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including Catholicism and its Opus Dei movement. If you look at Christianity as you would other types of organizations, you will find a "code", or a set of laws that govern that organization. "The Da Vinci Code" is a title that refers to a set of clues or riddles, shrouded in mystery and cunning, that lead to the revelations about the Holy Grail, as Leonardo Da Vinci supposedly intended certain people to discover if they could "crack the code". However, some viewers worried that the movie might actually crack a different code: the underpinning rules and beliefs underlying Christianity which are ultimately reinforced through stories about a holy man, either of the same substance or akin to God, who died to provide salvation to mankind.

Movies like "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Da Vinci Code" manage to rile people up by directly targeting their core beliefs and sensitivities. In the case of "The Passion", the movie-makers used violent and sensational imagery to reinforce the powerful symbolism and message behind the crucifixion of Jesus. By contrast, "The Code" attempted to make the presumably Christian viewer challenge his own beliefs by providing a mystery that seemed to throw the ending of Jesus's life into question while invoking the possibilities of conspiracies, corruption, and dangerous secrets. Put simply, the movie makers knew that certain ideas would provoke emotional reactions within the general public and they exploited those touch-points through various movie-making devices that either challenged or supported deeply held beliefs.

Like it or not, both movies certainly had an emotional impact on many viewers. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Certainly, the purpose of movies is, above else, to entertain the audience and make them forget about their own reality for a short period of time. These movies fulfill that purpose, hands down. Are the movies sending good messages or bad messages? Unfortunately that question is much harder to answer. If you believe that most people are highly susceptible to suggestion and influence, maybe it's a bad thing, particularly if the events and concepts portrayed in these movies are inaccurate or incorrect. If you think most people are able to take a premise and carefully analyze it themselves without blindly accepting it, maybe it's not a bad thing. However, if the experience at least provokes the audience into thinking about something beyond their normal lives, even if only for a couple of hours, I'd say that's a good thing.

Learn more about this author, Mark Dykeman.
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