Hey, I recognize that

Hey, I recognize that

So I'm spending my Sunday afternoon arguing with Mother Nature about the building African thunderstorms and my need to get clothes out on the lines to dry. I lose and it begins to pour down in tsunami-like quantities. Oh well.

So, we have around here in the project house all manner of movies obtained locally - which is to say that certain regulations aren't well maintained and thus there are a number as of yet unreleased flims...so I decide to relax the storm away watching "The Golden Compass."

I know, I know, I've criticized the book and the author and have refused to spend my money on it...but perhaps I should at least give it a chance, right? In the spirit of "tolerance and free inquiry" which, I'm told by the film, the Magisterium (i.e. the Church) does all that it can to stifle. But whatever, the Magisterium is a Roman Catholic term...I've no need to concern myself too much, right?

So I suffer through about 45 minutes of the film's preaching - yes, yes I get it: church bad, institutions bad, authority bad, church will murder to keep grand religious conspiracy intact...heroes are so called "free-thinkers" and those who push boundaries, rebels, and free-spirits. Yawn.

There's no light handedness here...the message is as clear as a Jerry Falwell Sermon.

But then the films brings us "up north" and we are introduced to the local home of the evil magisterium...and gee doesn't it look familiar. Oh yeah...that's subtle alright. This is when I'd had enough...besides it'd stopped raining.