This 2007 fantasy adventure film is based on the first novel Northern Lights, from Philip Pullman’s trilogy called His Dark Materials. The Golden Compass is set in a parallel world ruled by the Magisterium, where orphan Lyra Belaqua travels to in order to save her best friend and other kidnapped children who were abducted by a mysterious organization as subjects for terrible experiments.
After accidentally overhearing a conversation about Lord Asriel’s research in the North Artic and gathering information about a powerful dust that unifies different worlds, Lyra travels to this world, where people’s souls have different animal forms. In order to rescue her abducted friend Roger, she travels with the influential Mrs Coulter and carries along a magic golden compass given to her by the vice-chancellor of her college. Soon, Lyra learns that Coulter is the head of the Gobblers who abducted her best friend and all the other children and so she escapes from Coulter’s custody to start an adventurous journey of her own while trying to build an army of witches, gyptians and the strong armoured bear iorek byrnison.
The movie delves into different themes including the rejection of religion and abuse of power by the Church. According to the director, “in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots.” However, the organization portrayed in his film does not directly match that of Pullman's book and represents all dogmatic organizations instead. Watch The Golden Compass as it narrates a gripping tale of Lyra’s adventures in a far away world.
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The Golden Compass (2007) This 2007 fantasy adventure film is based on the first novel Northern Lights, from Philip Pullman’s trilogy called His Dark Materials. |
