The movie is called Creation. Does it sound scary, yet? So it's about Charles Darwin. Big deal. It's a movie. People will be wearing period costumes and I am given to believe there may even be acting and scenes with angst and questions of faith and um....
Sigh. I've heard the reviews are quite good. But this is what the article says:
The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".
Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.
"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.
"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up...."
Somehow, this country has weathered Inherit the Wind, The Last Temptation of Christ, and two, count'em, two cinematic works based on the novels of that blasphemous popular author, Dan Brown. I really don't see why what looks like a well-made and balanced treatment of a scientist whose theory, explained over a hundred years ago, is taught in schools today and whose work is considered to be mainstream science, should cause anyone any agita.
Unless, of course, there are some religious leaders who are afraid of their flock being taught the controversy? (But that must be laughable, surely! Isn't their faith stronger stuff than that?) And naturally, they aren't worried that a fictionalized account would rehabilitate and humanize for creationists, the image of someone they've done their damnedest to portray as a godless, pseudo scientific cult leader? Pish, and tosh, even, for that matter--
It wouldn't be a problem at all for them, unless it was plausible, sympathetic, and true.
Oh yeah. That problem.
I think this problem, in practice, in this country, was best summed up by something I read today on HuffPo, by Frank Schaeffer (whose posts I pretty much read religiously--small pun, and whose Crazy For God I'm just now reading since it came out in paperback--very interesting read and I may get to a review of it). He wrote, appropos of the 9/12 marchers:
The fact of the matter is we now know what the experiment in raising children outside of the American mainstream means. It means that there's a whole subculture within American culture that mistrusts facts precisely because they are facts. They glory an alternative view of not just politics but of reality.
They frequent the creationist museum and look at dioramas of dinosaurs cavorting with humans. They believe that gay people choose to be gay just stick it to the rest of us and could change if they invite Jesus into their hearts. They believe that before you run for governor of Alaska, for instance, you should get a preacher specializing in "casting out the spirit of witchcraft" to anoint you so you can win against the demonic forces of secularism -- as was the case with Sarah Palin when she first ran for governor. They believe that the NRA was telling the truth when they claimed that Obama would "take away your guns" and so have loaded up with more guns and ammunition. They think the time has come to rise up and overthrow the government. And yes, most of them also believe that black people are inferior to whites, so to have a black man in the White House is itself "proof" of American's fall from grace.
We have a vocal minority of people in this country who are like this--maybe some of the creationists aren't racist and some of the racists aren't creationist, and maybe we could flesh out a Venn diagram to show where global warming denialism and New World Order-ism fall in. But there is an anti-intellectualism, and even an anti-factualism, which can be daunting. Addressing topics that set this group off can be a headache. Truly.
And yet, just because something can be headache doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, and yes, they are a minority--well, yeah, I know there have been polls that say something like half of the US is some kind of creationist, but no matter--
Controversy can sell tickets, and if a movie is good, word of mouth does a lot.
I'm totally getting it on Netflix, anyway.
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