Dogma (film)

Dogma
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kevin Smith
Written by	Kevin Smith
Produced by	Scott Mosier
Starring	Ben Affleck George Carlin Matt Damon Linda Fiorentino Salma Hayek Jason Lee Jason Mewes Alan Rickman Chris Rock Bud Cort Alanis Morissette Jeff Anderson Brian O'Halloran Janeane Garofalo Betty Aberlin Dwight Ewell Guinevere Turner Bryan Johnson Walter Flanagan Jared Pfennigwerth Kiato Sakurai Barret Hackney
Cinematography	Robert D. Yeoman
Edited by	Scott Mosier Kevin Smith
Music by	Howard Shore
Production company	View Askew Productions
Distributed by	Miramax Films Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date	November 12, 1999
Running time	130 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$30,652,890

Dogma is a Template:Fy American adventure-comedy-fantasy film, written and directed by Kevin Smith, who co-stars in the film along with an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Bud Cort, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, George Carlin, Janeane Garofalo, and Alanis Morissette.

Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, the stars of Smith's debut film Clerks, have cameo roles, as do Smith regulars Scott Mosier, Dwight Ewell, Walt Flanagan, and Bryan Johnson.

The film is a satire of the Catholic Church and Catholic belief, which caused organized protests and much controversy in many countries, delaying release of the film and leading to at least two death threats against Smith. The film follows two fallen angels, Loki and Bartleby, who, through a loophole in Catholic Dogma find a way to get back into Heaven after being cast out by God—however, as God is infallible their success in doing so would prove Him/Her wrong and thus undo all creation. The last scion and two prophets are sent by the Voice of God to stop them.

Aside from some scenes filmed on the New Jersey shore, most of the film was shot in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Plot

The film opens with an old man looking at the ocean from a New Jersey boardwalk, outside a skee ball arcade. He is attacked by three teenagers who beat him into a coma.

Two fallen angels—Bartleby, a watcher, and Loki, formerly the Angel of Death—were banished from Heaven by God after Bartleby convinced Loki to stop killing humans. Exiled to a place worse than Hell—Wisconsin—the two see their salvation when a church in Red Bank, New Jersey, celebrates its centennial anniversary with a plenary indulgence. By passing through the doors of the church, they would have their sins forgiven and upon death would regain access to Heaven. They don't realize by doing this they would overrule the word of God. Since the basis of existence is that God is infallible, to prove God wrong would destroy existence.

File:Alan Rickman as Metatron.jpeg

Metatron aka the Voice of God

To stop this from happening, the angel Metatron, the Seraph who acts as the Voice of God, appears to abortion clinic worker Bethany Sloane and gives her the task of preventing Bartleby and Loki's return. Reluctant at first, she changes her mind after she is attacked by the teenagers who attacked the elderly man and saved by Jay and Silent Bob, two prophets whom Metatron said would appear. She is also aided by Rufus, the thirteenth apostle, left out of the Bible because he was black, and Serendipity, a muse with writer's block turned stripper. On the way to New Jersey, Bethany learns that she is the Last Scion, the last descendant of Mary and Joseph, and the last relative of Jesus Christ.

On the way to New Jersey, Loki decides to kill the board of a company whose mascot is a golden calf for idolatry and various personal sins. The angels hope to get back on God's "good side" before their return. Bartleby thinks it is unnecessary but reluctantly complies. The demon Azrael, a former muse, convinces them to be more subtle in their attempt to reach New Jersey, claiming that both the forces of Heaven and Hell are attempting to kill them (since God won't let them succeed and undo creation, and Satan won't let them succeed for fear they'll make him look bad), and that Loki's killing sprees are not helping. The two sides unknowingly meet on a train, where a drunk Bethany reveals the consequences of proving God wrong to Bartleby. When their identities are revealed, a fight ensues and Bartleby and Loki are thrown off the train.

Bartleby describes with glee how he felt when he had Bethany's life in his hands and wishes he had cut her throat. Loki realizes the ramifications of what happens if they succeed and becomes reluctant to continue. Bartleby decides existence would be better off destroyed. Loki comments that Bartleby reminds him of Lucifer, but Bartleby tells him that they are going home, and there's nothing Loki or even God can do about it.

Elsewhere, Metatron reappears, comforting Bethany as she copes with the revelation about her heritage and the group ponders who could have orchestrated the angels' plan. Metatron explains God had gone to Earth in human form to play skeeball and they have been unable to contact Him/Her; apparently, someone knew enough to incapacitate Him/Her and leave Him/Her alive but unable to return to Heaven of His/Her own will, but the group knows that it cannot be Lucifer because he would have made his move by this point, and he has just as much to lose if Bartleby and Loki succeed as anyone else.

