“So Dark the Con of Man”
The subject line is the first clue, I believe, from Dan Brown’s THE DA VINCI CODE, but it applies equally well to ANGELS & DEMONS, especially the cinematic version, which I saw this weekend. What a con job! The many disappointed reviews only tell part of it…
This is a little odd. After all, Ron Howard is a very talented filmmaker, and the director of APOLLO 13 certainly knows full well how to craft a film like this. With his proven track record, he can call on enough money and talent to deliver thrilling action sequences in spectacular settings with arcane explanations made sensible and effective by A-list actors.
O, if only he would use his tremendous gifts for good, instead of evil!
[SPOILER ALERT!]
Dan Brown’s thrillers, though, entertaining though they are, are essentially con jobs. And this movie buys in and even builds on the old switcheroo. Brown, for instance, vividly illustrates the conflict between faith and science by setting up the Illuminati as straw men, claiming the Church burned the lot of them in a “Purge” in the 1660s – while completely ignoring the actual burning of Giordano Bruno in 1600, which was the true pivotal point in history. That one burning in itself was sufficiently horrible to make Galileo rethink things when the crisis came. Nothing more was needed, and it could have been a very powerful cinematic moment.
Why falsify history when its so unnecessary? For the same reason the art is also subtly falsified in the movie. Director Howard has no more problem than Brown with changing masterpieces like Bernini’s The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa to speed the plot but there’s more to it than that. I think the point is to essentially render everything safely unbelievable, making it nothing more than an upscale safe summertime horror flick.
For instance, Brown claims, repeated in the movie, that Pius IX personally took a hammer and whacked the gonads on the statues in the Vatican. To make such an wild claim that 5 minutes research with Google deflates makes everything else suspect too. This is not at all coincidental, I think.
In any case, all here is driven in pursuit of the faith v. science theme. For instance, Howard even transforms the evil henchman from the ruthless Islamic assassin in the book into a tormented but greedy scientist, instead. The guy does still deliver the best line in the movie, warning the heroes, “Be careful – these are men of God.” But any such such zingers, and there are a few throughout, are remarkably gentle.
Howard even changes the ending slightly to make the crazed ultraconservative much more sympathetic. And funnily enough, the Vatican Secret Archives aren’t called by their full name, but just as the ho-hum “Archivo Vaticano,” all tarted up like some high-tech library or museum. Why make it look less scary in a thriller than it actually is? Same reason; make it less threatening. We’re just lucky he’s not ashamed to revel in other things, like the fabulous wealth of the place…
Here is where the real dark con comes in: in the book, the villain is motivated to his insane attempt at the end by discovering he was actually adopted by the late Pope because he was his bastard. No hint of that here, just misguided devotion to the Church. Yes, once again, the hidden agenda reveals that it is sex that is most dangerous to the institution, not science.
Mr. Howard could have chosen to make a real point out of that if he was interested in helping real reform, or even injecting a little bit of contemporary truth, but chose not to. ANGELS & DEMONS felt to me like he was paying off a debt. Perhaps THE DA VINCI CODE, with all its flaws, was actually too successful. It turned a lot of people on to the heretical notion that Jesus could’ve had a family. They could not take the risk of letting people think that the Catholic Church could be so fanatical as to risk blowing itself up rather than admit any unpleasant facts. So Opie kissed up and apologized just like Sheriff Andy taught him long ago.
During production, much was made of the Church’s unhappiness about the film. Hogwash! The Vatican could’ve prevented Howard from filming anywhere in Italy with one simple phone call, and I don’t mean to any government official, either. In any case, the Vatican is not about to let anybody make a movie in the Sistine Chapel, anymore than Jerry Bruckheimer could use the real White House for one of his thrillers. Good publicity though, and all part of the con…
And indeed, Ronnie did a swell job. Like Robert Langdon, if he has not earned a papal award, he’ll at least have more cooperation the next big project he wants to do. The secrets of the Church have been demonstrated to be safe with him. I sincerely hope, then, that he never turns his attention to the clergy abuse crisis.
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