This is the trailer for a major motion picture, Creation, which is premiering at the Toronto Fim Festival and is opening in Great Britain this Sunday. It is opening in the next week in almost every country in the world, except one.
This film is a biopic about the life of Charles Darwin starring Ralph Bellamy and Jennifer Connelly. In pre release reviews in England, the film is described as an even handed biography of Charles Darwin and the personal and moral struggle he experienced as he formulated his theory of Evolution. It has been hailed as one of the best pictures of 2009.
The film ahs already sparked a fierce debate on conservative websites and blogs in the one country it won't be released in, one country where only 39% of the population in a recent Gallup Poll admit to accepting the theory of Evolution as truth.
Well, the country is America, and while other reviews have lauded the film as even handed, presenting the theological imnplications and personal doubts of Darwin as he formulated his ideas, the film is being condemned in American reviews as glorifying a "mass murderer", a racist, a bigot, the father of Eugenics who enabled Adolph Hitler.
The uproar over the film in the Conservative Christian press and blogs is so vocal that no American distributor will touch the film and there are no plans to distribute in the USA.
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.
"It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules.
"Charles Darwin is, I suppose, the hero of the film. But we tried to make the film in a very even-handed way. Darwin wasn't saying 'kill all religion', he never said such a thing, but he is a totem for people."
No wonder conservatives believe liberals lack the courage of their convictions. We prove them right every other day.
5 comments:
Hello Microdot,
What a sad commentary on the lack of science fact knowledge and the education level on what is now the majority in the U.S. Darwin is being proven accurate everyday through DNA science. Yet there are too many that exercise religious stupidity over science fact.
One of the most interesting aspects of Darwin's life; and I think I mentioned this before, was his wife Emma. She was deeply religious and somehow they, Charles and Emma, remained open to one another's ideas. Darwin slowly became more agnostic with time, but his wife remained true to her faith. I think a more interesting movie, (granted, I haven't seen this one), would have been to explore Darwin's life through the lens of his religious wife.
Unrelated - here's a great link:
http://religions.pewforum.org/portraits
I saw a very good British Darwin bio here in France earlier this year. I don't remember the name, but it emphasized the differences between the couple in their convictions.
Thanks for the radiohead link, steve.
I will check ouit the pew forum link later...
Mr. Engineer, why does the religious right hold so much power? How can the effectively censor an intelligent movie by intimidation.
I know I have said it over and over again, but every once inb a while you have to re educate yourself as to what exacrtly is fascism and what are its techniques to control masses.
The religious right's power may have something to do with the fact that they still hold sway in DC. That bubble of encrusted slime. Check out this guy's blog, he follows those idiots and their links to power, esp Rev Moon (Washington Times and the Bush family ties) and the End of Times loons.
I've returned to the land of ignorance after a two-week seminar in Europe. The conclusion I reached was as I expected- religion and its attendant fanatics are choking the life out of America.
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