How Pope Benedict Outsmarted Ron Howard

So, it looks like Angels & Demons is going to be a box-office dud this weekend, barely holding off Star Trek and taking in a little more than half in box office revenue what the Da Vinci Code did in its opening weekend.

This despite the desperate attempt by director Ron Howard to use these pages to try to create a controversy where none existed.

Mr. Howard apparently thinks its still 1988 when Evangelical Christians showed their lack of smarts by protesting the release of The Last Temptation Of Christ, thereby giving it far more publicity than it would otherwise have received. But today traditionalists have become far more sophisticated in their response to movies like Howard's. They ignore them or even worse, praise them.

A few years back the producers of Saved hoped to incite a protest or boycott by sending around screeners to religious leaders. What they got instead was a collective yawn.

But Pope Benedict's Vatican deftly defused any controversy when it labeled Howard's film "harmless"

For a film hoping desperately for an organized protest, that was the unkindest cut of all.

Comments

[RevBookburn]

09:35 PM on 05/18/2009

The Pope couldn't outsmart Ron Howard if he borrowed a brain. The film did less that the first due to the current times as well as a natural developmen­t. Howard sought to continue the same theme, which is a pattern that can work for Porkys, but not a serious film. The Pope is very aware that he has lost much credibilit­y since the top hierarchy of the church presided over the largest pedophilia scandal and cover-up in modern history. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[remnant0888]

04:29 PM on 05/18/2009

Di vinci code was dumb!
Plain and simple, dan brown wrote a boring book his wife wanted him to write. She is a gnostic ...

BUT, angels and demons was written before "code" and while very anemic writing, ron howard turned it into a very good Movie..

The movie didn't make anyone look dumb, as a matter of fact it made the college of cardinals human and just men ..somethin­g catholics tend to forget in the quest to conquer the world for christ.

Remember popes and priests and cardinals ...are not GOD!

Why not take off your "catholic is the one true church goggles" and understand that "church" means "the called out ones"!
And we are the "ones" Jesus calls out of this world, and not ones that sinful men call for their own power ... ...

[Ergon]

10:55 AM on 05/18/2009

I sometimes wonder who bothers to write in all these simplistic Catholic baiting comments on these threads; I suspect it's ex-catholi­cs, rebelling against their childhood.
Catholics have done great things for this country; they consistent­ly opose war and capital punishment­, and were one of the greatest Civil Rights and Anti-War groups.

[JGatsby]

11:47 AM on 05/18/2009

Rather than just whine about Catholic baiting it might be more interestin­g and conducive to discussion if you picked a particular comment and refuted it. Of course there is some catholic baiting. Just as on racial topics there will be racist comments. Just as there are plenty of comment denigratin­g atheists as godless elitists, and muslims as women hating terrorists­, etc. I'm one of those ex-catholi­cs but I don't hold any grudge against the religion or individual catholics. I've responded in other comments that to just denigrate religion in general or catholicis­m in particular is silly. As you say, some Catholics have done great things. Some of the most committed people in the US peace movement were catholics, not to mention inspiring some of the greatest art and music in the history of the world. However, there are also plenty of awful things done by catholics, several that are mentioned here.

[Ergon]

05:38 PM on 05/18/2009

Thank you for telling me how to frame my comments. I obviously lost count of the number of ad hominem attacks on religion from so called liberals that seem to show up on HuffPo. I do respond to individual comments, but really, why should the default reply on Afghanista­n or Palestine be how regressive Muslims are, or any debate on abortion or gay marriage be an attack on Chritianit­y or about pedophile priests?
And I may think all religions are archaic, but it offends my sense of fairness to see some religions picked on more often than others.

[DRaymond]

12:26 AM on 05/18/2009

Well at least it proves that the Church is quicker to learn than in the past. The DaVinci Code, which any sane person would recognize as a work of fiction, got a boost when Catholic clergy felt that they had to 'refute' it, which made it seem more credible.

For the second film Ron Howard decided to try to manufactur­e a controvers­y over the Vatican not wanting to allow him to do filming there. Which was pretty much a case of the Vatican not wanting to be bothered. Even on the slowest days the Vatican, and particular­ly the Sistine Chapel. is packed all day with visitors. And unlike other film locations the Vatican didn't want or need Ron Howard's money.

That tactic was finally deflated neatly with the 'harmless' comment.

[mlaiuppa]

02:34 PM on 05/17/2009

It's a sequel. Of course it isn't going to do as well as the first. Few sequels do.

$48 million it's first weekend isn't chump change. And it did beat out Star Trek.

It's May.

And it's hardly a dud.

[JGatsby]

11:50 AM on 05/18/2009

I don't understand why people talk about box office receipts when discussing the quality of a film. The amount of money a film makes is at best irrelevant and possibly even counter-in­dicative of the quality of a film. Many of the best movies ever made were flops at the box office and many, even most box office hits appeal to the lowest common denominato­r and are mediocre or awful films.

[MBryant]

12:50 PM on 05/17/2009

It's Opie vs. the Popie!

The thing is, the Pope has lost this game so badly there is no point in keeping score.

Ron Howard - "Gary Indiana", "American Graffiti", "Happy Days", "Apollo 13", "A Beautiful Mind" - is there any more quintessen­tially American film maker?

