HollywoodJesus.com: Pop Culture From A Spiritual Point Of View
Hollywood Jesus News 12/02/07
In This Issue
The Golden Compass
Other New Movies
DVDS, Music, Games
Previous News
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The Dark Corner: A Philip Pullman Resource Center at Hollywood JesusThe Golden Compass
Preview by Tom Price

Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives in Jordan College, a fictional college of the University of Oxford in a universe parallel to our own. Yet it is a world that contains witches and armored ice bears, and in which every human is linked to a "dæmon." This dæmon takes the form of an animal which expresses a characteristic of the human's conscience or soul; this expression changes during childhood but becomes fixed in adulthood.

In The Golden Compass, the new film from New Line Cinema based on the first book in the award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy by the British novelist Philip Pullman, 12-year-old Lyra saves the life of her uncle and guardian, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). She soon is given a "Golden Compass," or alethiometer, which enables those who understand its complex array of 36 symbols to know truth and glimpse the future. Lord Asriel makes a discovery that threatens the established order and opens gateways to new worlds through magical particles, known as Dust. But only when Lyra's friend Roger turns up missing does she try to understand rumors about the Gobblers, who are said to be snatching missing children.

The Golden Compass introduces a world of discovery with aeronauts, nomadic sailors, and an adventurous child whose penchant for storytelling and deceit earns her the nickname Silvertongue. But as questions arise about whether Lyra is a child foretold in ancient prophecy, Lyra must judge for herself, with the help of her dæmon, Pantalaimon or "Pan," which of the adults around her are good, virtuous, and trustworthy. As a worldwide "Magisterium" seeks to control all religious thought in a universe that never experienced a Reformation, the stakes go beyond the frame of her own world.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence, The Golden Compass opens Friday, Dec. 7, in the United States. The trilogy, published in 1995, was selected by judges of the Carnegie Medal as one of the 10 most important children's novels of the past 70 years and placed in reader polls in the United Kingdom as third to The Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice.

Visit The Dark Corner: A Philip Pullman Resource Center for links to resources around the web, from interviews to commentaries, from critiques to praise, from forums to books!  Also see the articles already published at Hollywood Jesus:
Movie Reviews This Week

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Life Through One Eyelid
Darrel Manson | 11/30/07 | Movies
At the age of 43, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that left him totally paralyzed except for his left eyelid. This is a film that celebrates the human spirit and the value of life-even a life that seems diminished beyond hope.

Starting Out in the Evening
Lives in Search of Meaning
Darrel Manson | 11/29/07 | Movies
Starting Out in the Evening is more than another story about a writer with writer's block. This is a story that delves into issues of relationship, trust, compromise, freedom, and mortality. It goes to the heart of every life.

Hitman
Doing What is Necessary
Rob Rolfingsmeyer | 11/27/07 | Movies
One line in the movie did actually stick out. In a speech delivered by one of the villains he says, "Should we do what is necessary, what is hard, to save what we love?" Too often, we think about answering yes before we realize how hard it may be.

I'm Not There
Being Born Again and Again and Again
Darrel Manson | 11/25/07 | Movies
I'm Not There is a biography, but not a biography. It uses many of Dylan's works, portrays many events in his life, and much of the dialogue is from things Dylan said, but technically, there is no Bob Dylan in this movie.
New DVD, Music, and Game Reviews

The Namesake
A Stranger in Your Own Country
CoachZ | 11/27/07 | Movies, On DVD
I took two 2-week trips with my white classmates to Chile and Brazil then Japan and Thailand. They only had to feel that discomfort for 4 weeks, but they got a great taste of it! I believe all of us feel something very similar.

Relient K
Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer
Punk Rock Christmas
Jacob Sahms | 11/30/07 | Music
Surprisingly, the album starts off pretty straightforward, a mellow departure for Relient K. I fully expected Matt Theissen and company to tear it up from the very start (I own their previous Christmas outing.) But they kept it pretty tame, luring you in and then, BAM!

Moses Mayfield
The Inside
Album Of The Year?
Jacob Sahms | 11/28/07 | Music
I had the pleasure of hearing Moses Mayfield about a year ago at the Norva, in Norfolk VA, on the tour with Switchfoot. It took me entirely too long to get my hands on their album, The Inside, but it's one that I found worth the wait.

Plumb
Blink
Sweet Melancholy
Jacob Sahms | 11/27/07 | Music
Plumb shares some of her thoughts on motherhood, and shows her thoughtfulness and continuing growth. Plumb is "real life" and sweet music. Not a bad combination.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
Competing For The Prize
Yo | 11/28/07 | Games
Mario and Sonic compete for Olympic gold in a fun and physically exhausting game, and as they do so, they remind of the prize we can all race for in life; one that's worthy of our pursuit and will last for all eternity.

Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero III
A Champion Is Crowned
Stevo | 11/26/07 | Games
After countless hours of guitar playing, and touring the world/underworld I can say I am a fake rockstar. I can also clearly give a winner in the battle of the bands. Guitar Hero had a month advantage on Rock Band, but as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
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