Comments on: A Rare Movie Review

By: Len Cleavelin

Len Cleavelin — Thu, 18 May 2006 12:07:49 +0000

brought to the screen by Opie Taylor/Richie Cunningham…

Or, as Eddie Murphy dubbed him (when Howard guest hosted SNL during Murphy’s stint with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players):

LITTLE OPIE CUNNINGHAM!!!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 18 May 2006 06:05:44 +0000

Steve, I personally know about a half dozen Gospels that didn’t make the cut for the canon. There are all kinds of theories about the people who wrote the various books.

There is plenty of documentation to start a conspiracy, but if you really believe, why would you care?

Oh, yes, we have more than enough examples of religious extremists in the world to make that part of his story real and contemporary. A Muslim lawyer just opened fire in a Turkish court this week because the court insists on separation of religion and state, which is why that quote is there on the sidebar.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 18 May 2006 05:20:37 +0000

The specifics of the myth recounted in the novel may be true or they may be nonsense; I doubt there’s really any way of knowing, in the real world rather than in the world the novel constructs.

But Brown gets one thing right: if there were surviving independent documentation of the real history of Jesus, the more fanatical among Christians (including but certainly not limited to the more aggressive sects within the Catholic church) would go to any lengths to suppress it. I haven’t personally met anyone who murdered on behalf of their religious beliefs, but I have met people who insist on full control of the world’s knowledge of figures and events described in the various versions of the Christian bible, people with zero tolerance for any deviation from their version of the myth. Brown’s fanatics may not be modeled on specific real people, but they are plausible to me.

At this point, I hereby invoke the Terry Pratchett quote in your site’s masthead.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 18 May 2006 04:19:26 +0000

OWL, because some people are so thin-skinned they don’t see that taking notice of fiction increases its importance. If they had ignored the book, it would probably have faded into history.

This was the second book about this, as we learned from the copyright infringement case in Britain, but no one noticed the first book making the same claims.

By: oldwhitelady

oldwhitelady — Thu, 18 May 2006 03:41:04 +0000

Then why are all those nuts in arms about it? I might go see it, just to go. Maybe I can get a good nap.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 17 May 2006 21:23:50 +0000

Apparently this “magnum opie” is two and a half hours, 150 minutes, with the digressions introduced as flashbacks, oh, and one of the many problems that albinos have is extremely poor vision cause by the lack of iris color with its tie to focusing and light control.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:57:29 +0000

Oops. Make that “imagine.” I guess I have “imaging” on the brain for some reason.

BTW, I concur wholeheartedly. Truth in advertising compels me to label my snack “butter with popcorn.”

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:54:48 +0000

Somebody please tell Stella. Otherwise, I’m destined to see the movie.

I just finished the book; it is not as bad as I had feared, and no worse than a dozen other similar adventure novels… episodic, not very multithreaded and mostly devoid of character development, but plot-driven to provide some satisfaction. The only thing different in this book is the frequency of digressions into obscure historical or historical-fictional oddities, and I cannot imaging how they’re going to do that in a movie without boring an audience. Unlike a novel, a film has about 100-120 minutes to make its point; long explanations do not help meet that deadline, and movies that extend it do so at risk of their box-office numbers.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:44:03 +0000

It isn’t exactly a surprise that a movie from a book written by an amazingly dull person [from British coverage of the recent trial] brought to the screen by Opie Taylor/Richie Cunningham starring Forrest Gump wouldn’t exactly be a barn burner.

If they had given the film to Ridley Scott and given the lead to Alan Rickman it might have been worth the ticket.

By: norbizness

norbizness — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:23:09 +0000

Well, Ron Howard is a shitty, shitty filmmaker. So middlebrow and bland it makes your teeth hurt.