“The Da Vinci Code” is little more than a slightly more adult-friendly version of the light-hearted kids’ swashbuckling pulp like 2004’s “National Treasure.” In the film, Langdon becomes the prime suspect of a murder linked to an enigma at the Louvre and goes on the run with the victim’s granddaughter (Audrey Tatou), a cryptographer in her own right. Their quest will be to examine treasure hunt symbols and clues in the works of Leonardo da Vinci in order to locate nothing less than the Holy Grail. On their heels are the police, but also a fearsome agent of the Catholic Church who must protect certain secrets, lest the tenets of Christianity be rewritten. The film’s religious themes got it in trouble with some Catholic groups around the world, but it was only a minor stir of controversy.
Looking back, Hanks realized how silly the whole enterprise was, lambasting the film’s lack of historical accuracy and its clunky, silly commercial appeal.
“God, it was a business venture. Yeah, those Robert Langdon sequels are hooey. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was hooey… I mean, Dan Brown, God bless him, says, ‘Here’s a sculpture in a place in Paris! No, it’s over there. See how a cross forms on a map? Well, it’s kind of a cross. They’re delightful treasure hunts that are about as true to history as James Bond films are to espionage… All we did was promise a diversion.”
Although, to be fair, it was a very successful diversion.
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