Breaking the Da Vinci Code; Exploring the Da Vinci Code

Two new documentaries join the long line of films either supporting or challenging The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown's bestselling thriller. Combining interviews and research, Breaking the Da Vinci Code attacks Brown's assumptions about Opus Dei, the secretive organization of Catholic clerics and others, as well as his evidence that Mary Magdalene was Christ's wife and the mother of his children (Brown's book alleges that Christ's bloodline merged with a royal line in France). Also disputed is any interpretation of Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" as a coded statement about Magdalene's importance to Jesus. Finally, author Lewis Perdue, who wrote a novel called The Da Vinci Legacy years before Brown's book, maintains that Brown stole characters and details from his work. Many of the arguments here are assumed to stand on their own merits, without substantive evidence to back them up, which sometimes makes the documentary more of an echo chamber of grievances than a scholarly work. DVD extras include bonus interviews, masters' artworks, and "Code" location tours. Given the continuing tremendous interest in anything related to The Da Vinci Code, most libraries will want to add this. Aud: C, P.Exploring the Da Vinci Code puts us in the hands of Henry Lincoln, co-author of the controversial Holy Blood, Holy Grail, who along with fellow researchers was the first to make allegations in the 1970s that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, laying the groundwork for Brown's later novel. Lincoln, who has lived near the hilltop village of Rennes-le-Château for years, used to conduct tours of the church that some maintain features clues about Christ's bloodline and the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. Here, Lincoln guides viewers through the site in a slow-going production that feels more like a travelogue than another fevered argument about Leonardo Da Vinci or the apostles. Still, the material is interesting, overall, and fans of The Da Vinci Code will surely want to see, so most libraries will want to pick this up. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)