Monday, May 29, 2006

How Dan Brown Stole THE DA VINCI CODE

Click here to read the whole letter to the editor.

"Upon seeing The Da Vinci Code this weekend, I can finally empathize with all the protesters I saw in front of the theater. My objection to the movie isn’t rooted in religious beliefs or even moral disagreements, but rather the disrespectful mockery of the world’s oldest and most famous story. Star Wars is both a literary and cinematic treasure, and Dan Brown’s recent atrocity is nothing more than blatant plagiarism of Lucas’ timeless creation.

The likeness goes far past incidental similarities and can be more aptly described as a rip-off. For starters, look at the characters. The Da Vinci Code features a faceless antagonist referred to as “teacher,” much like the part of the emperor in Star Wars. This 'teacher' controls the actions of the Bishop Aringarosa (Darth Vader) as well as Silas (Darth Maul); both of which are sith-like pawns in his ultimate plan to find the Holy Grail.

7 comments:

James Lincoln Warren said...

So what?

Lucas got his story from reading Joseph Campbell in the first place.

You can't plagiarize a plot.

Flip Dixon said...

Thanks. I was kind of wondering when the gratuitious Da Vinci Code bashing was going to start.

Unknown said...

I should have titled the post "Gratuitous Da Vinci Code Bashing."

Joan Reeves said...

Ever since the Da Vinci Code saw the light of day, I've been racking my brain trying to recall the title of a mystery I read back in the late 60's I think. Premise was an expert was called in to authenticate some ancient writings that had been found. The writings said that Jesus did not die but lived and married Mary Magdalene and had children. The document was fake and the key to discrediting it lay in a fragmentary writing that had been carved from a thick papyrus and used for practice. The expert fitted the fragment onto the purported history like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Does anyone else remember this mystery?

Unknown said...

Could this have been The Q Document? It was by Robert Duncan under a pen name, James Hall Roberts maybe.

Carl V. Anderson said...

That was great, loved the letter, cracked me up!

Jayme Lynn Blaschke said...

Glad to see I'm not the only one to pick up a Star Wars vibe in the film. Every time they started squawking about her training being incomplete, I wanted to shout "The Force is strong in you, Sophie, but you are not a Jedi yet!"