Classic '99: Dogma

Kevin Smith and the 90's go together as good as peanut butter and chocolate. At the start of the decade, he was just an overweight college dropout from Highlands, New Jersey who liked obscene jokes and comic books. By the end of the decade he was one of the top Independent filmmakers of the 20th Century. He blasted onto the scene with 1994's cult classic Clerks, followed it up with another Indie cult film Mallrats and then introduced us to one of the best films of the 90's Chasing Amy. Smith was finally back on top, the question was will his next film be a success, or another flop? His answer was Dogma, his comedicly apocalyptic take on Catholicism.


The film follows two former angels exiled to Wisconsin, Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki(Matt Damon), who find a loophole which would allow them back into Heaven. Unbeknownst to them (and herself) a Anomaly is on Earth who has the power to stop them. Her name is Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), who is a divorced woman working at an Abortion Clinic in Illinois. An angel visits her and tells her of her destiny and that she will soon come into contact with two Prophets, one of who doesn't talk, and the other who "never shuts up". She is saved from a mugging by Jay and Silent Bob and discovers they are the prophets to which she replies, "You gotta be kidding me". She is also aided by the "13th Apostle" named Rufus(Chris Rock) who claims he was left out of The Bible because he was black. Her final aid is Serendipity (Selma Hayek) who they find at a strip club. Their journey takes them back to New Jersey where Bartleby and Loki are attempting to enter a Church promising the forgiveness of all sins upon entry. Since God had banished the two, them getting back in would prove God wrong thus ending all existence.


The film was viciously attacked upon (and even long before) its theatrical release by many church groups. They claimed the film was a vile, vulgar attack on religion and the Catholic Church. The film was never meant as a serious biography of religion, after all the tag line to the movie was "This Fall, Get Touched By an Angel". Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier received mountains of hate mail, even receiving death threats to which Smith, a lifelong Catholic, responded as saying it "wasn't very Christian." Upon watching the film though, one can see how this is quite the opposite of what was perceived. The film actually encourages faith and religious values. I learned more about religion from watching Dogma then I ever did in Sunday school. The fact that five very different characters, different genders, colors, size and creed, can come together to save the world is actually very enlightening. The film shows that you don't have to be a devout Catholic or Christian or Hindu or Buddhist to be loved by your god. Jay vulgarly curses throughout the entire film, yet is saved at the end. Bethany has lost her faith at the movies start, citing she needs actual physical proof of a god to believe, and is actually a descendant of Christ. Dogma questions religion, then gives the best 'proof' it can. At one point Rufus says "Religion isn't perfect. Look at the Bible, we only see the good stuff. Jesus is 18, then all of a sudden he's 33. What happened in between then? It didn't fit with what they were teaching. No one has the whole picture, so there will always be doubt." A common theme in the movie was having your faith cup refilled every so often. Dogma is, like it characters, an uncanny film that actually encourages faith, rather than attack it. It just does via vulgar sex and fart jokes.

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