Tom Hanks: Angels & Demons is “fast and loose with an awful lot of facts”
Most of the controversy in Dan Brown’s book and movie, The Da Vinci Code, was due to Brown’s insistence that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” That false claim, printed under the heading “FACT” at the beginning of the book, has been refuted many times over. If Brown had simply promoted the book as being purely fiction, or clarified the many mistakes and misrepresentations in the book, a lot of the controversy would have been avoided.
Angels & Demons, actually written and published in book form before The Da Vinci Code, will be released in theaters May 15. The book similarly contains a FACT page. Contra author Dan Brown, here’s what film star Tom Hanks (who plays the main character Robert Langdon) had to say about the movie:
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In Angels & Demons, Hanks reprises the role of Harvard “symbologist” Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s best-selling book.
In the long awaited sequel, an ancient secret brotherhood threatens to blow up the Vatican with antimatter stolen from Cern (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research), which houses the Large Hadron Collider.
“We play fast and loose with an awful lot of fact, but a trickle of authenticity makes it plausible. It’s not important, but it’s fun,” he told the Radio Times. (The Telegraph)
Unfortunately, many unquestioningly accept what these pseudo-historical stories say as being factual, especially if they have an axe to grind against the church.
Have you read Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code? What do you think our response should be to them?
Tags: angels & demons, da vinci code, Dan Brown, darren hewer, Experience, Men, Movies, tom hanks, Women
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My experience, regardless of whether something is fact or fiction, is that humans will decide what they want to believe as it suits their needs at that time. Some say the Bible is fact, some say it is fiction. This argument isn’t important to me at this time in my life. What is important is the positive changes that happen in a person’s life because they are exposed to the Bible. The argument to be right, and by default make someone else wrong, is less important to me than the message to love the other person, take the good and pray for the bad to be changed at God’s will. There is a line in the movie that says: ” I did not ask if you believe what man says about God, I asked if you believe in God.” Right and wrong (to own slaves or not), Fact and fiction (the Earth is flat or not), will always be subject to change. The one constant to focus on is God and his never ending love. It is ultimately the only fact that matters. As for what your response should be to them… This statement alone shows that you have created a false enemy by dividing us and them. I would hope that your response would be thanking God’s sons and daughters of differing opinions for joining you in a conversation about the supreme creator, thus opening windows and doors for people who might not hear the message any other way. To start this conversation as a debate puts up walls of defense, perhaps this can just be a conversation that jumps forth from points of agreement and brings solidarity to the Bible’s message of loving and caring for each other.