Sunday, September 13, 2009

Creationists Work to Keep a Movie about Darwin from Being Screened in the US

First, some people do their best to censor books in school and public libraries—and now they’re working to keep Creation, a movie about Darwin, from being screened in the United States.

I’m a reader of Jonathan Turley’s blog. Turley is a professor of law at George Washington University and a constitutional scholar. I found the following post on his blog today—Movie Selection of the Fittest: Creationists Block Internationally Acclaimed Movie on Darwin From Being Shown in U.S.

Turley writes in his post: The film has been the target of creationists, who remind distributors that only 39 percent of Americans believe in evolution. Jeremy Thomas, the producer of Creation, notes “[t]he film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it’s because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they’ve seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.”

You can read the rest of Turley’s post here.

CREATION: Darwin Movie Trailer


And from Telegraph.CO.UK, 11 Sept. 2009:
Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'

A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.

Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.

The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.
However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.




I find all this extremely troubling! How about you?

9 comments:

Tricia said...

Here's what bugs me. People can choose NOT to see a movie. For me, I avoid horror films and those with a load of violence. However, I don't deny those with an interest the right to see them.

The other thing that really bothers me is that movies like Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed find support and distributors.

It's too bad this won't find an audience in the U.S. This is exactly the kind of movie I would like to see.

Thanks for sharing this.

Elaine Magliaro said...

Tricia,

I hear you! I'm just hoping there will be an outcry--and that some distributor will have the courage to stand up to these close-minded religious fundamentalists who want to censor what everyone sees at the movies. I'm a science buff. I would love to see CREATION.

I'm so disturbed by the anti-intellectualism that is starting to overtake this country.

BTW, Turley talks about Ben Stein in his post.

No Brit said...

Everybody knows The Americans are another species the british HATE with an unbridled passion.

The british hate that The Americans are another species, so they're trying to make them look like... get this... religious people. HAHAHAHA The brits are such poor losers. They invented Afrocentrism to fool the Africans into building their Israel, but that didn't work. And they NEVER fooled The Americans from Day 0. Columbus couldn't even do that!!

The british are such dumb, poor and hateful religious losers and liars.

Rebecca said...

Or, there is John Scalzi's less paranoid, if not exactly complimentary to the US film industry, take on the matter.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/09/13/they-should-have-called-it-darwin-the-revengination/

Which to me has the ring of truth, but YYMV.

Elaine Magliaro said...

RJS,

Can you tell me what YYMV stands for? I'm not a texter.

Rebecca said...

"Your mileage may vary." Sorry! :)

Rebecca said...

It might have made more sense without my initial typo.....

Anonymous said...

I want to see Paul Bettany! I mean, the Darwin film! Also - is that statistic right? Or is it mildly deceptive - even if only 39% of us believe in evolution (go me - one more minority I didn't even know I was in!), does it mean the other 61% are creationists? I kind of think not, but I've been wrong before.

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