Very very good adaptation of a book that INCITES TO THINK BY YOURSELF about the History written by the winners

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2006)

The DaVinci Code movie contains the most important points of a book that is extremely engaging but, also rich in ideas and raw historical data. And to respond right away to the critics of the History here told, I just remind them what the famous historian Will Durant stated, more or less that History is 10% facts and 90% prejudice (prejudice of the particular historian). Do an experiment on your own try to attend a potentially historical event, such as an important public protest (it is important that the event you attend is not micromanaged, so there is opportunity of spontaneous behavior from the people attending), and then afterward read newspapers or watch TV or listen to radio about that event you attended, making sure you get different sources, and then you will get an idea first hand of the distortion of history, not just of the history of 100 or 1000 years ago, but from the history of yesterday and of last week.
The movie hints to the reasons there are many flavors or variations of History, of an idea, or of an ideal ( such as a religion has orthodox, ultra orthodox, different kind of protestants branches, liberals, etc ) One of the main reasons is that most people tend modify everything to their own convenience, both consciously and unconsciously; and then there are the manipulators who manage to get to control over an idea or religion or activist group, for their own benefit deceiving anyone willing to be deceived and anyone unable to see the deception, into what they want them to believe. Some people understand that deceptions/distortions happened in the past in the Soviet Union and other countries, and maybe even understand that it happened in this country, but few less see it to contine happening in the present in other countries and in this country. What most people do not understand or do not want to understand is that deception and manipulation for power, money, and all other self-serving reasons happens and can happen any place, any time, for as long as any person has any power without supervision. People, in general, do not check thinks up by themselves. And people do not want to realize that every single act we do we do it for ourselves, and that we can not avoid this even if we want to.
This movie by Ron Howard does almost the best that can be expected considering the large number of important ideas implicit in the DaVinci Code book story. If Mr. Howard had tried to include more information, the movie would had been a heavy "forced down your throat" dissertation on history, the distortion of history by the winners, symbology, mythology, and some of what is known about the corruption and manipulation of ideals (ideals as those first expressed by religious and political icons such as Buddha, Jesus, Mohamed, and others, that later on have been used by the next wise guy as tools to become powerful and rich, as most of the winners of the internal dog fights AKA "chosen leaders" of modern religions and political parties in power are. The movie can not include, as the book does, how in the past politics & religion were mixed even more than today, as when popes had armies, and as when people were tortured and savagely killed by the Inquisition and other "self-righteous" and "I am doing it for your own good" movements. The movie just barely has time to touch some of this points, while remaining engaging entertaining. However, there is a chance some in the audience may actually start thinking something new, and this is what the church really fears. Because, that is why the church says the "first virtue" is faith. The church can not tolerate any real questioning otherwise its self-stated monopoly on Truth falls apart. So if you question you are committing "heresy" and automatically out; unless, of course, you have a very big group with you (read market), in which case the church may adapt to you (for example the changes in the official position about Galileo's ideas or about the inquisition, or the recent changes to try to include evolution under the name of "intelligent design"). Or at least it may create a branch to include you (and your market), if possible. An example of their effort to control their people's thinking is that of very orthodox Jewish people, who are told not read some newspapers, nor to watch the news on TV. They are told that their religious leaders will give them "the news which are important and pertinent to them" "to avoid the contamination of their minds" (read the opening to questioning of their minds). Another form of thought control, which is less severe, but more common are the school, religious and others. That is why teaching people to think for themselves is very important.
For those who may begin to question History as told by the winners there are many many books out there, including those about the "Dead Sea Scrolls" which contain some of the several gospels which did not make the cut of the editors of the Bible.
However, most people find those history books boring, and here is for me the main merit of the DaVinci Code movie and book; that because of being very entertaining it has caused some people, which otherwise would had never read or think about the innumerable distortions in History, to think for the first time about "unquestionable subjects." In this particular case about "the History" The Church does not want people to think about, and much less to question at all.