To accompany their review of “The Golden Compass,” the movie made from Philip Pullman novel that Roman Catholics are calling offensive, The Los Angeles Times has a slide show of recent flicks that offended people of various faiths. Along with “The Da Vinci Code” (Catholics again), “The Passion of the Christ” (Jews), and last year’s “September Dawn” (Mormons), the list goes beyond the usual suspects to include minor films like “Hollywood Buddha” and “Water,” from 2005, an issue about Hindu widows that caused riots during filming in India.
The Times’ writers are guilty of, if not insensitivity, then faith-based goofiness themselves, asking in reference to each offended group, “What was their beef?” Not the best choice of words when discussing already hot-under-the-collar, cow-revering Hindu fundamentalists.