These are the times rife with agendas, and this year has seen the release of a number of agenda-driven films. I find it somewhat encouraging that such films to this point have had rather dismal ratings. It seems that recent anti-war films, such as recent flops as 'Lions for Lambs' and 'Rendition', have flopped because they hold little entertainment value.
What movie-goer wants to go see a film that is preachy, shallow, and possibly even insulting to their intelligence. The message to Hollywood is, "You guys have been beating the drum for over six years now; Bush sucks, war is bad, Iraq war is bad, blah, blah, blah. You don't need to bludgeon us with the same message in your contrived on-screen fiction."
Now there's a release of the 'Golden Compass', a movie made based on the first book in a series called 'His Dark Materials' by crusading atheist author Philip Pullman. The movie has been watered down to obfuscate the most obvious of Mr. Pullman's agenda, but the core purpose of the film is to create demand for the books, which from all accounts depict vicious attacks on Christianity, especially aimed at the Catholic Church. Excerpts I've seen suggest not only an atheistic, but even a Satanic message.
Contrary to popular stereotype, Christians and Catholics aren't petitioning the government to censor the movie or the books. They're simply exercising their rights to shine the light on this movie's agenda, which in turn encourages parents to skip this film, which ironically has been released in the Christmas season.
Fortunately, the reviews I've seen of this agenda film have been pretty tepid. Reviewers who don't seem to care about the agenda or controversy are simply saying it's not a very good movie. Which of course remains consistent with the theory that agenda-driven films appeal to a narrow audience and won't do well commercially. Hopfully the trend holds with this film.
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