Has anyone seen it? What'd you think?

I just finished reading the book (originally published Northern Lights), first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. I quite enjoyed it. Most of what I've heard about the movie is negative, sadly; unsurprisingly.

Anyone else read the books?

hey guys, let's prove we can have a good conversation.  i bet we can all get a lot out of it.

i saw the movie and i enjoyed it.  in fact, i'm pretty sure i liked this movie better than the lion, witch, and wardrobe.  i have to ask, does anyone know (maybe you pudd, since you've actually read the books) in specifics how the book's themes could be interpreted as going against the idea of God.

there is a group of people in the movie who i could possibly see as the church, but they much more resembled the catholic church.  if there was a "God figure" I did not find it.  I found the theme of the movie to be thinking for yourself and looking for the truth.  which to me reflects what what we should do.

what do you guys think?

I can't believe I missed that other thread. I searched the forum for a bunch of things and turned up nothing on the The Golden Compass. That's wierd. Sorry for the double post. So let's try and be mature here. We managed to get a thread locked about CS Lewis, if any of you recall that.

Noah, glad you liked the movie, I'm hoping to see it this week. As to your question, I read an article in Christianity Today about the series and Phillip Pullman, and it says the second and especially third books are quite "in-your-face" in their anti-Christian themes. The first book, having read it... not so much. Perhaps it is conditioning me to blindly believe and agree with the 2nd and 3rd books, but I'd hope I'm more mature than that

Regarding the spirituality, and anti-Christian, etc. I just kindof feel like, so what? So what in the sense of, is this anything new? There are plenty of books that are anti-Christian, and for that matter there are plenty of churches and many Christians whose behavior is anti-Christian, if you were to take Jesus's life as your example. So, I don't think there's any precedent here. Asimov was an athiest, Herbert was an athiest and I've heard some say they felt Dune was anti-religion in the same breath as saying they enjoyed it regardless.

Carey, that link you posted to the New Yorker is quite interesting. Especially where Phillip talks about stories teaching you your morals and not needing scripture. I don't agree that you don't need scripture, but I heard a great sermon from Mars Hill about the importance of stories teaching you your morals... and why Jesus always spoke in parables and stories, cause they don't need explaining. The characters and events of stories and their outcomes show you what's right and wrong.

Having read the first book, I don't see anything wrong with it from that perspective. It's about bravery, courage, overcoming impossible odds, standing up for your friends. Good stuff

BUT. If you don't want to read the books, please don't! If you think this is dangerous stuff, and with good conscious feel the need to warn people of it, that's fine. Go ahead      I'm not trying to force anything on you, please, that's not me. I'm simply interested to share my enjoyment in what I found to be a pleasant piece of fiction

Yes. We've been doing that. Rule 7:


That one started out by taking an attack position against the film and started it off as a spiritual debate that didn't fit the scope of this site. Keep this one away from that and it won't get locked.

And I pray to Father God that you are, thepudd.


I never consciously noticed that. I tried watching the movie once, when it was TV and lost interest up to the point with the water of the spice-worm or whatever it was called. I think my main motivation to watch it was because I saw that Patrick Stewart was in it, only to find out that he had what seemed like just a few minutes of screentime and even less speaking roles. "I had a [very] bad feeling about this" movie; now I think I know why.


I didn't notice by the opening post because I hadn't clicked the link. :\

I think that rule might better read as:


*Or "Dictator" as I've heard this forum called a "Dictatorship" on more than one occasion (whether it be benign or malignant).

I also have the hardest time finding exactly where these "rules" are. When I first joined this forum, a link to the rules [of that era] could be found conveniently at the top of every page. Now I can't seem to find them except as one piece at a time for when they are explicitly enforced.

Regardless of that, in hindsight, I liked the Tf Forums better when we had multiple Moderators and Moderation With Representation.

we do have multiple moderators and dave can post a list of them or you can go under members and find them that way.

i know of brandon and cindy and i think there are others