The Vatican has strongly criticised the new American film The Golden Compass, calling it “devoid of any particular emotion apart from a great chill.” An editorial in L'Osservatore Romano condemned the motion picture and Philip Pullman, the author of the book on which it is based.
Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, depicts a world in which the governing body, the Magisterium, and the church are linked to experimentation on children.
According to Reuters, The Golden Compass director, Chris Weitz removed all references of the Church in the cinema released version in an attempt to not offend any cinema goer with religious beliefs.
In response to the tone of the film and the book the Vatican newspaper stated: “In Pullman's world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events. The editoral goes on to say that "when man tries to eliminate God from his horizon, everything is reduced, made sad, cold and inhumane".
Christians have been urged by the Catholic League to boycott the film, which stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. They believe that it promotes atheism to children.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue told the BBC that he worries that parents may be convinced after watching the film into buying overtly atheistic and anti-Christian books.
"Pullman is using this film as a sort of stealth campaign. He likes to play the game that he's really not atheistic and anti-Catholic. But yes he is and we have researched this. This movie is the bait for the books."
New Line Cinema, the film’s distributors, were hoping that the film would take centre stage at the box office over the Christmas period and estimated that it could generate up to $40 million in its first weekend. However ticket sales were at $26 million.
After two weeks on release in the United Kingdom, it has grossed GB£12.2 million.
Reviews of the film have been mixed, with James Christopher from The Times calling it “hopeless when it comes to directions. You need proper charts, a year's supply of baked beans, and Sir Ernest Shackleton if you've got any hope of finding the plot." While famed critic Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times, calls it a “wonderfully good-looking movie, with exciting passages".
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