Here is the second installment on an article about The Golden Compass. You can use this link to read Part One. We pick it up here looking at the three novels from of which Compass is the first.
His Dark Materials – The Books
His Dark Materials is the name of the trilogy that Pullman has written, with The Golden Compass/Northern Lights being the first book. The second in the series is ‘The Subtle Knife,’ while the third is ‘The Amber Spyglass.’ Each book progressively becomes more blatant in its anti-God message. By the third book, the two main child characters, a boy and a girl, are depicted as representing Adam and Eve, and the trilogy culminates in the killing of God.
All three of these books have won major literary awards and it has been reported that the movies will simply serve as a ‘bait’ for children to desire the books and thereby be exposed to the more controversial elements that lie in the heart of the author.
Pullman has named three major influences on writing of His Dark Materials: An essay called On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist, the works of William Blake, and his largest influence is John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It was of this last work that Pullman said his intention was to invert Milton’s story of the war between heaven and hell, and make it so that the devil is the hero.
There is enough evidence here and through other sources to show parents that these books are not to be read by young children, and perhaps even for those older children that do want to, a concurrent reading with their parents may be a wise course of action. As parents though, you need to make that call as to whether or not your children get their hands on them.
The Golden Compass - The Film
Snopes, a website that assess ‘urban legends’, has concurred that the film is based on a series of books with anti-religious themes. They say that the trilogy of books ‘follows the adventures of streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.’ There are other sources that also run parallel with this synopsis, but is this a description true to the book, or has ‘filmic’ licence been used?
The Plugged In review of the movie is very detailed and provides some good insights into most aspects of the film. One part that was particularly helpful was the way in which everything was broken down; there was comment on the violence, the spiritual and sexual content as well as the positive elements of the characters. But while there may be some positive elements of strong character virtues, it’s the spiritual content that we must, as Christian parents, be aware of. This is where we must be diligent in sifting the allegorical nature of Narnia and Frodo from the occultic overtones of the Compass. It is this that we need to instil in our children, so that when they ask why they can’t see the movie we have reason (especially if they are older children) grounded in the Word as to why we cannot support such a movie or the books.
Spiritually, the movie promotes personal daemons, (yes that’s demons) who are animal representations of a person’s soul. These spirit guides shape shift and have their own personality and identity. Anyone who has studies the occult or yoga would understand these as spirit guides.The movie’s main theme is the battle between those who would promotes free will, defined as the freedom to think, question and do as they please, and those who would coerce others into believing what they believe to be the truth. They are represented throughout the three books as the church. The Magisterium as they are called, are referred to as this Authority. Devin Gordon, from Newsweek writes, “While references to ‘the church’ are gone from the film, no one over four feet tall could mistake the Magisterium for anything but an oppressive theocracy.” As has already been mentioned, the trilogy ends by the destruction of this Authority and the triumph of the free will. Compare this to the Biblical teaching, that authority is good, from the Godhead, to marriage, to children.
Then there is the Golden Compass itself. This particular instrument is known in the movie as alethiometer, which works in the same way as an Ouija board. When asked questions, it always provides a truthful answer. The source of its power is not mentioned, but as the Ouija board, its means of communicating is mysterious and beyond the power of the human operator.
One Final Thought
As you’ve read this article, I hope that you have seen enough in it for you to be wary of this film, and of the books. And while you may decide to watch this film with your children there are two others coming that they will no doubt want to watch also. I will close with a quote from Chris Weitz, the director of the film who commented on the second and third instalment’s anti-church themes.
“Whereas The Golden Compass had to be introduced to the public carefully, the religious themes in the second and third books can’t be minimized without destroying the spirit of the books…I will not be involved in any watering down of books two and three.”
In a nutshell The Golden Compass is a movie about an Authority – a theocracy, kidnapping children and performing experiments on them and their daemons. There is nothing here that will make children honour their parents or the authority of teachers or other community leaders in their lives. The film’s agenda in discrediting God-given authority successfully shows a lack of understanding of spiritual truth and pales in comparison to the richness of Lewis and Tolkien.
Filed under: Articles, Family, Film | Tagged: athiesm, Chris Weitz, Christianity, CS Lewis, His Dark Materials, Narnia, Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman, The Golden Compass
