# Golden Compass release thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793 "2007-12-04T17:33:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/81 "2008-01-07T16:17:43Z")
I saw it this week too. The visuals were very appealing and kept me interested throughout the movie. I haven’t read the books, but it was clear how rushed the movie was; it was the exact same with the Harry Potter movies. Coulter was just confusing. I couldn’t figure out her motives at all. And although they make the point very clearly that what a person feels their daemon feels and vice versa, in the scene where she slaps her daemon across the face there is no indication she felt it. Yet when the window slammed on the monkey’s hand during Lyra’s escape earlier Coulter clearly stopped to hold her hand in pain. Does this mean a person can hurt their daemon without feeling it, it’s not really her daemon (presuming the lack of pain is the giveaway), the director forgot to include that reaction, or something else? The movie did have faults as everyone here expressed already, but I went in expecting a visual treat and wasn’t disappointed. And yeah, I’m interested in reading the books now too. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/82 "2008-01-07T16:51:04Z")
About Mrs. Coulter: I thought that was to get across how messed up and controlling she is- if part of her psyche disagrees with her, or has doubts, she’ll beat it into submission. She’s abusing herself rather than lose control. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/83 "2008-01-07T17:02:12Z")
I saw it recently mesel and found it a big disappointment for most of the reasons already listed - the actress who played Lyra was the only real positive, she nailed that role. Casting Ian McKellen’s voice as the bear was just laughable, almost wilful in its misinterpretation of the character. Iorek is meant to be a savage, inhuman beast; SirIan makes him sound like the ageing queen of the polar bears. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/84 "2008-01-07T23:09:11Z")
Interesting article about the making of the movie in the December edition of the Atlantic: [How Hollywood Saved God](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/religious-movies). Basic thrust of the article is that the studio was just too afraid of the themes of the book to make a faithful adaptation. They were looking for a generic fantasy franchise that would draw people in, but didn’t want Pullman’s atheism, since they didn’t think atheism has broad appeal. As a result, the hard-core fans of the books aren’t happy with the movie. However, since that theme is such an important part of the Pullman’s creation, watering it down does major damage to the coherence of the movie, as several posters have commented, so the average movie-goer who’s not familiar with the books don’t find the movie very satisfying. Part of the article involves an interview with Pullman about the movie. He sounds like an interesting fellow to have a chat with, and also sounds like he’s not at all happy with the adaptation’s lack of fidelity to his books, but won’t say so: > [@](#): > > Still, the studio publicist seemed nervous when she heard I was going to visit him. **All things being equal, Pullman told me, New Line would prefer he were, well, the _late_ author of The Golden Compass. Dead? “Yes! Absolutely!” If something happened to him, there “would be expressions of the most heartfelt regrets, yet privately they would be saying, ‘Thank God.’”** > > … > > In discussing the film, he chose his words carefully, acknowledging that his role now is to be “sensible” so that the next two films get made. Nonetheless, **he was honest about what was missing: “They do know where to put the theology,” he said, “and that’s off the film.”** > > Long silence. Then, “I think if everything that is made explicit in the book or everything that is implied clearly in the book or everything that can be understood by a close reading of the book were present in the film, they’d have the biggest hit they’ve ever had in their lives. If they allowed the religious meaning of the book to be fully explicit, it would be a huge hit. Suddenly, they’d have letters of appreciation from people who felt this but never dared say it. They would be the heroes of liberal thought, of freedom of thought … And it would be the greatest pity if that didn’t happen. > > “I didn’t put that very well. What I mean is that I want this film to succeed in every possible way. And what I don’t want to do, you see, is talk the other two films out of existence. So I’ll stop there.” It sounds like the studio’s jitters over the atheism theme also caused them to reject Stoppard’s script. Minor nitpick to this earlier comment: [QUOTE=Captain Lance Murdoch] The brilliant playwright Tom Stoppard volunteered a script for this film. I can only imagine what that film might have been like. Instead we got the American Pie director’s take on it which was pretty much a slash and burn, though not all of it was his fault. [/QUOTE] The Atlantic article indicates that the studio originally commissioned Stoppard to write the first script, and suggests that the Stoppard draft was more faithful to the story, but the studio was spooked by it and sat on the script for a year or so. It was Weitz who volunteered an outline, and the studio chose his version over Stoppard’s script, because he tried to finesse the atheism issue. > [@](#): > > Weitz had believed that his (safe) take on Pullman’s theology—the Magisterium represents an oppressive theocracy or a totalitarian state, not religion in general—was widely shared. He hadn’t quite realized that the loudest part of Pullman’s fan base regarded that interpretation as a cop-out. These fans were committed to the broader interpretation of the villain’s identity as God himself. Weitz’s approach to the issue probably explains this comment: > [@Steve MB](#): > > I’ve seen one reviewer note that the movie’s subtext felt more like old-time Protestant anti-Catholicism than an attack on religion generally. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/85 "2008-01-08T04:16:42Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] I saw it this week too. The visuals were very appealing and kept me interested throughout the movie. I haven’t read the books, but it was clear how rushed the movie was; it was the exact same with the Harry Potter movies. Coulter was just confusing. I couldn’t figure out her motives at all. And although they make the point very clearly that what a person feels their daemon feels and vice versa, in the scene where she slaps her daemon across the face there is no indication she felt it. Yet when the window slammed on the monkey’s hand during Lyra’s escape earlier Coulter clearly stopped to hold her hand in pain. Does this mean a person can hurt their daemon without feeling it, it’s not really her daemon (presuming the lack of pain is the giveaway), the director forgot to include that reaction, or something else? The movie did have faults as everyone here expressed already, but I went in expecting a visual treat and wasn’t disappointed. And yeah, I’m interested in reading the books now too. [/QUOTE] Well, when that happened, I thought the lingering shot of her face showed a red hand print forming slowly, which I thought was a good touch. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/86 "2008-01-10T06:25:14Z")
Don’t let anyone ever get away with calling **The Golden Compass** a “bomb.” It’s a certified hit. Anyone who says otherwise needs to be smacked. We may well get the sequels. From [Variety](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978540.html?categoryId=19&cs=1) > [@](#): > > Combined worldwide take for “Compass,” handled internationally by a variety of distribs, is now at **$298.5 million** , with the foreign take contributing a stunning 78% of that figure. New Line sold off foreign rights to help finance the pic, which carries a reported $180 million pricetag. That’s $298.5 million and still going strong overseas. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793/87 "2008-01-10T06:56:41Z")
Finally saw it today. Good stuff- the steampunk angle, Kidman’s gold lame’ form-fitting dress, Eva Green, a Chris Lee cameo, Dakota’s performance, AND A NEW KATE BUSH SONG. Negatives- it was quite rushed & could confuse anyone not familiar with the material. And the atheism subtext could quite easily be tossed in favor of a Manichean one- The Authority (the term being used in the film without a hint that it means “God”) being the false Demiurge of Matter and Authoritarianism, with Dust being the manifestaton of the True God of Light and Liberty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-compass-release-thread/428793.md?page=4)