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Canada - Sr Marie Paul Curley

The Search for Secrets Doesn’t Always Lead to the Truth
A Christian Commentary on The Da Vinci Code Film

As a film, The Da Vinci Code has many strongly crafted elements, reams of suspense, and a few truly enjoyable moments, but it falls short of a film’s primary purpose: to tell a compelling story effectively.

Those familiar with the novel know that the film’s basic storyline revolves around Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon (played by Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks), who are unsuspectingly drawn into a conspiracy to uncover or protect a series of clues hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci’s artwork. The clues lead to secret evidence that calls into question the "true" roots of Christianity, and is so devastating that fanatics on both sides are willing to murder to destroy or protect it. Neveu and Langdon, joined by Sir Leigh Teabing (played by Ian McKellen), are constantly on the run from fanatics and police. In between chase scenes, they speculate and search for evidence to prove absurdly ridiculous theories that question Jesus’ divinity and propose that Jesus married Mary Magdalen, conceived a child with her, and intended her to lead the Church.

With all the pre-release hype and the amazing reach of the best-selling novel, it is not surprising that box office receipts have been strong. Some filmgoers seem to accept that the novel was a difficult adaptation, resulting in a good-but-not-great film that is still worth seeing. Since the film’s release, the lack of coverage in the media here has been welcome - finally allowing the story, at least as adapted to film, to stand on its own without the hype. The result? The film seriously lacks in logic, in resonance with authentic Christianity, in connecting the audience with its characters, and in historical evidence and accuracy. The ultimate "conspiracy" movie with the obsession for seeking the truth has, ultimately, played its own conspiracy on its audience: The Da Vinci Code gives us a great deal of false information about the history of Christianity and draws its own sensationalist conclusions.

The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction and certainly cannot be expected to portray religion with theological precision, nor to reflect a faith that the writer does not have. But like every other story, The Da Vinci Code has a premise - an underlying "message" - whether consciously put there or not.

In the west, we are used to many of our narratives having underlying messages or values that are profoundly Christian, even when the films themselves include graphic violence. These underlying values make good stories: the small overcoming the powerful, the loving self-sacrifice of a hero’s life to save the people, etc. The Da Vinci Code, while "talking" a lot about history, the Church and Christianity, has none of these Christian values. On the contrary, the film promotes specifically non-Christian attitudes.

Casting doubt on the history of Christian belief about Jesus’ divinity is clearly a non-Christian bias, since there is abundant historical proof that from the very beginning, Christians believed Jesus is divine. (The film completely ignores the question of the Resurrection, the defining moment for Christianity’s beginnings of faith.) Jesus’ divinity is a matter of faith, not logic, and is not the question here. But the film, like the novel, "pretends" that there is evidence that hundreds of years after Christ, a real historical figure, Constantine, suddenly and arbitrarily decided to claim that Jesus is divine. There is no historical research whatsoever to support this false claim.

The overwhelmingly negative view of the Church (the community of believers who take seriously Jesus’ command to love one another) is also antithetical to Christianity. Discrediting the Church as an institution is very appealing to a culture grown disillusioned with authority. But The Da Vinci Code presents the Church and church-approved organizations such as Opus Dei as deceptive places where murderous, conspiratorial fanatics can feel at home. The film does not show even one devout Christian who is against the use of violence.

The film’s tagline is "Seek the Truth." That’s what the suspense and the well-edited chase scenes are supposed to be all about. But actually the tagline is quite misleading. The Da Vinci Code is not about finding the truth. Instead, it’s about a search for "secret" knowledge only for the privileged few. The idea that "secret knowledge" is the ultimate power that leads to happiness is terribly non-Christian. Christianity is inclusive: Jesus wants all to come to salvation. In The Da Vinci Code’s gnostic view of reality, only the privileged few have access to the truth. In addition, in The Da Vinci Code, "truth" is remarkably individualistic and relativistic. Near the end of the film, Langdon tells Sophie about the lack of evidence proving their implausible theory: "The only thing that is important is what you believe." If that’s true, why the chase for the truth at all?

Supposedly, one of the biggest appeals of The Da Vinci Code is that it elevates the role of women. But the film actually reduces women to stereotypes and objects to be used—an attitude that is both non-Christian and troubling.

Mary Magdalen becomes important only because she was married to Jesus - so her marriage gives her a status (and a position of leadership) she doesn’t have on her own. Mary Magdalen is reduced from being the first to proclaim the news of Christ’s Resurrection (in the Gospel of John), to only a wife who’s had a child with Jesus. Disregarding the complete lack of historical proof of the marriage claim, the logical question becomes: if Jesus is not divine, how does her marriage to Jesus make her so special?

The "sacred feminine" is portrayed primarily as ritualistic sex, a practice that degrades women into merely sex objects - as a means to an end.

Sophie Neveu’s character is also problematic: for the most part she is passive, and when she isn’t, she slaps a bound and deluded prisoner. She is not sure what to do with her identity and heritage and, in the film, never articulates what she thinks and believes.

With its blatant non-Christian bias and its underlying non-Christian worldview, The Da Vinci Code phenomenon is a complex one for us to respond to as Christians. Many other articles offer helpful resources about the theological and historical issues so that we can respond to those who have questions or doubts or want to simply talk about it. To do that, we need to find in The Da Vinci Code its seed of hope, the beginning place for dialogue. What does the popularity of this story, whether in novel or film, tell us? The seeking of truth in The Da Vinci Code is what makes it more than "just a story." Seeking is a genuinely human stance that seems to resonate strongly with people today. The reality is that truth can transform our existence and can give us insight into the meaning of our lives. Seeking the truth can easily become a genuine openness to truth - what a great place for dialogue to begin!

The popularity of the novel and the film (critics’ opinions notwithstanding) tells us something else about our culture. The western world has recently produced not only The Da Vinci Code but a number of other films with profoundly non-Christian worldviews, films such as American Beauty and Love Actually. We cannot assume that even those who call themselves Christian (as Dan Brown does) are operating from a truly Christian worldview. For Catholic communicators and artists, The Da Vinci Code can contribute to the urgency we feel to communicate and to produce works of art that have a profoundly Christian message and worldview. (Not that we need to be heavy-handed as in The Da Vinci Code’s conspiratorial scenes.) The Da Vinci Code reminds us how desperately the world needs the Truth, and of our call as Catholic communicators to make the Truth compelling and accessible for people today through the stories we tell and the films we produce.

Sr. Marie Paul Curley is a Daughter of Saint Paul and a recent transplant to Canada. A former video producer, she currently ministers in the Pauline Books & Media Centre in Toronto, writes on Catholic spirituality, and is an aspiring screenwriter.

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