DA VINCI DECODED: IT REEKS

Abysmal Book carefully translated into Abysmal Film

Schadenfreude. Big time. Oh Yeah.

The verdict is in and the patient is DOA. As Peggy Noonan puts it: "There is a God." She goes on:

Or, as a sophisticated Christian pointed out yesterday, there is an Evil One, and this may be proof he was an uncredited co-producer. The devil loves the common, the stale. He can't use beauty; it undermines him. "Banality is his calling card."

Watching Peggy Noonan speak in person can be sort of like fighting one's way out from deep within one of those incredibly doughy and sticky-sweet "Cinnabon" concoctions. But man, can she write.

She TOTALLY NAILS IT on two hot-poker issues today: immigration reform and the cinematic Da Vinci Code. My favourite line on Topic 1 is a summation of the current Bush Administration Syndrome-- something its enemies might have wrongly accused it of years ago, but which appears to be genuinely manifesting itself in the "lame duck" years.

Noonan believes the administration is "lost in some geopolitical-globalist abstract-athon" -- YESSSSS! ZOWIE! -- She goes on:

... that has left them puffed with the rightness of their superior knowledge, sure in their membership in a higher brotherhood, and looking down on the low concerns of normal Americans living in America.

Ooch, ouch. Yes.

On Topic 2, Peggy nails the bigger context too.

I do not understand the thinking of a studio that would make, for the amusement of a nation 85% to 90% of whose people identify themselves as Christian, a major movie aimed at attacking the central tenets of that faith, and insulting as poor fools its gulled adherents. Why would Tom Hanks lend his prestige to such a film? Why would Ron Howard? They're both already rich and relevant... They've been given so much by their country and era, such rich rewards and adulation throughout their long careers. This was no way to say thanks.

I don't really understand why we live in an age in which we feel compelled to spoof the beliefs of the followers of the great religions. Why are we doing that? [money quote-- ed.] Why does Hollywood consider this progressive as opposed to primitive, like a pre-Columbian tribe attacking the tribe next door for worshiping the wrong spirits?

As we shall see in the coming weeks, Hollywood will prefer that we worship at the altar of the prophet AlGore and his Sacred Book [Film] of Global Eco-Disaster Nostrums. It will be taken much more seriously than The DVC, though I expect they both bought their factoids at the same "Global-Conspiracies-Are-Us" franchise outlet.

Read it all. In a peculiar way, both Noonan's topics of the day are related to the eternal drawing power of Gnosticism. Hmmmm. There-- I've given some mediocre grad student a thesis-- free, gratis, and worth every penny it cost.

Nota Bene: this is no time to relax. Don't forget to join the "Other-cott" -- take all the kids, all your neighbour's kids, a few dozen of your closest friends, and all your sisters, cousins, and aunts this weekend to see Over the Hedge. Drive its well-deserved ticket-sale numbers up, and leave The DVC eating its dust.