I've always had mixed feelings about Dogma, and I feel that the best
way to sum it up is as follows:
As a comedy, the movie is hysterical! It has some incredibly funny
dialog, mostly delivered by Alan Rickman, Jason Lee, and Jason Mewes's
characters. As an adventure movie, it has a very creative plot and
keeps you hooked throughout its journey to its epic and apocalyptic
conclusion.
Where the movie fails and fails miserably is at being any sort of
actual commentary on religion. Despite the many conversations about
religion and dogmas held throughout the film...nothing all that "deep"
is ever really said. The movie ultimately has a shallow message of "God
is cool. Just have a sense of humor and an open mind." And this is a
shame because Kevin Smith is clearly a bright guy who knows a lot about
church history; he even claims in the closing credits that the film
represents his lifetime's worth of religious reflection. You'd think
he'd have said something a little more sophisticated.
In fact, despite being somewhat controversial when it came out, the
movie never really is all that shocking. Yes, I realize there are
religious zealots out there who get "offended" by even the slightest
things (Angels and prophets using curse words! Jesus having a 13th
apostle! Jesus being black! God being a woman!). But with all due
respect, none of those things are REALLY controversial. I would have
liked the movie to have been deeper and delved into greater issues
like: the possibility of God not existing, or Jesus having been an
invented character, or exposing the corruption of the Catholic Church,
or what about the role of Judaism and Islam? That would have given the
film a lot more weight in my opinion.
Fortunately, as I said, the movie is a lot of fun, and so I am able to
sit back and laugh at what it offers. Rickman, Lee, and Salma Hayek all
give the best performances. I do feel Linda Fiorentino is somewhat
underwhelming; despite being the lead character, she frequently seems
like the dullest thing in the film. I have heard that she and Smith did
not get along, and maybe that affected why there seems to be so little
to Bethany.
Dogma is a very fun and entertaining movie, but alas, it's not very
deep, despite what the director seemed to think of it. Listening to
Kevin Smith on the DVD commentary track is almost sad; he talks about
how he was disappointed the movie didn't get Oscar nominations. Well,
here's why: BECAUSE YOUR MOVIE HAS A SCENE WITH A SHIT MONSTER! Smith
could have made a stronger, deeper film if he had really tried. Instead
he just made a little comedy, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's
a very good movie to laugh with; it's just not good for much more than
that.
It's strange, while Red State might have been a little more incisive as a religious commentary movie (though a little more pat in a way - 'Oh, religious extremists are bad', no shit), Dogma is still the better film. And I think there are beats, mostly from Chris Rock's character and from a key scene between Affleck and Damons angels in a garage, that I thought were quite stirring as religious commentary. No, it's not super-deep, but it works, especially for the material as presented. Smith is a skeptical Catholic, not as hardcore against it as George Carlin (whose cameo is a highlight of the film), but it still works for me.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, there was no chance in HELL that movie would get an Oscar nomination, it was still too juvenile. Chasing Amy on the other hand...