Dogma, another art piece I consider as a must to watch. I’ve been a long time fan of Kevin Smith, and I enjoyed his other films, such as mall-rats and Chasing Amy, but Dogma was the movie that really managed to make me fall in love with Smith and his ideas. So.. Let’s start our engines and talk a bit about this movie; again I will do my best to avoid including spoilers, for these of you who haven't watched the movie. (Also now is a good time to watch it)


dogma ˈdɒɡmə/Submit
noun
a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.
Origin








Dogma has a full-on all-star cast, even though the main role is actually a bit less known the rest. So this movie provides a lot of good acting, a brilliant full of humour and deep thought script, and of course a lot of Kevin Smith. Dogma somehow combines toilet humour, shallow humour, and perverted jokes with witty jokes, highly intellectual puns, and thought provoking humour. Smith himself describes the movie as "a bizarre mix of lowbrow jokes and highbrow concepts and then vice versa.” Ben Aflek, one of the actors in this movie has said that the movie is “a rumination on faith. With dick jokes.”




The greek origin of the word Dogma is to think, and this movie provokes exactly that, a lot of thoughts, a light comedy that aside from a stomach ache from laughter also leaves the viewer in deep thought. In my opinion, this is exactly the definition of a quality movie, and a quality comedy—> somehow manage to laugh about religion and poop, and then be stuck deep in thought.

The plot-



The movie opens with Cardinal Glick, played by George Carlin (a great way to start a film, with this brilliant comedian, it’s already almost a guarantee that the film will be amazing), deciding that is is time to give Christianity a ‘Face lift” and create a more papular representation of Jesus with the “Buddy Christ” , he also declares that during the festivities of the new changes, anyone passing to the arch of this church in Jersey will receive a planetary indulgence, therefore they will be clean from every sin, and so their way to heaven will be insured. This causes a series of events when two fallen angels (Ben Aflek and Matt Damon) are trying to get there, and find their way back to heaven— but doing so they will cause the world to stop existing, since they will ‘prove’ that god was wrong. And here comes our main character; Beathany (Linda Fiorentino), a Catholic abortion clinic worker, get’s contacted (in the most hilarious encounter ever) by the angel Metatron (Alan Rickman), he sends her to a crusade, to stop these angels, and tells her that if she will choose to help, she will get the help of two prophets. A scene later we are introduces to these ‘prophets’ and they are Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), Jay and Silent bob are reoccurring characters in Smith’s movie, and they are both extremely funny, and along side Chris rock, (that joins the crew as the 13 apostle, who is there to help, and to fix mistakes in the Bible, such as the fact that Jesus was black), the movie is just pure comedic situations. Later we will have Azreal (Jason Lee) a whiny demon, that helps the fallen angels, or at least tries to, Serendipity (Salma Hayk), former muse turned stripper, that joins the good guys with stopping the angels, and we even might get a glimpse of god, that according to Smith is actually a woman. So between jokes and religious discussions we have a black Jesus, God is a woman, and sex exists as a joke.




Smith somehow manages to joke about the church teachings but also take them very serious simultaneously. Smith himself identifies as a Catholic man, and he sees this movie as a way to provoke thought but also- it’s all about the message, like the 13th apostle tells Bethany, he considers the movie as god-loving, and his way to celebrate god. Nevertheless, this film cause an outrage when it’s only came out, and a lot of Christian protests, people called the movie as blasphemous. Here are some articles about this:


Objections To A Catholic-bashing Movie

Catholics Go To War Against Miramax

`Dogma' Premiere Dogged By Protests At Local Theaters




I find this movie, especially for the year it came out, extremely refreshing, with discussion of feminism, when even a chauvinist like character, as Jay, claims that a woman has a right to her own body. And when God described as a woman, and Jesus as a black man. All these things just add to the depth and charm of this film.




Additionally, the work on the small details is something I enjoy very much in films, it makes me return to the movie and notice more and more details every time. For example:


The nun in the back-
In the beginning of the movie, Luki (Matt Damon), one of the fallen angels, convinces a nun that she should live the moment, and not believe and god, he gives her quotes from Alice in Wonderland to convince her, and after it seemed like she is convinced, and leaves, he is talking to Bartelby (Ben Aflek), who shows him the loophole that might take them back to heaven. While the two keep talking they are walking around the airport, but if the viewer will focus on the background, you can see the nun from the beginning of the scene running around and going completely insane. It took me a few times of watching the film to notice it, and I must admit I laughed hysterically.


Guys I know I keep saying this, but really if you love to laugh, and if you enjoy depth, go watch this movie! Like right now, you can even find it streaming on YouTube. God knows (haha get it, cause it’s a movie about god) that I watched this movie like 3 times in a row while writing this post. And I keep thinking about how everyone should have as much of a good time as me. Also Kevin Smith is a weird genius, who fan fact- names his kid Harley Quinn, insane right? But also brilliant.. Also if you don’t know who Jay and Silent Bob are, you should learn now! And if you do know, but haven’t watched the film, watch it because it is so different from the other films they starred in before. The dialogs in this movie are well thought, and there is so much back and forth between the characters, there is no one dull moment. So go for it! Watch it, and I’m not even sponsored by Kevin Smith or anything, even though I should with how much I’m pushing you guys to watch it. He can give me some royalties for the next few views, no? Don’t you think? Ok I think I am going to watch this movie one more time :D I hope you guys had a great weekend and you all are on the way to watch Dogma.





Edit-
I kinda saw Jason Mewes at FanExpo, Kevin Smith kinda bailed haha, you can see the security pointing at my selfie taking talent and later told me to get away a bit, but pictures were taken anyways.