Customer Reviews

Unlocking DaVinci's Code: Mystery or Conspiracy?

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you are a fan of Dan Brown and have read 'The Da Vinci Code' or 'Demons and Angels' then you will cxertainly enjoy this DVD.


This work deals primarily with the items of interest in the Dan Brown Book, the Teamplars, the Free Masons, The Society of Scion and that inevitable search for the 'Holy Grail' There is discussion of the painting of the Last Supper by Da Vinci and also the famous sketch of a man in a circle with outstreched arms explaining the mathematics of the human body so ingeniously discovered by Da Vinci, but, the DVD itslf doesn't deal with Da Vinci's works for more than maybe one quarter of the total film since it's more about the hidden messages and 'codes' rather than the works itself ....


Actually it's an intellectual discussion of the origins of the Bible as well for those of us that have not had the time to take those univerity electives such as Chrsitian Doctrine 101....


Patrick MacNee, an aged 'Mr. Steed', now where can Emma Peel be ... OK ... anyway Patrick MacNee narrates the DVD and as can be expected does a good job ....


I certainly enjoyed the DVD and it made me think and marvel about all those things I don't really know ..... Loved it!

...and I use the term in the broadest sense of the word. Not only is this thing (for I refuse to use the word documentary to describe it anymore)poorly crafted, but also poorly constructed and conceived.

(One star is too good for this debaucle of a film)

Here are the problems:

1.First, the most basic level...this film is not masterfully executed. The re-enactments are completely unrealistic. They are so bad, I couldn't concentrate on the film because I was laughing so hard at the bad wigs ect. In one scene, a 'Templar Knight' in a goofy wig was toying with the fakest sword I ever saw in my life while. Also, I think he forgot to take his watch off. Unless, Templars wore Wal-Mart watches...it's possible, I guess. Wal-Mart is everywhere. Oh and about 4 actors play 20 different characters. That's right, so the guy who plays the pope in one re-enactment scene also plays '3rd Templar from the right' and 'random old man in the background' in different scenes. The result: you can't tell who is who.

Another technical faux pas:
One of the interviews was conducted outside. No problem, right? Wrong. Because in the middle of it, birds begin to squawk and squeal so loudly, you can't hear the interview. Any other film maker would have re-done the interview. But apparently, not this one. Oh no!

2. "Experts"- First of all, I know more about this subject than some of the clowns trying to pass themselves off as experts on this film. And that's not saying much people. One of these faux intellectuals kept getting three different religious orders confused and therefore attributes histories and the like to the wrong groups. Best case scenario: he was a little confused. Worst case scenario: he doesn't know what he's talking about. So, I guess it's just as well that the birds kept talking over this guy. They probably know more about the Templars than he does.

3. There isn't a natural progression of topics in the film. It goes off on tangents without proper subject introduction and therefore doesn't flow well.

4. It provides a very sensationalist view of the topic. Few relevant texts are quoted (and when they are, they are poorly annotated). It relies too heavily on implication and too little on fact , causing a suspicious imbalance in the film's argument.

I recommend this to teachers who wish to show their students an example of how not to make a documentary.

Bottom line people: if you want to unlock the secrets of the Da Vinci Code, I suggest you read books on the subject instead of depending on bad film makers' pseudo intellectual efforts to indoctrinate you. Do some research and make up your own mind. But if you ARE too lazy to read, then I recommend the PBS documentary `From Jesus to Christ' as it employs a much more scholarly approach to exploring similar and related themes.

One star is generous. This "documentary" is intellectual and historical bunk. British accents do not create credibility in a film that has less than a late night infomercial. Don't waste the money. I've already wasted enough time (and I've yet to affix the merchandise return label).

Yes, there's a prerequisite. Read Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code" before this DVD.

If you have never read the book but only interested in Leonardo Da Vinci's secrets, you will have a hard time to follow this video. The DVD shows some interesting and unobvious things on couple Da Vinci's paintings like Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, but it does not provide more futher details. Instead, it jumps incoherently to different choppy topics like Vitruvian Man, Priory of Sion, Berebger Saunier, Rosslyn Chapel, and the New Testament, etc. If you read Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code", on the contrary, you will find the DVD quite informative because the topics discussed in the video are directly related to the subjects in the book. Too obvious, this DVD is a side product from the hype of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".

The total runtime of this DVD is about 60 mintues. No subtitle nor closed caption is provided. Here's the list of the scene index:
1. Patrick Macnee Intro
2. Renaissance Clues
3. Priory of Sion
4. The Templar Knights
5. The Cathars
6. The Holy Grail
7. Berenger Sauniere
8. The Rosslyn Chapel
9. Christianity Through The Years
10. The New Testament
11. Closing

*** Otto Yuen's DVD Special Rating for Unlocking Da Vinci's Code ***
1. Film Rewatchability: MEDIUM-HIGH
2. DVD Featurability: VERY WEAK
3. Picture Quality: GOOD
4. Sound Quality: GOOD

(Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 28-Dec-2004)

There was not enough actual information presented to satisfy my curiosity. Where can we get more information on this subject? This should have been included in the DVD, in my opinion. Gnosticism is a subject of interest that I felt should have been expanded on, or at least more information leading to further study of this subject of the lasted finds should have been presented. The graphics and pictorial presentations were well worth viewing the DVD. The sight mentioned at the end www.crystalent.com only contains names of other material, but not where to obtain them, so I searched amazon.com which lead to this comment. Give us more....

