Reflections on The Da Vinci Code

Over the past weekend my wife and I saw The Da Vinci Code, a film we’ve looked forward to for quite some time. Though flawed in some respects, I enjoyed it immensely. Movies seldom do justice to the books that inspire them, but this was not the case in this particular instance. In fact, our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, chastised the film’s director and screen-writer for genuflecting “before the altar of incredible sales figures (a reported 60 million hardcover copies) and [treating] the material with grim sanctimony and undue awe.” I can’t help but wonder whether Mel Gibson was criticized for similar reasons when he released The Passion of the Christ two years ealier. Then again, given the nature of the current political climate, I don't suppose any film that suggests Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, let alone that he fathered a child with her, can expect to escape criticism. In light of this fact, I would attribute the film's lackluster reviews to its contraversial subject matter, rather than its artistic merits.

If nothing else, the furor surrounding the film (and Dan Brown's novel) serves to underscore the power of ideas, and the fear they can invoke. Various religious groups have been busy hosting lectures intended to highlight the "historical" inaccuracies in Brown's work. At one such conference, hosted in Manhatten, Craig Smith, founder and president of Shepherd Project Ministries, encouraged his audience to arm themselves with the truth. "'Know the Truth,' Smith told the hundreds of attendants who used the Bible as their only reference throughout the conference. 'If you know the Truth, when you read The Da Vinci Code, you're not going to be swept off the path of righteousness.'" In a story posted on MSNBC, Bryan Fischer, who spoke on behalf of the Idaho Values Alliance, suggested that the film was "a collection of absolutely absurd fabrications," and noted that his group intended to take a "proactive approach to connect with movie-goers before they're 'exposed to the virus of errors' in the film."

Lost in all of this, of course, is the fact that Brown's book is a work of fiction. Then again, this isn't likely to matter in an ideological contest. Whether or not the events depicted in The Da Vinci Code are accurate is of little concern to fundamentalists. What does matter is their fear that people, if left to think for themselves, will recognize them as such. In the end, this is the danger to be guarded against.