Saturday 19 September 2009

Creation: The Darwin Story

According to the philosophy, yin and yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole. If you have the good, then you have to put up with the bad which is why, i presume, we have to suffer Celine Dion.
This philosophy is particularly true in cinema where there have been an equal amount of great films balanced by some that stank out the place.
It seems that one movie we are about to have foisted upon us is Creation, the life of Charles Darwin, a film which the blurb describes as being about a man who loses his faith in God.
The film has been sold to distributors in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia however US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which they think will prove hugely divisive and have declined to show it.
I say good for them because as much as Darwin wrote probably the most influential and ground breaking book ever, the film sounds a turkey.
There isn't much you can do with a man whose highlights involved spending five years on a boat, watching some wildlife and then spending the rest of his life writing up his findings and hiding from the ire of the Church.
Even Hollywood, who have no qualms about rewriting history to satisfy its audience, would be hard pushed to make the life of Darwin watchable.
Possibly they could throw in a few scrapes with sharks (Jaws), killer whales (Orca) and whirlpools (Jason and the Argonauts) in the sailing portion of the film and have him chased by spear throwing natives on the islands (Indiana Jones) and run out of town by torch bearing religionists (Frankenstein) when he gets back home.
Alternatively, it could be 90 minutes of a man being sick over the side of a boat, a few shots of him looking at plants and then sitting at a desk writing.
Gripping and it's not even going to annoy the nutty religio's because they won't be able to see it.
If the Yin Yang thing is still working, we must be due a brilliant film soon after.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lucy, this article almost verges on heresy! I'll pray for you.

We Americans haven't got closed minds. We love God and we don't want heathen influences reaching our shores. Darwin was the Devil, pure and simple, and he has led a lot of good Americans astray, may God be praised and pass the ammunition.

Obama has taken his place and the country will go to wrack and ruin until Republicans gain control again and let the unregulated markets rip, hallelujah!

Must close. I have to shoot a moose. It's in my vegetable garden!

Palin.S.

Falling on a bruise said...

Hve a peek over at Russia as you are out there, see what they are up to.

Cody Bones said...

Lucy, PLEASE don't think Hollywood has some sort of political agenda one way or another. If the film was any good, or had a snowballs chance in hell of making a cent, they would buy it. I myself lean towards the Action/Comedy arena my self, and am still chuckling over "Stepbrothers" and there masterful cinematic use of "Hulk hands"

Falling on a bruise said...

I do have a gripe about Hollywood rewriting history, sometimes to make a better story and sometimes to make it more palatable to its home audience, but in this case i think it was just going to be a rubbish film so the US distributors did you all a favour. I intend to go out of my way to ignore it.

Cheezy said...

I agree with Cody that the film biz is all about what'll sell. I'm guessing that the top execs at Miramax didn't agree with all of the allegations and insinuations in 'Farenheit 9-11', however that didn't stop them identifying it as the surefire money-maker it was, and distributing it through all the usual channels...

As far as the quality of the flick goes, I'm not sure if this particular movie will be any good, but I think it would at least be possible to make a gripping film about Darwin's life... particularly one centred around the 20 (or so) years at Down House, when he agonised over whether or not he should present his ideas to the public, and was only moved to do so by the fact that Alfred Wallace was moving in to steal his thunder...

I remember 'Lifestory' was pretty good, the film about Crick & Watson discovering the structure of DNA... Hopefully this will be as good.

Falling on a bruise said...

Apparently they are concentrating on the part where his young daughter dies and he has a crisis of faith.
I agree though that if the distributors thought they could make money from it, they would snap it up. They obviously don't because either the religious factor or it just sounds a very dull film.