Review of Origins Of The Da Vinci Code

Introduction

Henry Lincoln, co-author of best-selling book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, explores some geometric discoveries around the area of Rennes-le-Château, which is where the majority of his work is based. Despite the title, Dan Brown`s book is rarely mentioned and neither are most of the plot points. The Da Vinci Code never mentions Rennes-le-Château and so the title is clearly there to bring in a much larger audience than probably would have been possible under the name of Lincoln`s own work.

Despite mentioning the bloodline of Christ, which was was the main thrust of The Da Vinci Code and Lincoln`s own work, Henry Lincoln moves away from this to shed some light on some fascinating but confusing (to me at least) geometric patterns he found around the Rennes-le-Château area.

Video

Shot on mini DV, the picture is as good as it gets. Also some nice CGI representations of some of Lincoln`s ideas involving pentacles and stuff…

Audio

Soundtrack good and clear, but no subtitles anywhere; a crime for subject matter such as this.

Features

Commentary - kind of casual conversation commentary which is good and allows Henry Lincoln to expand on some of his knowledge and theories in front of the other speakers.

Extended Interviews with Henry Lincoln and Erling Haagensen - there is a sound/sync problem with all of these interviews (at least on my copy) as it sounds as if both men have been at the helium. I checked all the segments, and same problem on all of them.

Henry Lincoln`s Thoughts on Rennes-le-Château - slightly expanded piece from the main feature where Lincoln rues the impact of his work on the village and the changes he sees there.

Concise Origins - a rather crotchety Lincoln being interviewed by a different camera crew in Rennes-le-Château to make their own documentary. Lincoln takes exception to the questioning woman in this crew..

Outtakes

Conclusion

There was a recent court case involving Dan Brown (40m sales) and the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (2m sales), the latter losing. Henry Lincoln, who did all the original research, was the only one of the three co-authors who was not involved in the failed suit. It is clear from certain interviews you read about Lincoln that he doesn`t really have much in common with his fellow co-authors, but I suspect he also realises that whilst a fictional novel may well have borrowed from his work, his work has also gained in popularity from Brown`s work.

Lincoln is still trading on the success of The Da Vinci Code to a large degree as his current DVD offerings all use Brown`s title to draw people in. You can`t really blame him though, as he did all the original work and Brown just made it much more popular within the confines of an escapist novel. Henry Lincoln is clearly as much of an expert in this particular field as anyone after nearly 30 years research, and it is understandable that he doesn`t just want to rehash the same kind of theories that brought him to public attention in the first place.

The new theory he is espousing about geometric patterns is interesting but ultimately a confusing one for me, and that`s despite the nice CGI used to explain how it fits. I understand the basic concept of how it all fits, but the patterns start to get so complex that I start to wonder if it`s just too complicated to have been possible. To be fair to Lincoln, he is adamant that all his research is just guesswork, he knows he doesn`t have the answers, and this is what makes me willing to listen to him. There are questions to be raised about the mathematical prowess of the designers of these patterns, but they are the same questions that are asked of the architects of both the Pyramids and Stonehenge (amongst others). I`m sure there is more to all of this than is currently known, but how much?

Still, anyone with an interest in this field, who also wants a new theory to chew over, may well find this as interesting (or more) than I did. I`m not a huge Da Vinci Code fan or any sort of conspiracy theorist, but I found this to be an interesting watch and this will probably end up on the History Channel or National Geographic in a couple of years time.