Review: The
Golden Compass
Yesterday I went to see this phenomenal
film, and I am still attempting to soft-land back into the present world. While
Enchanted was charming and fun, The Golden Compass is
pure passion, and took me back into my element of metaphysical epic fantasies,
to the likes of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of
Narnia.
I have purposely not read other materials
relating to this film, because I wanted to judge it on its own merit, and did not
want the negative hype associated with it to influence my perception. What I do
know is that some Christian churches, including the Catholic Church have criticized
it because of. . .well, I am really not sure why, because in seeing the movie,
I could not find anything that spoke of religion or attempted to lead people
from religion. What it does speak of is TRUTH, and unfortunately, that is a
threat to many religious people these days. I will elaborate more on that in a
bit.
I do know that the movie is based on the
first in a trilogy of books called His
Dark Materials by outspoken atheist Phillip Pullman, but if I did not know
this going in, nothing in the film would allude to this fact. The movie is
deeply spiritual, even more so than other recent epic fantasies, and for those
of us that have devoted our lives to the transition into the Fifth Dimension,
this movie is an absolute must-see.
It is the story of a little girl, Lyra Belacqua, impeccably played
by a young novice named Dakota Blue Richards, whose curiosity and wisdom brings
her to face a conspiracy created by fearful and powerful adults to rob future
children of the truth and free will. Her uncle, Lord Asriel,
(Daniel Craig), has been to the North, where he photographed particles of
"dust" from parallel universes. The movie begins as orphaned Lyra hides in a room at Jordan College where she is a ward,
and witnesses a college Master putting poison into her uncle's wine, shortly
before he is to embark on another research trip to the North, which the Magisterium of the College are seeking to prevent because
they fear it will be a threat to the power of those who wish to control.
Lyra is soon after
befriended by Mrs. Coulter, (Nicole Kidman) believing she will be accompanying
her to the North as an assistant, but soon learns that Mrs. Coulter is doing
nothing but keeping her prisoner. She escapes, rescued by the gyptians, including the mother of her friend Billy, who has
been kidnapped along with many other children that are being used as experimental
subjects in a facility in the North.
Before Lyra
departs with Mrs. Coulter, she was given a gift: and ancient device known as an
Alethiometer, the Golden Compass, which does not
point to True North, but to the truth,
and reveals what other would prefer to keep hidden. Lyra
soon learns that she has the gift to read it, and is being pursued by Mrs.
Coulter, because not only she, but the instrument she holds, are
valuable to those in power.
On the way North,
the group is befriended by aeronaut Lee Scoresby, (Sam Elliott) and the former
prince of the armored bears, Iorek Byrnison, a huge Polar Bear, who vows to support and
protect the group in its mission to rescue the children.
This film is completely captivating, both
because the story itself will keep you on the edge of your seat, but because
the filming itself is a gift to the senses. From the curious flying machines,
to the cold artic tundra, and the daemons, the animals
spirits which accompany all humans, this movie is an invigorating massage for
the eyes. The accompanying music is gorgeous, too, except for the theme song at
the closing credits, which was way out of character to the rest of the film.
Though Harry
Potter characters had their accompanying animals, and animals spoke fluent
English in The Chronicles of Narnia,
the relationship between animals and humans in The Golden Compass goes a
step further. Each person is always within reach of their daemon, an animals
which is the human's soul living outside their own body. The children's daemons
can change freely from one form to another, from a bird to an insect, to a
mammal, but as children grow to be adults, their daemon becomes one permanent
form that best represents the characteristics of that human, such as a cheetah,
a dog, or a praying mantis. In Lyra's universe, to
sever a person from their daemon is unspeakable, like severing a person from
their soul, yet that is exactly what the research lab overseen by Mrs. Coulter
is doing.
And here is where we get into all the
religious bullshit. It is sad to say, but these days it seems one must often
choose between being spiritual and being religious, and as we head deeper into
the shift to the Fifth Dimension, the polarities between spiritualism and
religious dogma are becoming an ever widening chasm. Rather than seeing all
living beings (including animals and plants) as manifestations of soul
material, religion is becoming increasingly myopic in their perception of
"god". Even though this movie in intensely spiritual, it paints a
different viewpoint than those who believe in "One True God",
therefore there are those who seek to condemn. The movie stimulates truth
seekers, and truth seekers have always been a challenge to religious dogma.
This is what I say, having followed our
metaphysical transition for nearly 30 years now: We are nearly there, entering
this new world where nothing but the truth exists. Looking around, we see the
foundations of all we believe imploding, collapsing from the inside out. We see
lies and corruption working to the surface like an infected splinter everywhere
we look.
For myself, I say, live and let live. I
personally do not care if another person believes what I believe. Everyone, everyone will soon find out the truth, and for some, it will be an rude awakening, but it will come, none the less. At the
point where we are now, we must all move forward with our own truths and let
everything else go. We must stop this religious self-righteousness, which will
ultimately be the trigger of mass self-destruction. It is rearing its ugly head
everywhere you look, in nearly every religious group. One of the worst examples
was the recent outrage in
Having said that, I cannot
recommend this movie highly enough. If you do not see another movie for
the rest of the year, please see this one. It is showing in
The website is pretty awesome, too. You can
even discover your own daemon. It is www.goldencompassmovie.com
CopyrightŠ
2007 by Laughing Crow
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