonymous cranks who just
hate us, or elderly people who do not and never will go near a
computer keyboard.
Though not all the readers gave their ages, these 14 paper relics of
ancient times appeared to be the product of the last category.
Although only one said it plainly and uncoded, the message was
simple: I will rot in hell.
This might be the case, but I seriously doubt it will be for jumping
on the Catholic Church, which is what rankled my correspondents.
Like most of my fellow worshipers at the golden calf called the
movies, I thought "Da Vinci" and its so-called historical conclusions
were hooey.
Yet I can certainly understand why people were upset enough to take
to quill and papyrus. If it's not exactly open season on Catholics,
true believers are seeing the church's iconography used in some
pretty kinky ways these days.
Madonna may be 47 and a contented cabalist, but that doesn't mean
she's forgotten how subverting Catholic symbols translates to
publicity. She's fastening herself to a big mirrored cross to sing
"Live to Tell" in her current Confessions tour.
She checked in with her own house organ, the New York Daily News,
last week to defend herself: "I don't think Jesus would be mad at
me," she said. Of course not, Madge; he's Jesus. He has to forgive
you, not only for that "Sex" book but for "Shanghai Surprise." But
why should we be surprised if some of his followers on Earth hold a
grudge?
Meanwhile, on 6-6-06, a remake of the 1976 thriller "The Omen" comes
around, and seeing it last week at a screening, I realized I had
forgotten that secretive Catholics were to blame for covering up the
fact that the Antichrist had been unleashed on the world. I didn't
recall there being an enormous stink about this at the time; maybe
the Church was too busy explaining why it still occasionally approved
the ancient ritual at the heart of the 1973 smash hit "The Exorcist."
Yet a little research reveals the original "Omen" did have Catholic
critics complaining that the film was a Protestant attack on
Catholicism. The Anglican hero was played by Gregory Peck, who had
Catholic Armenian roots. In the new film, the character is played by
Liev Schreiber, whose mother was Jewish.
Not that I would want to start anything, but you know, the Jews do
control Hollywood, at least when they're not going to cabala lectures
or (Hindu) yoga class or mocking evangelicals. The days when
distortion and prejudice could be explained away with "Hey, it's only
a movie" are gone forever, and while postage stamps may not be far
behind, the Internet seems custom-made -- intelligently designed? --
for outrage and activism.
God may work in mysterious ways, but organized religions work the
media. Remember Kevin Smith's plan to call his "Clerks" sequel "The
Passion of the Clerks"? Put down those pens: It now has the secular
title "Clerks II."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress