DOGMA

Chris Rock, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes and Linda Fiorentino
watch nervously as the Christian right prepare to pelt them
with stones. Not that anybody in the Christian right has
actually seen the film or anything... 

This script is talky, episodic, sometimes confusing, always disrespectful toward the time-honored traditions and beliefs of the Catholic church... and I loved it. It's not often that you read a script so packed with ideas, so overflowing with thoughtful, intelligent discussion about topics considered sacred and untouchable. And the fact that it's very, very funny makes it that much more impressive. DOGMA is the work of a writer with a boundless imagination, who knows no fear when it comes to choosing what subject matter he wants to explore. Is it crass? Is it crude? Of course it is! Any script in which the characters must do battle with an 'excremental' (or 'shit-demon') has to fall into those categories. But if you're concentrating on Smith's language, you're not hearing what he's saying. As in his other films, his characters are eloquent in their own down-and-dirty way - the value is in what they say, while the comedy comes from how they say it. I found DOGMA to be a terrific script, with the realization that it's not for everyone. And that's what made it terrific - it doesn't want to be for everyone. It's a personal work from an artist who is interested in the quality of his work, not whether it'll be universally loved. I mean, if the Southern Baptists feel the need to boycott Disney, how do you think they're gonna react to a film which insists Jesus was a black man and God is a woman? Or how do you think this dialog about the writing of the Bible will play?

MY PROGNOSIS? It's really gonna piss off a lot of people. Kevin's appearance with Jerry Fallwell on 'Nightline' should be one of the highlights of the TV-viewing year! But do I think it'll make a lot of money? Of course not. This isn't mass market entertainment. The inevitable controversy will bring out some curiosity-seekers, and the growing base of Kevin Smith fans will turn out, but this is just too risky to rake in the dough. And isn't it great that a movie like this is getting made in our demographically and politically correct age? I think it is. I think... it's a miracle.

AND THE CRITICS SAY...

ROGER EBERT: "Kevin Smith's DOGMA grows out of an irreverent modern Catholic sensibility, a byproduct of parochial schools, where the underlying faith is taken seriously but the visible church is fair game for kidding... As someone who values his parochial school education and still gets into interminable debates about church teachings, I enjoyed the DOGMA approach, which takes church teaching jokingly and very seriously indeed - both at the same time... What's more, I think a Catholic God might plausibly enjoy a movie like DOGMA, or at least understand the human impulses that made it, as he made them. ("He's lonely, but he's funny," an angel says in the movie.) After all, it takes Catholic theology absolutely literally, and in such detail that non-Catholics may need to be issued Catechisms on their way into the theater (not everybody knows what a plenary indulgence is). Sure, it contains a lot of four-letter words, because it has characters that use them as punctuation. But, hey, they're vulgarities, not blasphemies. Venal, not moral. Sure, it has a flawed prophet who never gives up trying to get into the heroine's pants, but even St. Augustine has been there, done that... If the film is less than perfect, it is because Smith is too much in love with his dialogue. Like George Bernard Shaw, he loves to involve his characters in long witty conversations about matters of religion, sexuality and politics. DOGMA is one of those rare screenplays, like a Shaw playscript, that might actually read better than it plays; Smith is a gifted comic writer who loves paradox, rhetoric, and unexpected zingers from the blind side... Kevin Smith has made a movie that reflects the spirit in which many Catholics regard their church. He has positioned his comedy on the balance line between theological rigidity and secular reality, which is where so many Catholics find themselves. He deals with eternal questions in terms of flawed characters who live now, today, in an imperfect world. Those whose approach to religion is spiritual will have little trouble with DOGMA, because they will understand the characters as imperfect, sincere, clumsy seekers trying to do the right thing. Those who see religion more as a team, a club, a hobby or a pressure group are going to be upset. This movie takes theological matters out of the hands of the 'spokesmen' and entrusts it to - well, the unwashed. And goes so far as to suggest that God loves them. And is a Canadian." Rating: 3 1/2 stars.

KENNETH TURAN: "Only someone serious about religion in general and Catholicism in particular could have made DOGMA, but those expecting a modern version of THE SONG OF BERNADETTE or KING OF KINGS are going to find themselves dazed and confused... Instead, DOGMA is a raucous, profane, but surprisingly endearing piece of work, a funny and lively film of ideas that combines a breezy save-the-world fantasy with Smith's trademark adolescent sense of humor and a sincere exploration of questions of faith. If you can imagine intense doses of theology and religious doctrine alternating with juvenile sex jokes and a monster that emerges from a toilet, you've got DOGMA pegged... (I)n between the bad jokes about bodily functions and sexual availability, DOGMA offers a fair number of unexpectedly thoughtful moments. "I have issues with anyone who treats God as a burden, not a blessing," one character says. And then there is the notion that the world would be better off if there were more ideas than beliefs, because ideas can be changed if necessary. While notions like God as a woman ("The whole book is gender-biased," is DOGMA's verdict on the Bible) are certain to give religious conservatives pause, DOGMA's pee-wee sense of humor will have their more liberal brethren occasionally tearing their hair out as well. A film that knows that everything it does isn't going to work, DOGMA is rescued again and again by its refreshing high energy level and the quirky preoccupations of its quick-witted, unabashed writer-director. To say no one but Kevin Smith could have made this film is, finally, to have said it all."

WHILE THE PUBLIC SAYS...

DOGMA brought in $8.8 million it's opening weekend, finishing second in per screen average to the POKEMON juggernaut. I guess Mooby's not as big with the youngsters as that freakish Pikachu thing.

A special thanks to the View Askew website for the images used on this page. Not that they let me use them, mind you - that's just where I kiped 'em from.