The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code:

In this treatment I will not mention the controversial facts of the book, nor am I going to mention any of the shocking theories of Dan Brown, the author of "The Da Vinci Code". I will not even talk about whether the facts are historically correct or not, as all of this was covered in many debates and treated several times elsewhere.Instead,my treatment will balance between the movie and the book, and whether the movie was successful in fleshing the book or not.

"The Da Vinci Code" is an adaptation for Dan Brown's best seller novel "The Da Vinci Code". Just like the novel, The movie-in it's first week showing in the movies-is number 49 in the Worldwide Box Office rating chart, the movie made $470,606,000,although it is banned in many countries. The Cannes Festival opened with this wonderful controversial movie. The stars of the movie are as great as the novel and the movie itself. Tom Hanks who played the leading role of Robert Langdon was nominated four times for the Academy Awards, and two times winner. Audrey Tautou winner of best young actress award in the ninth Jeune Comedian de Cinema Festival in 1998 and best new actress in Cezar Awards in 2000.She costarred with Tom Hanks and played the role of Sophie Neveu. Sir Ian Mckellen, who was knighted by the queen in 1990, the winner of several awards like the Oscars and Academy Awards. Both the movie and the novel caused a big buzz worldwide.

Since the movie is an adaptation of a novel, then we must be fair to mention the fact that the novel would be more interesting than the movie, as the movie has limited time-two hours and 20 minuites.Yet the movie can compensate for this limitation by dramatizing the plot with advanced graphics and sound.However, the movie failed in keeping pace with the novel, due to out of hands limitations. The movie was shot in the Louvre Museum in France, the filming of the movie was only permitted at night, as equipments were not permitted during the opening hours, the crew was not permitted to shine light on the Mona Lisa nor blood nor mysterious writings were permitted on the wooden floor of the museum. To be fair these limitations didn't stand in the face of the brilliant director Ron Howard, and by the help of advanced technology he was able to film these scenes in the Pinewood Studios outside London.

Yet the limitation of time had a great effect on delaying the movie from keeping up with the novel. The movie is hard to follow for most of those who didn't read the novel, alot of incidents were not dramatized in the movie. At the Louvre, while Langdon and Sophie were checking the Mona Lisa, this incident didn't go as smooth as it went in the movie In the novel, there was a guard who recognized Sophie, in chapter 30, he tried to reach to the DCPJ through his walkie-talkie while pointing the gun towards Sophie and Langdon, in the moment Sophie grabbed the "Madonna of The Rocks" in front of her, so that he will not be able to shoot her and to obey her as well. May be this scene wasn't included in the movie because of the limitations in the Louvre,as they would never allow a Da Vinci painting to be used like that.

Another incident was when Langdon and Sir Leigh Teabing were explaining to Sophie everything behind, the Grail's story ,in chapter 61,Where Langdon is telling her about all the implied messages in art, like the Da Vinci's paintings, the works of Walt Disney like "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Little Mermaid", Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame". All these works that celebrate and glorify the Holy Grail. This incident Would have clarified more about the Grail to those who didn't read the book. In the movie they only discussed the idea of the Holy Grail through Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper". There are many other incidents that if mentioned would have made it easier for those who didn't read the novel to follow the movie.

Yet Ron Howard was brilliant in tackling the most sensitive issue in Christianity. In the best scene in the movie, when Langdon and Sir Leigh Teabing were telling Sophie about the Divinity of Jesus, this was dramatized as a heated debate between both of them, to express how sticky and controversial the divinity of Jesus is-it is from the basics of Christianity, that no one should even doubt.

Finally, it's advisable to read the novel first before watching the movie, to enjoy every incident taking place, and have information about the roots of every single point and event. The movie, due to the mentioned limitations, only tackled the main important points in the plot of the novel, that only work on portraying the message and the theme of the novel in the simplest form, which made it hard for those who didn't read the novel to follow. For those who read the novel the movie is of a great success and serves as an excellent summary that will help the readers to live every moment of the novel.