When Bartleby and Loki reach the church, Bartleby goes on a killing spree. At a nearby bar, Azrael (who has captured the heroes) explains to Bethany that he is the mastermind behind the Angels' plan, wanting to destroy existence rather than spend eternity in Hell -- but forced to manipulate Bartleby and Loki as demons cannot become human. Goaded to attack Azrael, Silent Bob kills him with Cardinal Glick's golf club, which is revealed to be blessed; in the ensuing fracas, Jay, Rufus, and Serendipity kill the hockey demons by dunking their heads into sinks filled with holy water sanctified by Bethany.

The heroes reach the church before Bartleby and Loki can enter. Loki, who has cut off his wings and is now human, tries to help the others, but Bartleby kills him. He then fights Rufus, Serendipity, and Bob. When all hope seems lost, Jay mentions John Doe Jersey, a comatose patient in a hospital across the street who was beat up outside a skeeball arcade, and who is being kept on life support. Realizing that this is God trapped in mortal form, Bethany and Bob race to the hospital. Jay foolishly shoots off Bartleby's wings with a submachine gun, turning him human.

Bethany removes the life support from God's human body, allowing Him/Her to escape it but inadvertently killing Bethany. God re-manifests at the church before a remorseful Bartleby, who apologizes for his acts. God mercifully kills Bartleby with her voice, then brings back to life all the people who had been killed. Silent Bob shows up with Bethany's corpse. God heals Bethany and conceives an heir inside her. The heavenly beings return to heaven through the Church doors, leaving Jay to crudely hit on Bethany.

Cast

• Ben Affleck as Bartleby, an omniscient grigori watcher angel who, feeling sorry for the human race, asked Loki to lay down his sword. Both were expelled from Heaven and banished to Wisconsin. Initially the more laid back and reasonable of the two, his sanity snaps when he comes to the realization that God has given humans "infinite patience" and the choice of whether or not to worship Her, while the angels' lives were meant to be those of servitude and they in turn were exiled for a single transgression. He subsequently becomes a deranged, unstable killer and is later killed by God.
• Matt Damon as Loki, the former angel of death who, after getting drunk with Bartleby one day, laid down his sword and gave the finger to God, leading to his and Bartleby's expulsion from Heaven. More extroverted and humorously aggressive than his partner, he has no qualms about killing those who have committed harsh sins in the past with a recently purchased Desert Eagle, though he is unwilling to kill the innocent. He also likes to convince members of the clergy that there is no God, despite knowing full well there is, commonly using Lewis Carroll's tale of The Walrus and the Carpenter as an example of "religious" figures leading the little people to their deaths; his stated reason for doing so is to "keep them on their toes". Loki experiences a role reversal when Bartleby snaps, and tries to talk him out of going through with the plan but Bartleby kills him.
• Linda Fiorentino as Bethany Sloane, a worker at an abortion clinic who is given the task of stopping Bartleby and Loki from returning to Heaven. Her husband left her because an infection rendered her infertile, which has also made her a lapsed Catholic. She is the last living descendant (the last scion) of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph of Nazareth.
• Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob, two stoners/drug dealers/prophets from New Jersey who join Bethany on her quest after saving her from the demon triplets. They originally join in the hope that Bethany will have sex with them, then because she offers to pay them, and finally to help save Earth. They stumble onto their prophecies completely by accident, with Jay randomly blurting out unintentionally useful information while Bob handles the more physical side of the crisis.
• Chris Rock as Rufus, the thirteenth apostle who was written out of the Bible, which he attributes to racism. He knew Jesus, and claims that Jesus owes him twelve dollars. He also claims Jesus was Black, and that he was martyred in Antioch for preaching this. He helps Bethany, Jay, and Silent Bob to reach New Jersey in exchange for them helping him change the Bible (making sure he is included and that Jesus' race is corrected).
• Alan Rickman as The Metatron, the voice of God, as God's voice cannot be heard by humans or your, "mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest." A wise yet cynical Seraph, Metatron's demeanor is usually ruined by one thing or another getting on his clothes. Despite his sarcastic demeanor, it is Metatron who convinces Bethany to continue on her quest when she has a breakdown after finding out the truth about her lineage; he admits that Jesus had a similar reaction when he learned the truth and regrets that he was unable to take Jesus' heritage away to give the boy a normal life.
• Jason Lee as Azrael, a muse who was sent to Hell after hiding during the war between God and Lucifer. The film's antagonist, he plots to wipe out existence itself by getting Bartleby and Loki back into Heaven: after spending millennia in Hell, Azrael would rather destroy existence than go back there. His minions are the Stygian Triplets and the Golgothan. Azrael is the name of the Islamic angel of death.
• Salma Hayek as Serendipity, a muse who got a body on Earth so she could get credit for her work, only to find that her powers of inspiration couldn't be used for personal gain. She began working as a stripper (though she lacks genitalia). She tells Bethany that God is a woman, and she wrote the Bible to reflect this, but those doing the writing were all men and thus changed the book to put women in a less favorable light. In spite of her stance on God's femininity, both Rufus and the Metatron state that God is neither male nor female, but is simply "God". Serendipity claims to be responsible for 19 of the top 20 movies of all time, and that someone sold their soul to Satan to inflate the grosses on Home Alone.
• George Carlin as Cardinal Ignatius Glick, a pompous, publicity-seeking Cardinal at a church in Red Bank who launches a campaign for a new form of Catholicism called "Catholicism Wow!", as well as discontinuing the standard "Jesus on a cross" motif in favor of a more upbeat "Buddy Christ", depicting an affable Jesus pointing and winking with a thumbs-up. Bethany describes him as "the kind of asshole who'd bless his golf clubs for a better game."
• Ethan Suplee as Voice of Golgothan "Shit Demon", an "excremental" formed out of the excrement of all who were crucified at Golgotha when they died. He can fire explosives balls of feces from his hands as projectiles, and is strong enough to easily defeat five humans in combat. He is summoned by Azrael to attack Bethany, but is defeated by Silent Bob with air freshener ("knocks strong odors out").
• Barret Hackney, Jared Pfennigwerth, and Kitao Sakurai as The Stygian Triplets, three teenagers brought from Hell by Azrael to aid in his machinations. They wear roller skates and wield hockey sticks. In a deleted scene, they are revealed to have murdered a toddler by smashing its skull while they were still alive, just to see what it looked like, and were killed in a car crash on the way to a detention center. Jay, Rufus and Serendipity defeat the three by dunking their heads in holy water. They never speak, but seem to emit an audible sound similar to buzzing insects such as flies or locusts.
• Janeane Garofalo as Liz
• Alanis Morissette as God
• Bud Cort as John Doe Jersey
• Brian O'Halloran as Grant Hicks
• Jeff Anderson as the gun salesman
• Scott Mosier as the smooching seaman

