Cracking the Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: What a Letdown.
Review: Some of the reviews hit the nail on the head. There should be some nails banged into a coffin into which this dvd should go.
It was bad,bad,bad.
Do not even bother watching it.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and a good addition to the novel though lacking
Review: The popularity of Dan Brown's novel has opened the way to alternative views of Christianity for many people. For those unaware of the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of religious texts that varies widely depending on the particular author, depicting a different history and interpretation of the development of Christianity, this documentary introduces these perspectives and goes further, exploring the actual sources in which Dan Brown used in the writing of his novel.

The documentary touches upon the main points of the novel, and through interviews and various sources, reveals the facts, legends, hearsay, interpretations and numerous perspectives of the connection between Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, which orthodoxy has denied for two thousand years. There is no denying, however, that Mary Magdalene, revealed in the Gospel of Mary and numerous Gnostic Gospels contained within the Nag Hammadi collection, played a significant role in the birth of Christianity.

One of the more informed people interviewed in this documentary is the renowned Christian and Gnostic scholar, Dr, Stephen A. Hoeller, author of "Jung and the Lost Gospels" and "The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons of the Dead". Dr. Hoeller's knowledge of Gnosticism and the history of Christianity provide this documentary with a greater sense of credibility, as his numerous books and lectures have done for so many over many years.

My only criticism with this documentary is not so much its content, as it covers the many issues raised by the novel to some depth, but the documentary's overall production value. In some cases, it seemed to be shot with a cheap video camera by an amateur photographer, untrained or unaware of basic photographic techniques. On the other hand, parts of the film were done quite well, leaving an overall impression of unevenness.

Dan Brown's novel opened a wide audience to a world of Christianity beyond the orthodox. This documentary opens the reader to the actual sources of the issues and themes the novel raises, enabling the curious and seeker, to push further in their investigation, to attain a greater knowledge of Christianity as a whole. In this respect, "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" is a significant contribution to the novel and a relative success in its own right.







Rating:
Summary: Dissapointment
Review: This DVD is extremely cheap looking. You can tell Simon Cox just wanted to cash in on the Da Vinci craze at the moment. There are several scenes where the sound drops out, or someones voice is out of sync with their mouth! The shots are all amature and from bad angles. At one point someone moves in their chair, and then all we can see is their shoulder! Aside from all this, the actual doco is just plain boring! It doesnt shed any new light on anything from the book, and the people they interview are dull and ramble on for too long. Also the supposed "interview" with author Dan Brown, is just a clip of him talking at a writers convention, for all of 30 seconds! Avoid!

Rating:
Summary: Criminal
Review: This is the worst documentary I have ever seen. It is so bad on so many levels I don't know where to begin. Minor stuff. Terrible audio, music too loud, very annoying transitions, the video motion backs are a complete rip-off from the Matrix. On to more serious stuff. Repetitive, rambling, it's seldom clear what point is being made, poorly edited. How could they make such an exciting subject so boring? Most seriously of all, it's misleading. "Featuring Dan Brown" is an outright lie. Dan Brown would never have anything to do with this embarrassing piece of work.

Simon Cox, you should be ashamed of yourself. But you are probably sitting somewhere with a big grin on your face rubbing your hands together like so many of the parasites creating a sleazy cloud around this great piece of fiction.