I didn’t get permission to see Ron Howard’s “Angels and Demons” film from anyone official but as a member of the media as well as the Catholic Church my gut feeling was that I should see it, but not pay for it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull that off because although the program I host on St. Joseph Radio is heard on EWTN, it’s really not on anyone in Hollywood’s radar, and my in-box at Indie 1031 has got Internet radio written all over it’s empty enclosure. Somehow I was invited to a screening at the ArcLight in Hollywood presented by Flemming’s Steakhouse. Perfect!
We could debate for a while whether A&D is really a movie at all or just a series of scenes with silly dialogue propelling an action filled scavenger hunt through Vatican City. Instead I will try to be as informative as I can about whether the movie is offensive, blasphemous, inaccurate, or just a joke; or all of those things like “The Da Vinci Code.”
Unexpected:
“Angels and Demons” is about a thousand times better than the “Da Vinci Code” as a film. Tom Hanks looks better and says less of those ridiculous revelatory lines at the end of every scene that make you want to punch him right in the character. It has its problems but it is not boring, doesn’t drag, and is a skillful mix of Indiana Jones type action set against a beautiful sacred backdrop.
Unexpected:
The Faithful depicted in the film were not ridiculed. The religion was not trivialized in the usual Hollywood manner. Howard used the visual and ritual majesty of the Catholic Church to its fullest. Vatican City is an awe-inspiring place and the film did little to damage the notion that membership in the faith is a serious privilege. It’s one of those films that after seeing, if I wasn’t a Catholic, I would be very jealous of all we have.
Expected:
Trite myths about the Church are perpetuated, of course. The blanket assertion that the Church has routinely suppressed science is nothing but myth. It’s laughable to people who know the truth. Even the case of Galileo, when fully studied, shows that the Church did more to advance the study of most sciences, especially astronomy, than any institution at the time. For some mind blowing elaboration on this fact, check out the summary of Dr. Thomas Wood Jr.’s “How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.”
Expected:
Hollywood would not make a big film like this without a liberal message but even I couldn’t imagine Howard and author Dan Brown would go so far out of their minds to create this one. It’s amazing. The film starts with a Papal funeral celebrating the life of a “beloved progressive Pope.” The film then goes on to make the point that to avoid seeing the Church modernize, more traditional forces within the Church would torture and murder four Cardinals, kill about one million of the faithful, and destroy Vatican City.
That is the point of the story. The progressive Pope and the Godless Academic Robert Langdon are the heroes. The traditionalists (the enemies of change) are not just stubborn; they are murderous terrorists. It’s so outrageous it probably rises to the level of breaking both the First and Second Commandments. I don’t have the authority of absolution, but if I did. Howard’s penance would be to make a similar film dealing with “progressives” vs. “traditionalists” in the Muslim faith, and see how their modernizing is coming along when that film hits the streets.
Conclusion:
In “Angels & Demons,” Hollywood has embraced a lot of the beauty and reverence of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church but not the Magisterium itself. It has decided a new direction for the Church. Hollywood would like to make the Church into something acceptable to Hollywood, which is not surprising considering what Hollywood thinks about its role in shaping culture.
They are the wise. They will show us the way. If we listen, we can be Catholic AND popular in Hollywood. It’s the best of both worlds, right? Wrong. The well catechized know we must choose one or the other.
Solution:
If more films were made about the lives of the saints, heroic stories could be shared and everyone inside and outside the Church would be exposed to truths and virtues that would make this progressive vs. traditionalist divide a non-topic.
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