Jesus, Mary &
DaVinci (ABC News) + Dan
Burstein’s Secrets Of Angels, Demons and Masons
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Programs: C+
Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code is such a hot
seller that the feature film version is finally on the way with a huge budget
and more than a few DVDs have come out trying to make some money on it. Here, we look at two different releases from
Koch Vision, one of which has the credibility of being from ABC News and featuring
interviews with Brown himself. Their
program is Jesus, Mary & DaVinci, while Dan Burstein’s Secrets Of
Angels, Demons and Masons is a rougher two-part program more willing to
talk of conspiracy, murder, censorship, secret societies, oppression of women
and the burning of books, like alternate gospels. It deals with Brown’s prequel Angels & Demons as well,
which the ABC show does not.
Part of the problem simply is the obsession of so many to
push only the King James version of The Holy Bible, when there are so many
others that are as legitimate. This one
has been convenient in protecting corrupt big money, keeping an unspoken cast
system in place with its tale of a King who gives up all his wealth for his
faith (for reasons that are too complicated and problematic to go into here)
and sooner or later, that monotony is going to give way to something.
Unlike The Last Temptation Of Christ (book and
film), which reverses everything considered the standard history and asks one
if they would still have faith in the most important aspect of all of
Christianity (that Christ died for “all of our sins”) that is the main point,
the book that has inspired programs like this in saying something in the
middle. Mary Magdalene was not a
prostitute, married Jesus and had a child, or that she was a favored apostle,
and many other ideas that would be considered “sacrilegious” or something like
it. Obviously, if the traditionalists
are so convinced, they should not be fazed by any of this, while those who are
either are sincere believers or highjackers of Christianity who have very dark
ulterior motives.
Honestly, I could care less and think it is a waste of
energy except to challenge extremists.
The real faithful should just ignore it. Oddly, the program and the speculation thereof I was most
reminded of was from the documentary Hidden Fuhrer (reviewed elsewhere
on this site) which asked if Hitler was Gay.
Its evidence was not very strong either, but more convincing than
anything presented here. Unlike Jesus,
Hitler was a genocidal maniac and Gayness is incidental and unsurprising
considering who Hitler had killed.
Unlike Hitler, anything about Jesus is so far back, that only scholars
will ever know and it is too late in some sense. In both cases, the original assumptions deserve to the challenged
respectively and it is only the beginning in both cases.
The 1.33 X 1 image on both and all their extras are NTSC
analog videotape and passable at best, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is
simple stereo at best. Each has extras,
with a piece on Mary Magdalene from ABC News as an extra on their disc and
trailer, behind the scenes, and three featurettes on the Burstein disc. Of course, even if solid facts and evidence
were turned up that this even had some validity, the Extreme Right will shoot
it down. This is not the last we have
heard of this speculation and as they find more problems in holding on to power
as you read this, they are getting ready for the onslaught the film version and
further book sales will hold. That the
book is a huge hit should give you an idea of how sick and tired people are of
dogma, so any challenges are welcome, like these and similar DVDs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
