The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
Doubleday, 2003
Most likely everybody has heard about the film "The Da Vinci Code" or at least heard about it from the news, an intellectual show or in the church, especially if you are a believer. Most of the time people who haven't read the book or haven't seen the film argue about it in the most aggressive way, so what is the truth with this code?
I've read the book and some months ago I wrote an iKritic about it and I haven't still seen the film and I'm not sure if I want to see it. No, the film is not a satanic instrument and I don't want to see it, it is simple. I enjoyed the book and I don't want the film to spoil it. As I said before, the film is not the instrument of Satan but the instrument of Hollywood and its target is nothing other than your pocket and your money.
According to all the critics I've read, the film is nothing big, just the usual Hollywood stuff with a lot of small and big problems, including extended and boring dialogues. There are very few action scenes and even the ones that are included, such as the car chase, are covered with more dialogue. Enough with the film because I haven't seen it and the only thing I'm doing here is copying what others have said.
The book was good, it could keep you after one point and I think nearly everybody read it or at least knows what happened in that book. Unless you are one of those who believe in conspiracies, that Elvis is alive and UFOs have kidnapped you at least twice, you will understand that this is a novel that cleverly mixes reality with imagination. Even reading the book you understand that the hero is as much a scientist as Indiana Jones is an archeologist; it doesn't matter how limited your knowledge in archeology you will follow the plot.
The amazing thing is that next to the people who believe that Elvis is alive and that they have been kidnapped by a UFO twice are the other people who took it too seriously. They were the church, led by the Pope and the Patriarch, who turned a pulp fiction and page-turner book for the summer into something mystic and serious. It was like the Pope telling us that Superman is real and every time you feel you are in danger you are expecting a man with red underwear to come and rescue you.
The church called it heretic, but Dan Brown is not the first to write about Jesus' 'other' life. Kazantzakis wrote the "The Last Temptation" and the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize. I hope Dan Brown's followers don't expect the Swedish Academy to do the same because Ian Fleming is much better; Kazantzakis' book also became a film and the church still tried to excommunicate and ban the film.
The Greek Orthodox Church had Kazantzakis excommunicated and thirty years ago had to apologize in public admit ting their stupidity and dogmatism, so why are they ready to make the same mistake? Don't they learn? Isn't the possibility that Jesus had something going on with Maria Magdalena something we even talked about when we were in high school? Isn't pure and honest love a holy feeling?
You end up believing that there was a conspiracy between the producers of the film and the church. If the church hadn't reacted like they did only a few houses would have the book in their bookcase. Nowadays even people who bought books with titles like "10 ways to start small talk", "Marriage for dummies" and "How to write the perfect CV" have Dan Brown's book decorated their newly bought bookcase. You see they had to buy the rest of his books, if they've read them that's another case.
ovi magazine, ovi lehti, article, critic, Da Vinci code, film & book
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