As the overly loud background music begins slightly, to fade out, the camera rests on a large jowled, older professor type of a man with a fake sounding English accent. This, the opening scene of Unlocking Da Vinci's Code, a "documentary" by Ventura studios, is the most realistic shot of the film. From bad reenactments to worse research, the film is unreliable and sadly, still on the shelves. Touted as a "behind the scenes" look at Da Vinci's artworks, the bust of a film plays off of the recent success of the novel The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. Spending only 15 minutes out of an hour long film discussing Da Vinci, the poorly plotted "exploratory" and "revolutionary" movie is a waste of space and worth no stars, on a five star rating.
The experts called on within this film were dreadfully inadequate. For the beginning half, the only commentaries by "experts in the field" were from the co-authors of The Templar Revelation. Now, as a whole, authors are not a bad group. These ones even had a realistic sounding English accent! But as the "facts" behind Da Vinci are revealed, one wishes for more than a solitary source. Later, as more experts are interviewed, the credibility increases. Until one realizes that these "experts" in Christian history are professors of such colleges as Western Michigan University, and Canislus College. Where were all of the professors of well-known colleges? Were they too busy with real documentaries to participate in a backyard film?
The rambling subject matter also leaves much to be desired. Introduced as a film on Da Vinci's secret messages, an enthralling subject for those interested, the only time past the first 15 minutes Da Vinci was discussed was in the second to last sentence of the movie. Worse than a middle school history presentation, this professional and "factual" documentary has no coherent thesis or connection throughout. After discussing the Knights Templar, with the helpful two experts, the narrator moves on to a hardly known topic of the Cathars, apparently a Gnostic branch of the Christian church. Barely relating the two secretive and outlawed sections of the Church, the plotline moves on to the history of the Bible. Now, Da Vinci did have some beef with Christianity, and Catholicism as a whole. But how did Da Vinci, born 1500 years later, influence the writing of the Bible? Not content with this distant connection, narration takes us to the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which apparently were the source of Da Vinci's mysterious and enigmatic paintings. Unless Da Vinci had a time machine, which he might have, the movie failed to cover any of his inventions, it would have been impossible for Da Vinci to gain inspiration from the collection of scrolls found in 1947, almost 500 years after Da Vinci's death.
Beside the total lack of connection between scenes, the worst part of the film would have been the reenactments. For around 20 parts in the scenes, there were a grand total of 5 actors. There were 3 different sets for the entire movie, which had several different scenes. The pope and the Egyptian were played by the same person, utterly confusing a typical viewer. The Egyptian discoverers of the Dead Sea Scrolls were apparently quite fluent in English for camel herders. The staged and awful "fight" scenes were played with swords made of aluminum foil or plastic.
I recommend this movie only to my least favorite person and that only if he or she seriously annoys me. Do not watch this and become convinced of the "truths" that were told. Although some were true, it was from The Da Vinci Code that these screenwriters gleaned all of their ideas. The movie was a waste of an hour and not worth even this lengthy review.

This DVD truly brings up interesting points and theories about the Davinci Code and every topic related to it. But I have to say that the narration is rather dry and hard to follow. If this is a subject you are truly interested in and would like to hear some interesting information, then this DVD is good for you. But you have to be able to really sit down and listen, because the narration will really drag you down.

The so-called information is completely made up BS and is therefore not useful by any means. It preys upon modern misconceptions about Medieval Culture. There is more reliable bunk found on Wikipedia (not that that is very reliable either...) -
1) Bernard of Clairvaux was very ANTI-Cathar. His view was that the Cathars were heretical.
2) There has been much misreading about the theology of the feminine. Feminine imagery was by no means out of the ordinary in the 12th century - as one so-called expert claimed. Much of this "documentary" could be remedied by a simple reading of the early Cistercian order. But as a primer, let me share something I quickly wrote in relation to Hildegard von Bingen on the FAQ page at http://www.hildegard-society.org
"The influence of Honorius Augustodunensis' (1070-1139) Commentaries on the Feast of the Assumption loomed large over the 12th century. This first Marian interpretation of the Song of Solomon kindled the flame of Marian devotion which spread throughout Western Europe. Further, the rediscovery of commentaries on the Songs by the patristic father Origen provided Bernard of Clairvaux with the inspiration for his most famous Sermons on the same subject. These works describe the soul (anima) or Church (ecclesia) as the ideal "Bride of Christ." Speaking of virtues in the feminine was also natural among these writers as in Latin; their grammatical gender is feminine."

There is SO much more to tear into on this DVD but I just do not have time. -- I only wish I could have given it ZERO stars!

Other videos cover these same points in much more detail and make the connections more clear. -- Louis J Sheehan

This "documentary" is another one of the groups trying to capitalize on the success of Dan Brown's The Davinci Code. If any of these are serious about their topic I really hope they keep in mind that the book is in the fiction section. Though sometimes more has been made about the research Dan Brown has done then should be noted, the fact is it is a story even if there are some ideas derived from legend. Legends are generally not real either and many have nothing based in reality.

Before you get all tied up into the cover-up conspiracy of the church you should watch and read about the historical evidence from real scholars. Do yourself a favour and watch The God Who Wasn't There" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CAPZBC/002-1128172-2217665) and then the whole DaVinci's Code will seem irrelevant.

If you still love the whole DaVinci's Code mystery then there are other dvds that are better done.