Production

• The "Mooby's" restaurant used in the movie was a remodeled Burger King location in Pittsburgh. The store, as well as numerous other Burger King locations nationally at this time, closed down unexpectedly shortly before filming as a result of the company's financial problems at the time.
• Before shooting, Kevin Smith warned Jason Mewes that he needed to be on point due to the involvement of "real actors," such as Alan Rickman. As a result, Mewes memorized not only his dialogue, but the dialogue for every character in the entire screenplay, much to Smith's surprise.
• Smith originally approached director Robert Rodriguez to direct the film. Rodriguez turned him down, citing the fact that the film seemed too personal, and suggested that Smith should direct it himself.
• Footage of the exterior shot of the train scene was recycled from the movie Narrow Margin.
• Smith originally had Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith in mind to play Rufus.
• Two prominent Pittsburgh buildings are used in this movie: the U.S. Steel Tower, and The Grand Concourse (the fancy restaurant). The conference room massacre-scene was filmed in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. All the props in the room were fakes, except for the phone that Loki threw a knife into.
• The "Wisconsin" airport scene in the beginning of the film was actually shot at Pittsburgh International Airport, complete with cheesehead stands.
• There is no church in McHenry, Illinois that looks like the one featured in the movie. The same church is seen in the Blues Brothers film, though, which takes place in Illinois, as well.
• The Church is actually in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania it is St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church - Larimer Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Alanis Morissette plays God in Dogma; she also wrote and recorded the song "Still" for the movie. "Still," and the film's orchestral score by Howard Shore, were released on the album Dogma: Music from the Motion Picture.
• Jay makes a reference to The Piano when he first sees God. Holly Hunter, who starred in The Piano, was approached at one time to play God. Although she declined the part, Kevin Smith chose to keep the line in the movie.
• According to Kevin Smith's comments on the Dogma publicity stills on the film's official website, there was going to be a final face-off between Silent Bob on one side and the redhead Triplet and the Golgothan on the other side in the hospital. The Triplet would come back with a burned-out face, and at the end of the battle, God would turn the Golgothan into flowers. The scene was dropped from the final cut of the film.
• The scenes shown outside of the abortion clinic were in a city outside of Pittsburgh called New Kensington. The place was actually a private doctor's office, but had been without a tenant for years.
• The bar and strip club scene were filmed in Slap Shots Bar in Dormont right outside of Pittsburgh limits.

