The Golden Compass

The Bait and Switch

“I don’t expect Christians to see God as a metaphor, but that’s what he is. Perhaps it might be clearer to call him a character in fiction, and a very interesting one too: one of the greatest and most complex villains of all—savage, petty, boastful and jealous, and yet capable of moments of tenderness and extremes of arbitrary affection – for David, for example. But he’s not real…

----Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

Dec 2007

It is not without much research (and without bracing myself), that the movie, The Golden Compass will not make its way onto our shelves. This will be the third blockbuster movie that we have decided not to carry due to its content, which was in direct conflict with our Christian faith.

The first movie we chose not to offer to our patrons was Brokeback Mountain, due to its homosexual content. Our decision received a significant amount of attention—some good, some bad. This is surprising, given the 98% straight demographic in the US (slightly lower in the UK). In this politically correct era, even those not falling within the homosexual demographic apparently felt the need to give a shout-out to support the oppressed homosexual community. Can’t they even have a movie of their own? Absolutely. Just not in my store. Oh, the freedom of being the owner!

The second movie was The DaVinci Code, which we decided not to carry due to its religious content, or rather, anti-religious content. Sadly enough, this caused very little ruckus. I had less than five customers question why it was missing from our new release wall, and why it wasn’t up on the "new this week board." Apparently it’s OK to be politically incorrect in regards to those of No Faith—I guess their backing isn’t as strong?

Now, onto The Golden Compass. What? You saw it in the theatre and didn’t find anything religiously objectionable? There really wasn’t, or so I’ve heard. I never did watch it. Most critics say it was very well done. The things we did above--refusing to carry movies with questionable content, doing things that might offend a specific group of people—Hollywood doesn’t do this. A least not unless the flaming is intentional for the purposes of increasing their bottom line in some other way. I mean, gosh, a group of people might be offended (in this case, Christians), and could wreak media havoc, ultimately impacting their bottom line.

This is a BIG movie with grand special effects that cast ridiculously expensive actors and actresses. Movies of this caliber take money to produce. The Golden Compass ran over $180M. Now, obviously the production company and distributers expect box office revenue to exceed that figure—a figure that’s big even by movie standards. This requires an extremely large audience that needs to appeal not only to one segment of the population, but to as many as possible. Alienating an entire segment of the population is missed opportunity. That’s what we are. Opportunity. Cheddar. ROI. You can’t always please everyone, but Hollywood sure gives it a good whirl by trying to smooth out certain questionable material that would otherwise provoke a showdown with a cantankerous lobby.

So what was the end result of Hollywood’s smoothing out of Pullman’s God-bashing story? The classic bait and switch. It’s unlikely that it was intentional on Hollywood’s part, or even on the part of the author who is quite proud of his work and its anti-God theme. But the motivation of the multiple parties involved seems irrelevant when the end result is the same. How is this a bait and switch? Hollywood created the bait: here is this dazzling movie with wonderful characters, superb special effects, and a benign story line that is not offensive to the church or to Christianity. They removed all direct references to God and to the church (which were present in the book) and used other verbiage instead, which they deemed would cause less friction within the Christian community. His Dark Materials, at the hands of Hollywood, becomes the cheery Golden Compass. And now the switch: Suzie loved this movie so much, she went out and bought Pullman’s trilogy, which was written with the intent to discredit the Christian-based C.S. Lewis novels, The Chronicles of Narnia, God, and Christianity in general, in which Pullman depicts God not only as a fictional, fallible, terrible yet merciful character, but tells of his ultimate death, and thus the creation of free will. The author is not unclear in his motives, is proud to make a stand against Christianity, and is irritated by the use of words such as “spirituality,” which he thinks is a put-on. The result of this switcheroo is the creation of a backdoor into the world of atheism, a very subtle one--so regardless of Hollywood’s attempt at keeping this PC to ensure maximum profits, what they, in fact, have done, was disguised the author’s real intent, attracting many unsuspecting movie goers (including children) to Pullman’s books, who will have no idea that the books are slamming the entire premise of Christianity and promoting atheism (until after they’ve read it). I think I would have preferred the honesty of the upfront and in-your-face version. For example, “This is a movie is about atheism, and it’s anti-God.” At least you know what you are being offered so you can decide whether you wish to be a taker.

So why didn’t Hollywood do that? I think that part is obvious: Because the movie would tank, that’s why. The vast majority of the US population consider themselves to be Christian, and this outward announcement of an anti-God movie would ruffle feathers--the majority would feel this is crossing the line and just plain wrong. This line-crossing would have a huge negative impact on their bottom line--New Line would have suffered from massive boycotts, and Hollywood knew this! They didn’t become a large movie conglomerate without knowing what the public wants to see (and doesn’t want to see). They’re smart cookies. Anti-God-In-Your-Face-Movie=no revenue.

Well, I’m a clever gal, too. And you know what? I recognize this for what it is. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A simple bait and switch. I don’t tolerate bait and switches in stores, and I won't tolerate them in the theatre, or in my DVD player at home. I wouldn’t carry this movie if it were in my face, stating that it was anti-God, and no one would question that decision. Hardly anyone would want to see it anyway. But we know this story is anti-God, because the author said so. So how is it different, exactly?

So, Hollywood covers it up, smooths it out, and hopes we won’t notice that it’s the same story with a few words changed? Don’t worry, folks, you’ll find out when you read the books, which are abhorrent. And if they weren’t, all the trash they took out would have made it into the movie as-is! And just when you were thinking what a lovely movie it was, and, gosh you bet the books are good too, and, you heard there were three…switch….
I won’t stand for it when I know it’s there but cleverly disguised either.

You can argue that it’s OK because they took the “bad stuff” out (which mainly consists of substituting words for church and God), if that’s what you think happened. You can argue that watching the movie itself won’t hurt anyone. I guess the latter part is true, if that’s all that ever happened. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there, or Mr. Pullman wouldn’t see an increase in his book sales when the movie comes out. You know, like what didn’t happen when Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings came out with the movie to complement the novels (note the heavy sarcasm). What Hollywood really did was cover it up, tuck it away, and save it (read: bad stuff) until the movie-goers run to the bookstore to get the book. It is what it is--an atheistic God-bashing, Christian-hating story disguised as a marvelous and benign movie masterpiece in the vein of Narnia and Lord of the Rings. And I, for one, won’t be conned, nor will I let my children be.

So as a business, we have made the decision not to perpetuate Pullman’s anti-Christian agenda. Whether this agenda was clearly spelled out in the movie is irrelevant to me—it will be made clear when fans flock to the bookstore. Backdoor or front door—it all lets you into the same place. Of course, everyone will decide for themselves whether they should see this movie. I just can’t be the one to hold the door open for you. I hope you understand our position.

“I’m not deluded: Christians are. There is no God.”
---Philip Pullman