Opus Dei - Opus Dei in Popular Culture

Opus Dei in Popular Culture

• Since 2003, Opus Dei has received world attention as a result of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 film based on the novel. In The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei is portrayed as a Catholic organization that is led into a sinister international conspiracy. In general, The Da Vinci Code has been sharply criticised for its numerous factual inaccuracies, by a wide array of scholars and historians. According to the Anglican Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, the novel is a "great thriller" but "lousy history". For example, Silas, a major villain in The Da Vinci Code is a monk who is a member of Opus Dei — but in reality there are no monks in Opus Dei. The Da Vinci Code implies that Opus Dei is the Pope's personal prelature — but the term "personal prelature" does not refer to a special relationship to the Pope: It means an institution in which the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a geographic territory but over persons, wherever they be. Nonetheless, Brown stated that his portrayal of Opus Dei was based on interviews with members and ex-members, and books about Opus Dei. An Opus Dei spokesman questioned this statement.
• A Franco-Belgian comic book (bande dessinée) on the life of Escrivá was published by Coccinelle BD in 2005. The title is Through the mountains, in reference to Escriva's escape from the Republican zone through the mountains of Andorra during the Spanish Civil War.
• In the 1997 novel The Genesis Code by John Case, the leader of Opus Dei is portrayed as the novel's antagonist. In the novel, Opus Dei members are sent on a mission to execute children who were conceived using genetically engineered oocytes.
• There Be Dragons, a historical epic film released in the spring of 2011, includes the early life of Escriva. It is directed by Roland Joffe, and stars Charlie Cox, Wes Bentley, Derek Jacobi, Golshifteh Farahani, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, and Lily Cole.