Got plans for May 19, the day that the movie The DaVinci Code is slated to open? If not, go to the movies. If so, then go to the movies sometime that weekend before May 21. Just don’t go to The DaVinci Code.
That’s the advice being given to Christians by Christians who know how Hollywood works and know the best way to get the bean-counters in Hollywood to listen:
"May 19th is the date the Da Vinci Code movie opens. A movie based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor.
"What can we as Christians do in response to the release of this movie? I’m going to offer you the usual choices — and a new one.
"Here are the usual suspects:
"A) We can ignore the movie.
"The problem with this option: The box office is a ballot box. The only people whose votes are counted are those who buy tickets. And the ballot box closes on the Sunday of opening weekend. If you stay home, you have lost your chance to make your vote heard. You have thrown your vote away, and from Hollywood’s point of view, you don’t count. By staying home, you do nothing to shape the decision-making process regarding what movies will make it to the big screen.
"B) We can protest.
"The problem with this option: It doesn’t work. Any publicity is good publicity. Protests not only fuel the box office, they make all Christians look like idiots. And again, protests and boycotts do nothing to help shape the decisions being made right now about what movies Hollywood will make in the next few years. (Or they convince Hollywood to make *more* movies that will provoke Christians to protest, which will drive the box office up.)
"C) We can discuss the movie. We can be rational and be ready with study guides and workshops and point-by-point refutations of the lies promulgated by the movie.
"The problem with this option: No one’s listening. They think they know what we’re going to say already. We’ll lose most of these discussions anyway, no matter how prepared we are, because the power of story always trumps the power of facts (why do you think Jesus taught in parables?!). And once again: rational discussion of history does nothing to affect Hollywood’s choices regarding what movies to make.
"But there’s a fourth choice.
"On May 19th, you should go to the movies.
"Just go to another movie.
"Save the date now. May 19th, or May 20th. No later than Sunday, May 21st — that’s the day the ballot box closes. You’ll get a vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.
"Use your vote. Don’t throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice. They won’t have a choice.
"The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let’s all go see it.
"Let’s rock the box office in a way no one expects — without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let’s show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.
"May 19th. Mark your calendars now: Over the Hedge‘s opening weekend. Buy a ticket.
"And spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all the Christians in your address book. Post it on your blogs. Talk about it to your churches. And let’s all go to the movies."
Spread the word. And go to the movies on May 19.
(Credit note: I received notice from an email forward originally sent by Barbara Nicolosi of Act One. The campaign was originally started by Quoth the Maven.)
This sounds suspicious. Suspiciously like an add campaign for “Over the Hedge.” By the way, Dreamworks, the studio putting out “Over the Hedge,” is officially called Dreamworks-SKG, as in Speilberg, Katzenberg and Geffen, three men who are hardly paragons of virtue. I must also disagree with the first choice we could take of ignoring the movie. It’s NOT like not voting if we don’t show up. If nobody buys a ticket to see “The Da Vinci Code,” the movie won’t make money and will be the flop it deserves to be. We don’t have to go see another movie to have “Da Vinci” fail. So don’t go see this piece of trash. And if you want to financially hurt those behind it, boycott Ron Howard films and DVDs. He has been known to be loose with the facts in previous movies anyway. Just Google Max Baer to see how Howard turned a true gentleman of a boxer into a monster in “Cinderella Man.”
But, if we go see a different movie the same weekend, it takes numbers away from DVC. Makes perfect sense to me.
Another choice….Go see the the Da Vinci Code and have a great time. Sure it’s nonsense…but fun. The Church will not fall because of it. I’m planning to see it.
BTW,don’t you realize by now that all this negative spouting just makes people “curiouser and curiouser”. It should be a blockbuster success.
I hadn’t heard of “Over the Hedge” before, but any movie that’s got (the voice of) William Shatner in it can’t be that bad! Also Bruce Willis and Steve Carell (and other people whose names I don’t recognize. But I’m not much of a movie goer).
I checked out the story line on the movie’s webpage overthehedgemovie.com and it sounds great – digs against suburbia, consumerism, and greed. And homeowner associations!
AMM, you miss the point. Movies that are blatantly anti-Catholic should not be endorsed by catholics. And as for ‘negative spouting, see points B and C. What this person is proposing is a very good idea. Pity none of the movies are something I want to see anyway.
I think most people will remain indifferent, however.
It is best for those doing this to go to the SAME other movie. And cartoon pulling in more $$$ than DVC will be big news. I know what my family is doing!
Let us not rule out the possibility that there will be a movie from the previous week that we can all converge on. Movies still occasionally have legs, and it would in fact be more embarrassing to be done out by a hold-over.
Well, Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible movie opens 2 weeks before DVC, but action films of that ilk tend to drop quickly nowadays, even if they are good.