Reception

The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay as well as a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America honor for Best Screenplay.

The film opened at #3 in its opening weekend with approximately $8,669,945, behind The Bone Collector (last week's champion) and the newly released Pokémon: The First Movie.

Critics were mostly mixed to positive about the film, with a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. It did better with fans, getting a respected 82% by the Rotten Tomatoes community. On Metacritic, the film received a rating of 62% based on 36 reviews, with an 8.4/10 by fans based on 21 votes.

Controversy

Although there was no opposition to the film while the actual filming and pre-production was taking place, the following months of post-production and publicity were plagued with controversy over a perceived anti-Catholic message in the film.

In an interview, Smith said: "You gotta find the line, and then cross it".

Over time, the filmmakers received over 300,000 pieces of hate mail, which Smith posted on his website. Among these were "two-and-three-quarters" death threats. Smith explained this in his movie An Evening with Kevin Smith: One of the letters was threatening to start with, then became more friendly further on. The Catholic League in particular attacked Disney and Miramax, the original distributors, for being anti-Catholic. The film was originally scheduled to come out in November 1998, but was pushed back to November 1999 in the hopes the controversy would die down. When that didn't work, Disney sold the film's distribution rights to Lions Gate Entertainment.

When the film actually came out, Kevin Smith and his friend Bryan Johnson participated in a protest at the Sony Multiplex in Eatontown, New Jersey, carrying a sign which read "Dogma is Dogshit." A news crew captured the incident and broadcast an interview with Smith (though he wouldn't give his real name and gave Johnson's as his own) on News 12 New Jersey that can be found on YouTube.

Home media release

In 2001 a two-disc special edition DVD of the film was released with numerous extra features. The DVD was originally scheduled to include a documentary called Judge Not: In Defence of Dogma, which detailed the protests and controversy surrounding the film. Because the documentary portrayed The Walt Disney Company quite negatively in their handling of the film, Disney threatened legal action, forcing the featurette to be removed. The documentary was eventually released on the DVD for Vulgar. For the same reason, all references to Disney on the DVD's running commentaries are censored.

Sequel

In late November 2005, Smith was asked about a possible Dogma sequel on the ViewAskew.com message boards. His response:

"So weird you should ask this, because ever since 9/11, I have been thinking about a sequel of sorts. I mean, the worst terrorist attack on American soil was religiously bent. In the wake of said attack, the leader of the "Free World" outed himself as pretty damned Christian. In the last election, rather than a quagmire war abroad, the big issue was whether or not gay marriage was moral. Back when I made "Dogma", I always maintained that another movie about religion wouldn't be forthcoming, as "Dogma" was the product of 28 years of religious and spiritual meditation, and I'd kinda shot my wad on the subject. Now? I think I might have more to say. And, yes — the Last Scion would be at the epicenter of it. And She'd have to be played by Alanis. And we'd need a bigger budget — because the entire third act would be the Apocalypse. Scary thing is this: the film would have to touch on Islam. And unlike the Catholic League, when those cats don't like what you do, they issue a death warrant on yer ass. And now that I've got a family, I'm not as free to stir the shit-pot as I was when I was single, back when I made "Dogma". I mean, now I've gotta think about more than my own safety and well-being. But regardless — yeah, a "Dogma" followup's been swimming around in my head for some time now."

Smith later commented he was amazed that the post was picked up by the press and noted that he had only thought about it and had not actually written anything yet. Smith also stated that even if the project ever formulates, it is a very long way off.

A one-shot comic featuring Bartleby and Loki was announced by Smith in 2000. It was going to be a 50 (or so) page story detailing how these two angels confronted God and were kicked out of Heaven and forced to stay in Wisconsin. As of May 2009, the comic remains on Smith's agenda, but has not been worked on.

External links

• Official website
• Dogma at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Dogma at Box Office Mojo
• Dogma at Rotten Tomatoes
• Why are Catholics so set on dogging "Dogma"?
• God Stuff: Kevin Smith Chases Jehovah
• Kevin Smith considers 'Dogma 2'
• Radio Interview with Kevin Smith from FBi 94.5 Sydney Australia