The translation of a book to film is a tricky task, and director Ron Howard was always going to have his hands full with Dan Brown's controversial and complicated Angels & Demons. Considering the original novel contains numerous pointed attacks on the Christian church, what the director leaves off is as interesting as what he brings on to the big screen.
Angels & Demons follows in the footsteps of The Da Vinci Code, chronicling the adventures of Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist. Tom Hanks returns as the academic who reads hidden meanings into the details of religious and cultish artifacts, this time accompanied by Ayelet Zurer who plays the leggy physicist Dr Vittoria Vetra. The film is largely set in Rome where Langdon has been called in on the eve of the election of a new Pope to explain the bloody resurgence of a secret society called the Illuminati. It was supposedly a hitherto peaceful society of scientists, including Galileo, who were persecuted to their deaths for disagreeing with Christian teachings. Now it seems their descendants are back to take their revenge. In attempting to prevent the murders of prominent cardinals and the annihilation of the Vatican, Langdon's investigation actually uncovers dastardly deeds carried out by the church, and its persistent appetite for power. Viewers of The Da Vinci Code will note the similarities.
Interestingly Angels & Demons makes a better film than its 2006 counterpart. Ron Howard has been nowhere near as slavishly devoted to the novel as he was the first time around. Dan Brown's complicated arguments and leaps in logic are largely intact, but the fast-action pace allows the audience to gloss over the difficult to follow dialogue. Howard also eliminates two key elements, presumably because of the stumbling block they might represent to audiences: Langdon's survival after falling several thousand feet from a helicopter, and a sympathetic young priest's assertion that God spoke to him. What remains though is the story's low view of everything associated with Christianity.
From the outset a news anchor's narrative describes the church as weak and outdated:
"The church is at a crossroads . so riven by change and dissent . its ancient traditions threatened by a modern world."
Catholicism is shown as having lost touch with its teachings and its members. A devout security guard rejects Robert Langdon's assertion that the church is a corporation, but the comparison is not lost on the audience as the camera sweeps over a vault full of treasures and a Mercedes Benz. The senior clergy are portrayed as jaded hypocrites. The cardinals smoke and clasp mobile telephones in pudgy, gold-ringed fingers. Their demeanor is cool and their concern for the outside world limited, even when it appears that St Peter's Square will be destroyed by a bomb. When confronted with concerns for the people gathering there, a senior churchman observes: "Their faith will sustain them."
Christianity's representatives hardly qualify as the 'Angels' of the film. They are mainly arrogant and inflexible, admitting to 'hunting down and killing' the original members of the Illuminati and expressing their intention to do the same thing again if possible. Even the story's demonic assassin warns the film's heroes to, "Be careful - these are men of God!" There is a sympathetic figure in the form of the young Papal chamberlain, Father Patrick McKenna, played by Ewan McGregor. However he is constantly put down by his superiors and - without giving the game away - Dan Brown ensures that any support he may have gained with the audience has evaporated by the end of the film.
Robert Langdon occupies the space between the angels and the demons. He does not pretend to be holy, but due to an accident early on in the film he spends most of the story wearing the black clothes of a priest. Dan Brown's symbologist plays the role of the truth bringer and saviour, but sees no need for God to fulfill these roles:
"I'm an academic. My mind tells me that I will never understand God. My heart tells me I'm not meant to. Faith is a gift that I'm yet to receive."
God, it seems, is thoroughly unknowable. Consequently, anyone who claims to understand his will deludes themselves and others. However Ron Howard crosses the author's intention by leaving a little room for the Almighty at the end of the film. The new Pope asserts that Langdon's disbelief did not prevent God from using him to 'save his church'. I'm reminded of God's description of the pagan king Cyrus, "He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please." (Isaiah 44:28). But the crucial difference is that the God behind Angels & Demons remains in the background and we are none the wiser regarding his designs. However the God of the Bible is no shrinking violet. Isaiah leaves us in no doubt as to why He bends even the most resistant hearts to His will:
"So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:6)
Click here to Mark Hadley’s detailed review of the novel Angels & Demons
