Harmless fiction?
So, the DaVinci Code is just a bit of entertainment right? It's just a bit of fiction, it's not meant to mirror reality or anything. And besides most people aren't going to have their beliefs altered or really be influenced at all by what's in the book anyway. Right?
Disclaimer too much to ask?
Lifesite News reports that Bill Donohue of the Catholic League had some harsh words for director Ron Howard, who announced recently that there will be no disclaimer at the beginning of DVC. The story includes a list of films which had disclaimers at the beginning expressing that there was no intention of maledicting the groups depicted therein. Get a load of these:
· Asians: "Year of the Dragon"
· Blacks: "Birth of the Nation"
· Gays: "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"
· Jews: "Merchant of Venice"
· Mormons: "Big Love"
· Muslims: "True Lies"
· Native Americans: "Pocahontas II"
· Nearsighted: "Mr. Magoo"
· Wolves: "White Fang"
Now that's crazy. The most striking example to me is True Lies. If DVC was really the innocent little bit of fictional action fluff it claims to be, there would be no problem with a disclaimer of that sort. The fact of the matter is, for all their pretensions and posturing, the makers of this film are objectively hostile to bona fide Catholicism and to the image of the Church. These filmmakers and Hollywood in general are clearly not hostile to any of the above groups because they recognize the kind of sensitivity that all of them rightly warrant. They do not recognize that Catholics have a right to the same kind of sensitivity. In light of this double-standard, perhaps it would be appropriate to redub the movie, maybe something like, False Lies.
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