Movement 105

However, not everyone saw it in quite the
same way, and even before Do6fma's
release, religious groups were lining up to
castigate a director they saw as
blasphemous, anti-Catholic, and profane.
lronic, considering that Dogma was
ultimately inspired by the RE classes of a
Franciscan nun back in a New Jersey
elementary school. Smith remembers, "She
humanised Christ... Suddenly Christ was
also a guy. And a guy with friends. And a guy
with friends who wasn't above taking the
piss out of them once in a while. Christ was
a walking, talking, dude... Here was a Christ
I could wrap my head around. Here was a
Christ I could actually endeavour to be like.
Here was a Christ that spoke to me, and
that was something I wanted to share with
other people. So years later, I wrote the
screenplay of Dogma."
It also humanises Christ, and not just in
the statue with the cheesy grin, unveiled as
part of the 'Catholicism - Wow!' campaign
either. Alan Rickman's Voice of God
recounting to Linda Fiorentino how he had
to explain to the twelve year-old Jesus who
he really was, for example, has a poignancy
that has the potential to speak to everyone
in human terms, regardless of their spiritual
orientation. Dogma isn't a film about
religion - it's a film about faith.
Iifl:rlif;;ln?,r;lnffi,",
character, Silent Bob, in the role of a
prophet, showing the same quiet sense of
irony that led him to turn up anonymously to
one of the protests against his own film.
The fact that God is played by Alanis
Morissette is also more of a paean to her
ethereal good looks than a calculated V-sign
to the Pope. The 'gender of God' isn't the
point. Neither is the 'dogma' itself - Smith's
enthusiasm for comic books turns out a
pageant of characters that hover halfway
between a Marvel Comic and the Gospel of
St Mark. Angels, demons, monsters,
muses, and Smith's ubiquitous heroes Jay
L Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith (aka Jay and Si/ent Bob)
and Silent Bob pound their way through a
brash road-fantasy with courage, a heart
and a brain. Complaining that the theology
is dodg! is like complaining that The Wizard
of Oz is factually inaccurate. You've clearly
missed the point.
The film's strength seems to lie in a
quiet self-confidence. Smith doesn't feel the
need to justify his faith, and while the movie
may resemble a flamboyant extravaganza of
Catholic allegory, the heart of the movie is
firmly fixed on the search for personal faith,
which leaves it inclusive. "Remove the
trappings of our day-to-day reality and the
world," says Smith, "and you are left with
your faith, whether it be in Jesus Christ,
Buddha, Elijah, Mohammed, Ganesha,
nature, the earth, the stars, whatever." He
explains, "Faith is the glue that holds us
"Suddenty Christ
was a guy with
friends who wasn't
above taking the
piss out of them
once in a while.
Here was a Christ
I could wrap my
head around. "
movement 5
together and binds us (kind of like the
Force.) lt's something we all have in
common - even if you're not a religious
person." Dogma even closes with an
aphorism that would keep any hardened
pluralist happy as well - the idea that it
doesn't matter what you have faith in, as
long as you have faith.
ls this a cop out? Possibly. But Smith is
a movie maker, not an evangelist, and his
sense of humour, irony, and appreciation of
a damn good fart joke, combined with his
ability to write dialogue that packs an
emotional punch has produced another
movie that leaves you smiling, feeling, and,
most importantly, thinking. C/erks and
Chasing Amy were brilliant because they put
onto the big screen the stuff that no-one
else had thought of saying, probably
because it was too painful, or too juvenile,
or both. Dogma works in a similar way, and
it is probably with Sister Theresa in mind
that Smith reflects, "Religion only comes
alive when you don't take the standard look
at it. Religion comes alive sometimes
through a different view."
And, let's face it, if we weren't good
Christian people, then we'd just have to
worship Kevin Smith.
Claire Marie Horsnell is a member of
Warwick SCM.
For the most ludicrously large website see
www.dogma-movie.com. lt includes the
Catholicism Wow! logo, Kevin Smith's diary
and examples of what happens with props
when filming is done.