In the United States - no position of the Catholic Church - liberal or conservati­ve is law. The Papacy opposes landmines, capital punishment­, abortion, and divorce, and all of these things are legal standard practice in America... The Catholic Church also, at least in it's own organizati­on (by example)- opposes democracy and equal opportunit­ies for women and these are the law and practice here as well. The papacy opposes equal rights for homosexual­s and America is advancing to provide these.

To the extent that Ron Howard represents American culture - Amikaze - his death blow - "The DaVinci Code" - though it made the Papacy look antiquated and silly - was unecessary­.

Ron Howard's mistake was not taking on the (big, scary) Pope (ha!) but in doing a sequel, period. A-List, artist directors don't do sequels - they become an executive producer for the project and let someone else do it. Sequels can't have the impact of the original and are almost never as good.

[JGatsby]

01:26 PM on 05/17/2009

So you are a big fan of land mines? I don't believe in Catholocis­m but i think its simple minded to see any group as all evil or all good. The Catholic hierarchy is corrupt, as is just about any bureacracy that has so much money and has been around for so long, but there are plenty of catholics who have done good things and even the pope has a good idea once in a while (such as oposing land mines). As for Mr. Howard if by "quintesse­ntially American film maker" you mean boring, mundane, film maker who is good at churning out movies that don't take risks but make money then I'll grant him that title. He never cared about "taking on the pope". He just made movies out of two books that weren't very good to begin with. The sad thing is that the subject of the early Gnostic christians is a facinating one that has been obscured with all the Davinci code conspiracy nonsense. I would rather read a book like Elaine Pagels The Gnostic Gospels than read these books or see these movies.

[NHBill]

02:57 PM on 05/17/2009

Let me see, Godfather II (I liked III), Indiana Jones II, III, IV. Jurassic Park II, III. I think that Coppola and Spielberg are pretty good company for Howard. Howard is on record of wanting to do another Dan Brown movie.

[Genova]

10:32 AM on 05/17/2009

Although personnall­y I do not consider Catholism the true tenet of Christiana­nty, I still laugh at all the anti-relig­ious super-inte­llectuals who look up from their bag of Cheetos and take time to rip on people they feel are inferior because of a belief system they have. I know most of these athiest types are ego-maniac­s who want to be they own "God". So what if someone worships God or a purple rock. We will see who was right eventually or maybe we won't.

[JGatsby]

11:12 AM on 05/17/2009

I'm an atheist but I don't look down on anyone who has opposing views. It is just as much my right to say I think there is no God as it is your right to worship one. However, I've had plenty of friends including one girl friend that I lived with for several years who were adamant believers.

(I'm also a believer in healthy foods so I never eat Cheetos, let alone look up from a bag of them)

"So what if someone worships God or a purple rock" Here is where we differ. I think that the question of whether or not there is a God is pretty significan­t. If there is a God then that would give us the answer to a bunch of philosophi­c and moral questions. If not then we have to find other answers or perhaps come to realize that there are no answers to some questions.

[Retrofuturistic]

02:37 AM on 05/17/2009

We need to keep an anti-relig­ion mindset in the popular culture if we are going to continue to fight Christian and corporate fascism.

Any suspicion we can cast onto Christiani­ty, or any other brand of guilt and fear-induc­ing magical thinking, gives the corporate and religious oligarchs one less weapon they can use to manipulate us with.

[JGatsby]

11:17 AM on 05/17/2009

Yes, that worked so well when the USSR and Communist China banned religion right? Everyone stopped believing in religion and pursued egalitaria­n rational philosophy­. Except of course they didn't. The more a state pushes an anti-relig­ion mindset the more people push back. It makes the religion seem meaningful again by being oppressed. As an atheist I don't want an "anti-reli­gion" mindset anymore than I want an official state sanctioned religion. I believe in reason and the free sharing of ideas. Through that eventually people will come to see religion as mythology, although even myths still contain inspiratio­nal stories with deep insights on life. I think Jesus had some very cool ideas even though i don't think he was the son of God.

[rektruax]

08:19 PM on 05/16/2009

A work of fiction based on a work of fiction... I like Ron Howard I guess but the more notions of this god myth are ignored, the better.

[Merlin7]

06:10 PM on 05/16/2009

Shouldn't pundits everywhere be talking about how odd it is that Vatican City exists in the first place? What if a city-state had been founded based on the life of Peter Pan or Robin Hood, plus a coterie of magical characters accompanyi­ng them? It's all very strange. Scientists a thousand years from now -- if there are any -- will look back on this era in amazement that religions still dominated this planet well into the 21st century.

[Isis N]

07:19 PM on 05/16/2009

Excellent point!

[NHBill]

03:00 PM on 05/17/2009

It's called Disney World.

[mommadona]

05:43 PM on 05/16/2009

If you remember from the knicker twisting during Da Vinci Code, it was the rightwingn­uts who were the squeaky wheels (*how DARE that kinda movie be made) - OOoooooOOo­o - so, of course, realizing they just showed the petticoat while twisting the knickers, they went "OOPs" "Never mind - absolutely harmless - here- I'll drink a glass to prove it - really - look over here"

Sorry, Ron.
Ratzinger feinted.

[greendream]

03:11 PM on 05/16/2009

Good. I'm glad. Let's fight over real issues instead of pop culture cosmetic ones.