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atheism
May 2009 
~Movie Review: The Golden Compass
Posted on Dec 10th, 2007
by 
~C4Chaos
~C4Chaos
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
NOTE: If you haven't seen the movie (or read the book) yet, I suggest that you skip this review because as much as I had tried to avoid spoilers, some of my interpretations are still giveaways that might taint your experience of the film. Having said that, feel free to continue reading at your own peril :)
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - Official Trailer
I just saw the fantasy epic, The Golden Compass, yesterday. Prior to seeing it I've avoided reading movie reviews so as not to taint my own interpretation of the film. Since I haven't read Philip Pullman's novel upon which the movie was based, I came into the movie theater with a clean slate. The following is a quick movie review along with my interpretations of some of the metaphors used in the film.
The Golden Compass started off with a short visual narrative about the nature of the universe. If you don't pay attention to the opening scenes you'll miss the background story about parallel universes, the story of the dust, and why people have "daemons" in the form of talking animals.
In the Golden Compass, Lyra Belacqua (played by the adorable Dakota Blue Richards) is the hero (or heroine) -- a tomboy-ish girl who doesn't want to be told what to do. She is a free soul with a daemon that has not "settled in" yet (i.e. that's why her daemon keep changing forms). Her call to adventure begins when she witnessed a member of the Magisterium attempting to poison her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). From there she learns the story of the Dust, had a "chance" encounter with Maria Coulter (the lovely Nicole Kidman), and eventually discovered that she is the prophesized child, the only one who could read the alethiometer (aka The Golden Compass)--some kind of a divination tool similar to the I-Ching.
I'll stop spilling the beans of the plot here. I'll now switch to the metaphors used in the film.
The main theme of the film is very straightforward: free thinking vs. dogma and totalitarian authority. The presentation, the metaphors, the good acting, the cinematic effects, the philosophy, and the story-telling are what made a big difference on the effectiveness of this film to capture the attention of the audience. Like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter sagas, this movie has all the elements of a hero's journey.
In the parallel universe of The Golden Compass, science/technology and magic are fused into metaphysics. The Magisterium represents power and control of the metaphysical world view--religion (e.g. theocracy) and totalitarianism. The Authority represents God (or at least the mythical version of God). The Dust represents the "truth" (i.e. scientific world view). Lord Asriel represents the rational mind that wants to get to the truth regardless (or because) of its implications. And Lyra represents both the youthful rebellion of the curious mind and the ever-present access to gnosis--a mind free from established conceptions.
This film is a metaphor for psychological and cultural development. It tells a story of interior struggles (finding meaning, purpose--one's daemon in life), as well as the exterior clash of cultural world views (i.e. science vs. religion/dogma, democracy vs. totalitarianism, free will vs. destiny). With all the religion and science debates going on in the mainstream media, the timing of this film is just perfect. Since the film is targeted at teens and children (due to its fantasy epic theme), young minds are now indirectly involved in the science and religion debate because of the controversies generated by the film.
It's interesting to see how the controversies would play out in the media. But those who are calling for banning the books and the films don't stand a chance. They're better off heeding the advice from the Catholic News Service:
"Rather than banning the movie or books, parents might instead take the opportunity to talk through any thorny philosophical issues with their teens."
The Golden Compass is the first of His Dark Materials trilogy. It is comparable to The Chronicles of Narnia but it goes beyond the mythic religious theme. It has more depth due to the adult nature of its overall philosophical implications. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the saga.
In the meantime, I highly recommend that you see this film. Take your kids to this movie and give them the opportunity to be entertained and informed.
P.S. The daemon concept is very interesting. It reminded me of an animated series I watched in my teen years called, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, wherein each character has his own "animal" totem. After watching The Golden Compass I wondered what kind of animal would be my daemon if I live in Lyra's universe. My ego, my name, and horoscope tell me that I'm more compatible with a Lion. But my guess is that my daemon would be in the form of a Dogbert shapeshifting into Catbert depending on the situation ;)
Access: Public
I've read Philip Pullman's trilogy a couple of years ago. my husband brought 'The Golden Compass' back home from visiting his sister in the south of Germany - his teenage niece had lent it to him when he ran out of reading material. I got so hooked up into the first book that I got myself two and three at the library - impossible to get your hands on it now that the movie is out and everybody wants to read it (again). (I've tried!)
some movie reviews I read kept saying that the Golden Compass could be disappointing if you already knew the book, and I'd say, that's usually the case. one rare exception was 'The Lord of the Rings' - and even there, in that HUGE and genius adaption of the material, a lot of the details where missing - the movie probably would have had to be at least double as long to cover everything that has been dear to the real fans who'd read the books several times… (like me…)
anyway. good for you you saw the movie first, C! ;) the books are great. and Philip Pullman is an interesting guy to listen to. there's a very long interview with him as podcast on the CBC Radio page - Writers & Company. two parts, one hour each, I listened to about half of the first. of course Eleanor Wachtel, the host, asks him a lot of questions about his book after introducing him, and I found it great to listen to what he said about how the story occurred in his writing, how he had to wait for details to come up so it started feeling 'right' and making sense - to me it sounded very much like the intuitive writing process I'm into myself and that we support on the Diving Deeper Writing Workshop Pod. I don't think it's only interesting for writers, though, that's why I mention it here.