FYI, ‘Poseidon’ (a remake of the 70s disaster film ‘The Poseidon Adventure’, natch) is the big film opening May 12th.
“I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)
Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.
Unfortunately, Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto, has been pushed back to August. Although it does not look like a family film, I really wanted to see it. Originally, it was slated for a week or two before DVC.
As far as the next Tom Cruise vehicle is concerned, forget it. I have had enough of Cruise for one life. That man gives me the jibblies…
Also, if we really wanted to be organized about this, we would deliberately visit the official DVC website by clicking on its link where ever we find it.
How would this help? Sony has to pay for those clicks as part of its advertising. This means their advertising budget gets sapped by people who have absolutely no intention of seeing the movie.
If we were the ones making money off of this, it would be called “click fraud” (as in, what Google was sued for). But seeing as we are not making money off of it, I think it would be safe to call it a kind of cyber-disobedience — but not even disobedient because clicking on a link is what the advertisers WANT you to do. That is what they were designed to do.
I think we should click away and lull Sony into a false sense of security over the popularity of the DVC. If this goes according to plan, the champagne corks they pop on opening night will be met with quite a hangover come Monday morning…
“”I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)
Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.”
Everything created by God is good but that doesn’t mean that we can’t deprave it. Plus what happened in the Fall. What do you think sin is?
Stubble said: Also, if we really wanted to be organized about this, we would deliberately visit the official DVC website by clicking on its link where ever we find it.
Probably just a matter of time before someone initiates a DOS (denial-of-service)attack on the DVC website.
As for our response, I posted my ideas on my blog, as well as in the combox for Jimmy’s post “The Shaming Has Begun”. Here’s some of the contents of my post.
I should probably add that a DOS attack on their website, being a form of vandalism, is also a morally unacceptable response.
Glad you posted on this, Michelle. I had noticed it over at Barbara Nicolosi’s blog and thought it wasn’t a bad idea.
My family will all be Over The Hedge on May 19th.
The kids have wanted to see it, anyhoo.
“Everything created by God is good but that doesn’t mean that we can’t deprave it.”
To deprave means to make bad, to corrupt. Why would “we” want to make bad what God made good? Sounds a little depraved, but no doubt enjoyable for some.
“Plus what happened in the Fall. What do you think sin is?”
Something you shouldn’t do.
The movie is good. Don’t make it out to be bad. Enjoy!
Nice sales pitch, Leonardo. I’ll remember to use it next time I’m persuading a friend to try some dope.
Woe to those who call good evil, and evil good.
The book is either bad fiction or grossly & wilfully inept non-fiction. It is poor writing, none the less.
The author has said it is fiction, which has him in hot water for stealing the idea for his fictional (not to say fanciful) history from others.
The book is bad… the movie can’t be good.
Go see Over the Hedge.
I’m with you Tim.
All, indeed, is clean to the clean, yet to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean.
“I should probably add that a DOS attack on their website, being a form of vandalism, is also a morally unacceptable response.”
If that were what I said, then you would be correct in your criticism. But what I wanted people to do was to show interest in the movie itself — not to bog down the server but to take revenue away from other ad campaigns AND lull Sony into a false sense of popularity with regards to the film.
It is not vandalism because its goal is not to cripple the web site (this would be counter-productive for our cause). (Not to mention the fact this is SONY; I think they have the IT manpower to handle high bandwidth.) Nor is it stealing or fraud because we are not trying to get rich nor are we trying to make anyone else rich.
This is using an inherently anti-Christian system against itself just like going to see another movie which is not explicitly Christian in an attempt to divert funds and numbers from DVC.
Sony already knows that not everyone who visits their site is going to see their movie. This is why they set up a special web site with “dissenting” opinions to temper those numbers. They know those numbers cannot be trusted absolutely. My idea is for them to never want to trust those numbers again (at least until they learn to stop trying to make blasphemy an art form).
Of course, there are tertiary effects to consider as well. High numbers on their website may be a form of free publicity in itself. However, this is may or may not pan out to be the best form of publicity because it is not as visceral as say, evening news shots of angry protesters. It is arguable that the free publicity from all the hits will be a necessary side effect that will only heighten the shock of low turnout.
It is difficult to think through all the possibilities at this point seeing as this has never been tried before.
There may be some valid criticisms which reveal this to be a truly Bad Idea, but yours, Jamie, just is not one of them.
“I think we should click away and lull Sony into a false sense of security over the popularity of the DVC.”
The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception. A truthful witness does not deceive.
Can you believe the scripture-quoting from these people in support of a blatantly anti-Christian and anti-scripture movie?
Y’all fond of the inerrant and infallible Word of God?
The moon-bats will be out in force in support of this hogwash.
