Here is my (BECKY COPELAND) review of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, on which the movie The Golden Compass is based. The three books in the series are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. This review is intended to help you decide whether to see the movie, either by yourself or with children. I have not seen the movie, but I did read all three books with my son, who was an eighth grader at the time.
A parallel reality
The story takes place in a parallel reality similar to the real world, but with some major differences. There are different kinds of electrical appliances. Zeppelins are a major mode of transportation. Torture devices—which figure prominently in the plot, and are specifically used on children—are different too.
Do the books portray the church fairly?
Not in my opinion. A version of the Christian church figures prominently in the plot. It bears some resemblance to the church in our world, but it appears things went horribly wrong somewhere in the Middle Ages. This church is exceptionally corrupt, is run by evil people, does awful things and controls society in bad ways. If you have ever read a revisionist history scenario book (e.g. what if the South had won the Civil War, what if the Axis had won WWII), this is the way Pullman writes about the church.
In addition, the focus of the third book is an extended journey into Pullman's version of hell as well as a look at his idea of who God is. He portrays God as a doddering old fool who needs to be overthrown. Hell is a place where people are unjustly sent by this foolish “god” and his system. The heroes need to rescue them to make things right.
These portrayals of the church and God are deliberate and come out of Pullman’s own philosophy. On his website, http://www.philip-pullman.com/, Pullman explains:
His Dark Materials seems to be against organized religion. Do you believe in God?
I don't know whether there's a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away.
Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.
It is very important to understand that you will be bombarded with Pullman’s viewpoint throughout the trilogy. I liken it to reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Not only are you reading her novel, but you also are being exposed to her philosophy of objectivism, and you need to be very clear-eyed about this before you begin the story. The same is true of Pullman. You will be constantly exposed to his disdain for the church, so it is best to know that going in.
What about the story itself? Aside from the portrayal of the church, is it appropriate for children?
I would not recommend the books or the movie for children younger than seventh grade. It is very dark. Many parts are quite gruesome and nightmarish, especially the major plot device of what is gained by torturing children. This figures prominently in the first book, on which the movie is based. In the second and third books, the descriptions of how people’s souls get eaten, why people are sent to hell, and what hell is like are no fun either.
What did your son think?
Both Nick and I agreed we really didn't like the author or his vision of the world. Very early into the first book we suspected he was not a big church fan, so we googled the author’s web site and our suspicions were confirmed. Together we decided we would finish the books and see what developed. However, we felt free to comment on the writing and dissect the plotline as we went along. For us, this opened up a lot of places to talk about where Pullman had gone wrong in his understanding of the church, the role of religion, why the world wasn’t really like this, and so on. At the end of the third book we both said, "OK, now we know where this author is coming from, and we feel free to completely dismiss him and his ideas, and never read anything else by him." When we heard a movie was coming out a few months ago, we said, "Well that's one movie series we do not need to see." We felt this way both because the books were so unpleasant, and because we'd had enough of Pullman’s perspective.
Should children see the movie? Should adults see the movie?
In my opinion, children younger than seventh grade should not see the movie because of its grim, nightmarish plot line. I also would recommend against older children seeing the movie unless they are well aware beforehand of its distorted vision of God and the church and they have an adult with whom they can debrief afterwards about the places the movie has made mistakes. This, of course, means that the adult must know enough about God and the church to credibly point out the errors in the film.
If you don’t have kids, I would just skip this movie unless you would like to educate yourself on its views. This could be useful if there are people in your life who are likely to question you about God and the church after seeing the film. Sometimes this happened with people who went to see The DaVinci Code; if you feel the Lord calling you to this sort of ministry of defending the faith, then you should probably view the film. Otherwise take a pass.
Becky Copeland