The Da Vinci Bomb

"Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure."

That's the Book Standard's less than charitable review of the Da Vinci Code movie. The headline says it all: "'Da Vinci' Devalued: Bloated, Wooden, Static—Not Even a Guilty Pleasure"

This may be the best line in the review:

One questionable "cinematic" addition to the film are flashbacks to ancient biblical and medieval historical tableaus in the Holy Land and Europe that illustrate Prof. Langdon's continuous lectures on religious history. These look as if some prankster spliced scenes from last year's Kingdom of Heaven into the film as a bad joke.


CNN reports that the film opened to "catcalls" -- so all the worry and calls for bans and outreach campaigns may be for naught.

Screenwriter Brian Godawa suggests that, instead of bebunking the Da Vinci Code, Chrisitans ought to learn from it, and tell better stories

He writes:


In today's postmodern world, and indeed throughout history, so-called "historical facts" do not usually persuade the masses, but the most convincing interpretation does. In other words, the culture is guided or controlled by whoever tells the best story.


In other words, as the Republicans figured out long ago, framing
beats facts hands down.