The Da Vinci Code… A flop?

Dan Brown’s Tome, “The Da Vinci Code” is one of the best selling whodunnit’s in recent memory. Some facts on the book’s success include 60.5 million copies in print in 44 languages and any number of weeks on everybody’s best seller list.

Now let me put forth that I have not read the book. But I have consumed some news around the film to be released tomorrow.

1. Columbia/Sony has not released the film to reviewers until Wednesday Night. The company line explaining this rather unusual move for a movie of this magnitude is that they wanted to keep the controversey up. Typically the reason films are not released to the filmviewing press prior to public release is because they fear bad reviews before the release and don’t want to hurt opening weekend ticket sales. As the movie industry has changed in recent years a movie is made or broken in the first weekend. Aperantly even controversey won't overcome bad reviews.

2. Tom Hanks, one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood today is practically nowhere to be found. He has canceled the majority of his interviews promoting this movie because of what he reportedly said, “I don’t want to talk about my religion” (Source: Bill O’Reilly 5/18/2006). Could it be that he doesn’t want to go in front of an audience and apologize for a bad movie?

3. Early reviews are less glowing than the source material would warrant. Given the caliber of talent involved with the movie (no less than 4 well-deserved Oscars between Hanks and Ron Howard) I have heard the movie is “long”, “uninteresting” etc… This would confirm points 1 and 2.

Does the Da Vinci Code bother me as a Christian?

Now, Even though Dan Brown has become a media darling, and millions have read his book, I don’t see many people, not already on the side of persecuting Christianity heading to join that party. Christians who read the book, say it’s a good mystery, but were rather passé about the plot linking Jesus to Mary Magdalene romantically and creating a bloodline that ascended to the royal French throne.

Where as the mainstream media will promote anything that contradicts traditional religious teaching (see the recent excitement around the supposed Gospel of Judas) intellectually honest historians will point out hundreds of errors in Dan Brown’s “evidence.”

The Da Vinci Code does not bother me because truth always wins out over fiction… over time.

Perhaps Tom Hanks did say it best in one of his few interviews in which he stated, “People have been trying to bring down Christianity for thousands of years, and I don’t think the book that’s going to do it is sold at Barns & Noble in the fiction section.”

I really do like your attitude here, Tom. It's just a made-up story about some stuff, some of which actually happened.