Spinning Conspiracies at the Movies

Written by: Natalie Mizrahi

Codes, conspiracies, secret societies. This according to the millions of avid readers who made Dan Brown's The Di Vinci Code a monumental bestseller, are the ingredients of an I -can't -put -it -down novel.

Touted as a religious film, The Di Vinci Code movie enjoyed the second largest global opening in history. Director Ron Howard attempted to translate a compelling and thought provoking novel into a white knuckled suspense flick. What he succeeded in doing instead was produce a film noir with historical flashbacks- many of which were historical conjectures at best. Passed off as fact, details like this are what make the book so controversial (read, free publicity). Outside of this similarity, the movie confused and bored viewers, even though it did star Tom Hanks. Truly, if one were living in a cave and did not read or hear bout the book beforehand, one would wonder what it all had to do with Leonardo Di Vinci at all.

Yet, The Di Vinci Code will beyond a shadow of a doubt prove itself a profitable franchise. That's because its true ingredients are irresistible and self perpetuating: Religion and Spin. The former is a hot button issue continually propelling the later. In this case, Catholicism is on the defensive. The story ignites debate on not just the religion's roots but its oppressive and suppressive conduct over the centuries. Conspiracies and secret societies are usually attributed to those who opposed the church, so this time it's interesting to see church leaders squirm from the opposite side of the aisle.

When the book came out religious leaders remained silent, undoubtedly wishing it would all go away.  But then it didn't. With the movie's advent there was no choice but to go on the defensive. Promotional campaigns, both in mainstream print and on the web sought to explain the benign nature of the story's antagonists: Opes Dei. They are not self flagellating fanatics, they say. Supposedly nor are the Templers, Free Masons, or Priory, who are all described in the book as secret societies hiding ancient treasures and secrets stolen from Jerusalem ages ago. The more the church tries to put out the fire, the more it looks like they are covering something up.

Can't the public discern the difference between fact and fiction, history and slander? The clergy might ask the Jewish Rabbinate for advice on how to squash an insidious rumor, but they unfortunately haven't had much success either. Negativity, it seems, has a long shelf life.

For proof in point, we can look to another recent film which deals with ancient religious topics. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first produced in 2004, and will be available on DVD for the first time this July. The documentary traces the tentacles of the nefarious book published a century ago in pre-communist Russia, promoted and distributed in the West by Henry Ford (yes that Henry Ford) and still selling in the present day. In short, the belief that there exists a worldwide Jewish cartel, is alive and well. According to neo-Nazi's living in mainstream America today, Jews caused every upheaval in human history, (the latest one being 9/11) and seek to destroy financial markets they can not control.

This, and not some far flung treasure hunt, is the stuff of horror films. The ramifications of this slander have proven deadly, and the hate spewed here is real. For generations Jews have gone the quiet route regarding The Protocols, as the film shows, it is not going away. The movie is a great attempt at debunking the myth, and revealing the hateful beliefs such lies generate.

The trick is to figure out a kind of spin that can generate as many viewers as The Da Vinci Code had. It would be one step in the direction of putting rumors and lies against the Jewish people and nation to rest. Now that is a religious movie!