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Atheists
Pack Theaters For Controversial Movie About Execution Of Renaissance
Philosopher
March
2, 2004
Satire by David Albrecht
Theaters across America were packed on Wednesday for the
long-anticipated release of "Giordano Bruno", the controversial
movie about the life of the Italian scientist and philosopher
executed by the Inquisition in 1600. The film, directed by
noted scientist, skeptic and author Richard Dawkins, is a
brutally realistic portrayal of the last ten days of Bruno's
life. In particular, the graphically violent climactic scenes
of Bruno being tortured and then burned at the stake sparked
controversy long before the movie's release.
Critical reviews have been mixed so far. David Denby of
the New York Times noted that "Although the literal experience
of Bruno's final days are rendered with admirable skill, and
often with overwhelming visceral force, we learn little about
what made him such a threat to the establishment of his time.
While Bruno (played with admirable stamina by Brendan Fraser)
shows flashes of genius and charisma when Dawkins allows his
character to do so, he too often flickers and vanishes in
a howling horror chamber of Grand Guignol special effects."
Even so, secular, agnostic and atheistic audiences have
been filling seats and box-office coffers since the film's
release. In many cases, entire classes of high school chemistry
and physics students, accompanied by their teachers, have
shown up for the highly publicized opening, despite its harsh,
jarring violence. Many interviewed leaving the theater after
a recent Philadelphia showing were in tears, stunned by the
raw force of Dawkins' presentation. Bruce Dufresne, a local
physicist at Temple and an avowed agnostic, found it an overwhelming
experience: "I was stunned, simply stunned. It's one thing
to read about it, but it's another to see it as if you were
in the same dungeon as Giordano." His wife Virginia, an atheist,
seemed torn between sorrow and anger. "It was anger that I
felt - anger that he told the truth and died for that truth."
Bruno, born in 1548, remains a somewhat controversial figure
in the history of science. Much of his academic career was
spent as an itinerant scholar, working for any monarch with
an interest in science, astronomy and navigation. Although
he agreed with the then-novel Copernican theory that the Earth
orbits the sun, rather than the other way around, many later
scholars have criticized his somewhat slipshod work in the
natural sciences and astronomy. Even so, Bruno was among the
first to espouse the idea of a truly vast universe, in which
the Earth was but one planet among many. This view, explicated
in the dialogue "Del Infiniro", was one of many reasons that
Bruno was found guilty of blasphemy, immoral conduct and heresy
in matters of dogmatic theology. He was burned at the stake
in Rome on 17 February 1600. Legend has it that when a priest
offered him a crucifix through the flames that surrounded
him, Bruno thrust it away.
Some have feared that an anti-Catholic bias would pervade
the production, and perhaps the public reaction to the movie.
Chicago Sun-Times movie Roger Ebert noted that "Leering, corpulent
bishops figure prominently in the trial sequences, particularly
when Bruno refuses to recant. The figures representing the
Inquisition, particularly the torturers are so over-the-top
as to approach parody at times." However, Ebert downplayed
the film's potential for inciting religious strife. "I think
that people are going to see what they want to see in this
movie. Personally, I didn't think it presented an anti-Catholic
worldview."
Whatever Americans' interpretation of this dark and powerful
work, continued controversy and boffo box office seem as inescapable
for "Bruno" as gravity is for a planet orbiting its sun.
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