Og

I thought the movie was pretty good. It was a well formulated campbell myth hero's journey a la star wars with a beautifully rendered world and concepts.

It's clearly anti-religious in nature. Their concept of Dust parallels free thought and doubt.

I recommend it to folks of all ages.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

marmalade

I enjoyed it immensely. The only thing that disappointed me is that the narrative felt too rushed, but this is usually an issue with movies adapted from books. This either needed to be a longer movie or broken up into two movies.

I'm happy in general about the surge of myth-inspired movies.

Og, have you seen any in-depth reviews or analyses?

nkrummy

It was pretty good. When I saw the previews I thought it was going to be another Chronicles of Narnia type of thing. Now I realize it's more like the "Anti-Narnia"! :P
Very interesting, and I cant wait to see where this series go. But I just have to say (possible spoiler..) that one scene with the bears was like something out of American History X! I was not expecting that!! (grimace) lol

girlinterrupted364

hey..i love the chronicles of narnia.
but speaking of the golden compass i love the book, i love the series ive read it several times
but the movie felt mediocre. on another related note, my parents get a magazine sort of thing called family focus put out by james dobson (well known christian something..i dont know) they were putting the book and movie down because it was anti-religous and saying how it was going to melt childrens minds (ok not really but you know...) i was so indignant, the story line is good, and unless youre a very perceptive little kid, you probably wont pick up the anti religion vibe. besides, heaven for fiend we show our children other points of view.

__________________
Non ducor, DUCO

I wish on shooting stars

I am tired, Beloved,
of chafing my heart against
the want of you;
of squeezing it into little inkdrops,
And posting it.
~Amy Lowell, "The Letter"

nkrummy

I don't know- I think its pretty blatant. Particularly I think it seems anti-Catholic since most of the "bad guys" are reminiscent of Catholic church father.
But I found the Chronicles of Narnia very blatant too- with a completely opposite message. It's refreshing to see this Golden Compass series because of the controversial message, and it's fun to see these two go head to head. I'll watch them all and enjoy them. Its fun to watch these fantasy series'.

romansh

Plan on reading the book.

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There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Og

Yah: Joseph Campbell's book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" :P

It was exactly star wars. They were the rebels against the evil empire who are trying to destroy all of the free thought in the world.

The little girl was luke skywalker with her connection to the "dust" that was the compass. She even met her pilot with a ship and his furry companion (han and chewbacca) who owed a life debt. Her "mother" was the evil villain's tool.

her friend who was captured is princess leia.

The demons are familiars just like R2D2 (for luke) and C3P0 (for leia). The kid even "flew into the death star" and destroyed it's "core" at the end of the movie. Her "mother" was incapacitated just as vader's TIE fighter was knocked out of the fight. She was separated from her escort at the end just as luke was and then they returned at the last moment to save her.. They even toyed with removing her familiar from her in that machine just as R2D2 was blasted in the back of luke's ship right before he accomplished his goal.

Etc etc etc..

I got a better appreciation for the role of familiars in these myths though. Thinking of the end of star wars when R2D2 was riding behind luke and C3P0 was standing beside leia and each one of them represented their companion (i.e. C3P0 was all about etiquette and protocol and R2D2 was a rebellious guardian angel).

And it's not just star wars. Star Wars is campbell's myth mapped into modern sci-fi in a post vietnam era concept when technology was just starting to really explode.

The matrix is that same thing in the information era as the Internet was exploding in the late 90s.. The golden compass is speaking specifically to the state of religious tyrrany just as 300 and other movies like it did the same thing recently in response to 9/11.

The story the golden compass presents is nothing new, but I thoroughly enjoyed the unique iconography and the explicit labeling of familiars as demons and the beautiful imagery that that represented. I also felt that there was much better character development in this show than there was in the recent narnia movie. The narnia movie just seemed like they were jamming the story down our throats. This one felt less rushed to me and more developed. Probably because there was one hero and not 4.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

marmalade

Thanks Og!

What struck me about the movie was how the whole familiar thing was playing off of Catholic theology about souls and freewill. Wasn't it Augustine who argued for the necessity of the church's authority because if people were free to make their own choices, they'd choose wrong?

The witches represented paganism in general. Their souls could travel far away like shamanistic techniques.

The dust idea emphasized the point about freedom. The familiars needed dust to shift form which they lost the ability as children grew up. I suppose since the witches were had more access to the dust because they lived outside of society and could fly in the air.

The connection of the compass to dust represented the necessity of truth in relation to freewill. The truth that the church group wanted to control was the reality of dust and how it helped free the soul.

The separation of the main character's familiar makes me think of the necessity of differentiation in psychological development. Growing up is a loss of childhood, and often this includes traumatic experiences that help this differentiation process to occur.

Just thinking out loud.

NotConvinced

Isn't Golden Compass the first of a trilogy? Or was it the entire trilogy under one title?

marmalade

I have heard this to be true, but I only listened to the first book on tape and I know nothing of the other books. This movie was based only on the first book, but it still felt too rushed for my taste.