The Golden Compass - A movie to avoid. . .
Saltshakers
Media Release
12th November , 2007
One movie to avoid is The Golden Compass, a new children’s movie starring Nicole Kidman.
It was released in the USA on December 7 - it will be released in Australia on December 26, just in time for holiday movie-going.
The film has been made by New Line Cinema, part of Time Warner - they also produced the TV show Sex in the City.
Numerous emails have been floating around about this film...
Although the movie seems to pick up on fantasy themes similar to the Narnia series, this film is based on an anti-Christian book by British atheist Philip Pullman.
The Golden Compass is based on the first book of a trilogy called His Dark Materials (the first book was originally called Northern Lights.) Pullman told the Sydney Morning Herald in a 2003 interview “My books are about killing God.”
The BBC said it is “a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God,” whilst The Guardian said the books were “metaphysical fantasies encompassing parallel worlds, the death of God and the fall of man ...”.
Snopes, an online website that assesses ‘urban legends’ said the “books follow the adventures of a streetwise girl Lyra who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armour-plated bears and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.”
Early reports about the film say that some of the anti-Catholic themes in the books (under the name The Magisterium) have been removed from the film but it is still overtly anti-Christian - and children will be drawn to read the actual books. The second and third books build up the theme of opposing God.
Animal spirit
Each character in the story has a ‘daemon’ (yes, pronounced ‘demon’). The movie website says “In Lyra’s world, a person’s soul lives on the outside of the body in the form of a daemon - an animal spirit that accompanies them through life”.
Even more alarming is the fact that the movie website actually has a section “Find your daemon in our online movies gallery”, encouraging children to select their own ‘daemon’ or ‘animal spirit’. This is a dangerous occult practice and needs to be avoided.
Computer Game
The Golden Compass has also been produced as an interactive game by Sega - for Nintendo playstations, X-Box, WII and PC. It is being released in time for Christmas - so beware!]
Assessment:
Watching such films that have an overt message against God give children the wrong message - we should be giving them the right messages.
Some Christian websites (eg Christianity Today) have suggested we should be discerning but not fearful - and answer some of the questions asked about the film (see below). I don't support some of their suggestions but I give the link below for your information...
Obviously it is up to parents to decide if their children should watch the film - our job is to alert you to what is happening and assess any of the problems we discern.
Why not look out for some of the other children's movies - 'The Bee Movie' looks like a much better alternative!
Peter P Stokes
Co Founder & Executive Officer
Salt Shakers Inc
Ph: 03 9800 2855
Mb: 0413 084 145
www.saltshakers.org.a
Please send all replies to peter@saltshakers.org.au
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