c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Hollywood loves a good argument.

You’re not supposed to talk about sex, race or politics in polite American society. Yet the movies’ first blockbuster _ D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” _ did all three in 1915. And although it was immediately met by protests by the NAACP, it went on to become an enormous hit.

Yet even while moviemakers continued to tweak American sensibilities, there was one taboo they tried to respect. Religion might be treated in the movies, but it would not be mocked, and no creed would be doubted. Even popular entertainments rushed to bring in religious advisers whenever issues of faith were involved.

It’s rarely been enough.

Even films made with the best intentions have run into trouble when tackling spiritual subjects. Kevin Smith, a regular churchgoer, bristled whenever people referred to the religious aspects of “Dogma” as “mythology.” Moustapha Akkad, a Muslim, devoutly hoped that “Mohammed, Messenger of God” would bring the story of Islam to millions.

Yet even these believers found their own films about religion were attacked _ often most strongly by the very audiences they had expected to reach.

The latest controversy, of course, surrounds the new “The Da Vinci Code,” which portrays the Roman Catholic Church as a hotbed of conspiracy and turns on a plot twist long condemned as heresy. The film has already been criticized, sight unseen, by Christian clergy of every denomination. What this will mean for the box office of a film that director Ron Howard claims is just “a spy thriller” remains to be seen.

Still, given the reaction that the films below engendered, it might not be a bad idea for multiplexes to post an extra security guard or two this weekend, if only to prepare for the crowds. And to keep the angry picketers _ and avid ticketbuyers _ safely separated.

“The King of Kings” (1927)

Cecil B. DeMille’s great biblical epic took his usual textual liberties _ including making Mary Magdalene a wealthy woman imperiously commanding “Harness my zebras!” (When a Jesuit scholar tried pointing out some of the mistakes, DeMille told him to go to hell. “I already have a reservation elsewhere,” the priest coolly replied.) Ultimately the film was censored in some states, nearly banned in England and declared anti-Semitic by B’nai B’rith. It played for years.

“The Sign of the Cross” (1932)

Supposedly a story of the early Christian martyrs, this was really an excuse for DeMille to stick a naked Claudette Colbert in a bath of asses’ milk and pile on the sex and sadism (“Ah,” as Charles Laughton’s Nero observes, “the food, the wine, the delicious debauchery!”) Although the film was originally shown uncut _ including a scene which implied rape-by-gorilla _ its excesses helped bring in the Production Code, and a later re-release was heavily censored.

“Mohammed, Messenger of God” (1976)

Like any reverent retelling of Islam’s birth, this movie consulted clerics and faithfully honored the prohibition of not showing its main character. Yet the film, eventually retitled “The Message,” was still banned in several Muslim countries, and pulled from U.S. theaters after bomb threats. Ironically, its director, Moustapha Akkad _ a mogul who saw his film as a chance to promote understanding _ was killed this year in the terrorist bombing of a Jordanian hotel.

“Monty Python’s Life of Brian” (1979)

An absurdist farce about a “very naughty boy” who is mistaken for a messiah, this film is a mockery of some Christians, rather than of Christ (as the Pythons later claimed, they weren’t blasphemers, just heretics). Nonetheless, it was still protested in America, and banned in Ireland, Italy and, surprisingly, Norway. It was re-released in 2004 and its “crucifixion song” _ “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” _ is now featured nightly in Broadway’s “Spamalot.”

“The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988)

A boy who once dreamed of being a priest, Martin Scorsese was drawn to this imaginative story of Jesus’ tribulations, and labored for years to bring it to the screen. The fact that the novel it was based on had been condemned by the Catholic Church should have warned him there would be protests and picketers. But who would have expected that the film would be banned in some Catholic countries, and a Parisian theater showing it would be bombed?

“Priest” (1994)

After years of parochial-school scandals, movies about clerical corruption _ including such horrific exposes as “The Magdalene Sisters” _ are now commonplace. At the time, however, this story about a gay priest had to lose seven minutes before its U.S. release. When, with typical thumb-in-your-eye provocation, Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax then opened the film on Good Friday, the protests became personal _ something this slow film never managed.

“Dogma” (1999)

Kevin Smith admitted he expected criticism for his metaphysical comedy about murderous angels. He expected it, however, to come from longtime fans of his stoner, secular farces. Instead, it was the religious right that screamed, leaving the film to be dropped by one distributor, and angrily protested when it finally reached theaters. Once, a deadpan Smith even joined the picket line, but the reaction was no joke; the young director also received several death threats.

“The Passion of the Christ” (2004)

A devout and conservative Catholic, Mel Gibson committed his own money to bringing this living Stations of the Cross to the screen. Yet its violence upset even some Christians, and the Anti-Defamation League said it dangerously blamed Jesus’ death on the Jews, rather than on the Romans who hammered in the nails. The film, an enormous American hit, did poorly in Europe. It was, however, a smash in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

Here’s what some film critics from around the country thought of “The Da Vinci Code”:

“An oppressively talky film that isn’t exactly dull, but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material.”

_ Todd McCarthy, Variety

“Even at two and a half hours, director Ron Howard’s adaptation feels cursory and rushed.”

_ Christy Lemire, Associated Press

“The film is faithful enough, but it’s hard to imagine it making many converts.”

_ Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“Ron Howard doesn’t so much solve ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as preserve it under glass. It’s a bloodless best-seller adaptation, competent but uninspiring, rather like the vast bulk of Howard’s long filmography.”

_ Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel

“Even with Tom Hanks in an earnest, furrowed-brow performance, the film is emotionally cold. Even with solid action scenes and car chases, the film is largely pedestrian. And even with layers of plot unfolding every 10 minutes, the film plays like a Cliffs Notes adaptation, covering major points in a simplistic manner.”

_ Philip Wuntch, The Dallas Morning News

“’Da Vinci’ never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.”

_ Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter

“The words `hooey’ and `nonsense’ came out of Tom Hanks’ mouth last week in reference to `The Da Vinci Code’ _ the little movie he stars in, based on the little book with more than 60 million copies in print.

He should have added the word `snoozy.”’

_ Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Ron Howard’s splendid `The Da Vinci Code’ is the Holy Grail of summer blockbusters: a crackling, fast-moving thriller that’s every bit as brainy and irresistible as Dan Brown’s controversial bestseller.”

_ Lou Lumenick, The New York Post

“For what drives this film is not the sense of excitement that clearly motivated Brown when he realized he’d come up with a world-class premise, but a sense of responsibility. A need to guard the franchise at all costs has seeped into the very bones of this project, into everything from script to casting, and robbed it of the excitement that a willingness to consider creative risks might have given it.”

_ Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

“Dan Brown’s novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard’s movie is preposterously entertaining.”

_ Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

“`The Da Vinci Code’ is as slavishly faithful to its source as the first two Harry Potter pictures, which explains the film’s deadly, stop-and-start pace.”

_ Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald

“Watching `The Da Vinci Code’ creak and stutter its way to an anticlimax, you have to wonder what exactly the Catholic Church was so worried about. The movie is so plodding, ill-conceived and even silly, the only danger it really poses is inducing narcolepsy.”

_ Phoebe Flowers, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“I suspect the movie will be most popular with folks who have read the book, because they’ve already agreed to swallow an improbable plot that does not go down easily.”

_ Chris Hewitt, Knight Ridder Newspapers

KRE/JM END WHITTY

(Stephen Whitty is film critic for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)

Editors: See shorter related story, RNS-DAVINCI-HERESY. Both can be used as sidebars for `Da Vinci Code’ coverage. A version of this story is being transmitted by Newhouse News Service.

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