The code of the Illumi-naughty; Hey, if it’s entertaining me, what can it hurt? Follow Christ, as long as it doesn’t become inconvenient or stand in the way of anything you want…
Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.
Therefore, it is the duty of all and sundry to receive this boycott-and-go-elsewhere with gratitude.
All, indeed, is clean to the clean, yet to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean.
Yes, to the defiled and unbelieving, this proposal is unclean, like everything else, but to the clean, it is clean.
0:)
The servants came to him and said, “Sir, there are weeds growing in your field!”
“An enemy did this,” he replied.
The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
Stubble,
I was not criticisizing your idea. I was putting a caveat to my own statement:
Probably just a matter of time before someone initiates a DOS (denial-of-service)attack on the DVC website.
when I said:
I should probably add that a DOS attack on their website, being a form of vandalism, is also a morally unacceptable response.
Please do not take it to mean that individual clicks amount to vandalism or destruction of property. Actually, I do not think that your idea is a bad one – I was just saying that someone else might think “well, an easier way to get a high number of individual clicks would be to write a bot to do it,” and then it progresses downhill from there.
I’m glad you also mentioned, “its goal is not to cripple the web site (this would be counter-productive for our cause).” This is absolutely true, and was my point as well.
Sorry for the confusion – maybe I should have made my own post a little more clear. At any rate, no matter what other options are exercised (and I’m sure there are more than I have mentioned here), prayer and sacrifice must always be exercised, both as a reaction, as well as when determining what course of reaction to take. Our goal, as Christians, is not the salvation of the culture – our goal is the salvation of souls. The culture will follow the state of the people’s souls. Let us pray and sacrifice for our souls and the souls of those that make popular culture.
God bless.
Going to another movie the same weekend proves to Hollywood that you were able to make it to a film that weekend, but you chose to spend the money on something other than DVC. If you don’t go to the movies at all, Hollywood can only assume that you were not able to make it to the movies, did not have the money, or do not like going to the movies that much, in which case they don’t care what you do with your money, because DVC couldn’t have gotten it anyway. Going to a movie that weekend proves that A) You had the weekend free, B) You had the money to spend, and C) You did want to see a movie- all of the things that make you a customer, and thus make your opinion count. Heck, even if you don’t want to see anything else, buy a movie ticket for some other movie and leave before the previews end.
Jamie, apology accepted. I guess I should have read your post more carefully. So I am sorry too.
On another note, would video RENTALS count at all?
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I can’t believe that people are making such a fuss over this. THE DA VINCI CODE WAS JUST A NOVEL! If you people continue to freak out, all you are going to do is convince people to go and see the movie, JUST IN SPITE OF YOU. THE BOOK IS NOT SAYING THAT IT IS TRUE, IN FACT IT SAYS IT IS F I C T I O N. If it was meant for people to study zealously, there would be a brand new religion emerging called “Dan Brownism” I’m not criticizing the fact that you people want to do something about it, what i am criticizing is that you fail to accept that the book and movie are just that, books and movies. Chose to not go to that movie all you want, but that will not do a thing about it, you may get some news coverage, but again, all that will do is inspire people to see it. I’m sorry about the harsh tone of this, but i am doing a research paper on the controversies of the novel, and when i came upon this site, after reading on many others, i got a little upset. Again, i appologize, but it’s what i think. Ms. Betty.
I would feel like a hypocrite since I read the “Left Behind” series, which at least has a bit of truth (albeit anti-Catholic)…after all there WILL be an anti-Christ at some point, Jesus WILL come again.
What will happen when DVC comes on Pay-Per-View? What will happen when it finally makes it way to cable in a couple of years?
Adults-Why not watch “United 93” about real people who gave their lives to fight the REAL enemy.
Ms. Betty,
You stated: “If it was meant for people to study zealously, there would be a brand new religion emerging called ‘Dan Brownism’.”
Unfortunately, there is a very old heresy called Gnosticism. I personally know people who have been swayed by it’s claims and novels/movies such as “Davinci” don’t help! In fact, “Davinci” may have contributed to their fall from the Church (“The Davinci Code” seems to be a very Gnostic-sounding work). OK, so Dan Brown says his book is a work of fiction. But, doesn’t he also claim some of it to be based on fact? The problem is, he twists facts horribly! And what about the movie trailers? I saw one myself which claimed the movie would reveal “the Truth”! Whose truth??
Anyway, we want to see the movie “Over the Hedge” tomorrow. As Dano stated below: “Going to another movie the same weekend proves to Hollywood that you were able to make it to a film that weekend, but you chose to spend the money on something other than DVC.”
No “Davinci” for our family.. Our Lord is too precious to support a film..or book.. which has as it’s main aim, the blasphemy of Our Lord and His Church.