a dear zaadz friend directed me towards Writers and Company on CBC Radio. the podcasts are available for four weeks to listen to, the Philip Pullman interviews have been put out the last two weekends, so there is a lot of time to go and check them out.
great movie review, C, you really put a lot of love, thought and background information into this. oh, by the way, it's VERY interesting what Pullman says about the daemons - how the daemons reflect a facet of the personality, and that having a certain daemon doesn't say anything about the person's morals and ethics. that, let's say having a dog daemon, reflects a person's preference for serving and having someone tell them what to do - and that that's not in itself bad, that's just how it is… really worth listening for each who likes to dive a little deeper into His Dark Materials.
sending love, appreciating your work and the inspiration, C!
Gabriele
Gabriele said: “some movie reviews I read kept saying that the Golden Compass could be disappointing if you already knew the book, and I'd say, that's usually the case.”
exactly. as Chris D. @ Indistinct Union said on his review of The Golden Compass:
“A movie will never be a book. A novel peers into the back of the mind (The God’s Eye/Narrator’s View) of the character(s). A film, minus often pedantic flashbacks and voice-overs can not. Nor should it. Nor should it be criticized for something it can not do.
“Like the photo of the sports game, it is only meant to capture an image, a snapshot. It is a flat medium and therefore must emphasize the artistic dimension, the acting (facial, voice tone), the splicing of the director, the music, etc.
“Movies that are slavish attempts to re-create the books are both bad literature and worse, bad cinema. A movie is an interpretation loosely based on a book.”
as a lover of both movies and books, i couldn't agree with him more.thanks for the link to the Pullman interview. will check it out.
Philip Pullman's books are now on my reading list :)
~C
~C,
Good movie review. I read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy several years ago and enjoyed them immensely. I was a bit dissapointed in the movie. I guess I use Lord of the Rings movies as a benchmark and this movie wasn't as gigantic in scope, but I still think that it was good and worth seeing. The movie does capture the general mood of the book. It seems they tried to tone down the controversial aspects but the general theme was there which is challenge religious authority.
In all honesty, I remember while reading the Golden Compass that much of the religious spiritual stuff was pretty complicated and perhaps deep, and the severing the daemons part very scarey. I kept thinking that whis was all very sophisticated for a book that was placed in the young adult section. (Am I under-estimating that reader age group? Perhaps.)
My daughter and I often see movies then read the books or read the books and see the movies. We make it a discussion about how the two differ.
On the movie website there is a Meet Your Daemon game where you can take a test to see what your daemon would be. Mine is a Siberian tiger named Cleon. I wonder how I got such a bold one?
Hope you enjoy reading the books.
Thanks for putting so much effort into your posts. jw
Oh my… I also thought about the lion first… I loved the power modules used to “fuel” transport in the film. Reminded me of the “zero-point” generators, a glimpse into our own future perhaps?
IMHO, the main miss of the movie is music. As I left the cinema I had LoTR fellowship theme playing in my head. It's the music that really makes movies stand out. Hedwig's theme, Battle of the Heroes/Empire March, Back to the future theme, IMHO it's the tunes that make the masterpiece. And Golden Compass lacked its own “personal” tune. Otherwise - great movie.
~C4, may I post a link to this in zFilms pod? Ordinarily would suggest copy and paste your blog entry, but would love to have the comments too. Maybe can copy and paste the entire thing? Would like that even better than a link. Lookin' to make zFilms THE place to check for movie opinions.
Namaste, OM Bastet
OM Bastet,
feel free to copy the entire text of the blog on the zFlims pod. but i request that you also post the permalink of the blog so that people can follow the discussions in the comment section.
thanks!
~C
Jw said: “In all honesty, I remember while reading the Golden Compass that much of the religious spiritual stuff was pretty complicated and perhaps deep, and the severing the daemons part very scarey. I kept thinking that whis was all very sophisticated for a book that was placed in the young adult section. (Am I under-estimating that reader age group? Perhaps.)”
i haven't read the book so i can't make an informed opinion. however, we can probably compare this with the Harry Potter phenomenon. originally, i thought that the Harry Potter series was easy reading (for the kids). but when i read one of the books, i've realized that the reading level can challenge even the adults (at least me) :) so yeah, i think we might be underestimate the reader age group. although i think the philosophical concepts of His Dark Materials trilogy is more sophistaced than Harry Potter.
btw, thanks for the daemon link. meet my daemon :)
~C
~C, You hit the nail on the head with your remark about “easy reading.” In parts, the book wasn't easy reading.
And I like Zet's has a point about music.
jw