To bring finality to our viewing of Kevin Smith's Dogma, I'm curious to know what you thought of the film, its portrayal of religion and faith, as well as its presentation of the major themes which have appeared thus far in the course. Namely free will, fairness, and aspiring to godhead.
Also, as one who enjoys film, because if I can assume correctly that's why we're here, after all, can you bringing a critical eye to this film's presentation on the tele?
To simplify, what are some of the pros and cons of the film? Did you find anything particularly jarring or dissatisfactory about the movie? Pour your soul into this response, and you'll be eternally rewarded!
"God always has a plan" or some variation of it is a very common saying, especially after some kind of tragedy. One of the most striking messages of Dogma seemed to be that, come an emergency, God does not have a plan, and in fact needs something of a savior. Everyone needs a little help sometimes, even God. The angels, the demons, the muse, all the divine figures are far from infallible, and at the end of the day it's only a human being who saves the day. To humanize the divine, the one thing which by nature cannot be humanized, is an interesting tendency that dates back to even John Milton and carries on to modern adaptations. Dogma is particularly unapologetic with this- God is kidnapped, beaten, and put in a coma, a blatantly human position of vulnerability. To trivialize what we revere seems to be a human habit. Perhaps it can be traced back to human curiosity: we can't stand to be unable to understand something, so we break down and simplify things that are difficult to conceptualize.
ReplyDeleteDogma and Conflict
ReplyDeleteConflict is an essential part of storytelling. It acts as the skeleton of metaphors, and the catalysts of narrative. As this is a class of war, I intend to analyze the way that Dogma presents war and conflict as an audiovisual medium.
Dogma embarks to tell its story by showing conflict from the very beginning when a trio of mysterious hockey punks attack a man enjoying the sun. This is a common director tactic, because fights are in-essence exhilarating and provide a powerful hook for the audience. But this fight appears to be the most visceral example of war that we see in the movie because other conflicts, such as the gang-fight with a feces monster or a climactic attack by a rebel angel all appears off screen. Fights the audience visibly sees, such as an SMG attack on a bartender, are presented as less significant because the volume of the weapon is reduced considerably. Even the aforementioned opening scene becomes less significant as the movie progresses because the music used for that theme does not represent the conflict, but instead plays even when the trio is sitting on a sofa doing nothing.
The compiled examples prove to me that the director, Kevin Smith, is intentionally underutilizing the audiovisual tools available to him during these fights. This choice places more significance on dialogue and narrative. Scenes without fights become more significant because physical conflicts will not outshine them. That style of focus is inherent in written text such as the bible, meaning the presentation of Dogma mirrors the texts that inspired it in a strange satirical way.
Dogma on the whole focuses on God, His (or hers in the movie's case) overarching powers and holiness. In that sense, it seems that the movie was perhaps a bit of a let down. The only truly show of God's powers were the miracle baby at the end and the destruction of Bartleby. It's a downplay of God's abilities that He was able to be captured by a team of minor demons. Yet it all plays together well, because whereas in a a different movie this portrayal of an air head God would come across as disrespectful, in Dogma, when paired with the overall light hearted nature of the film, it works.
ReplyDeleteThe movie also does a good job of capturing key biblical themes, such as the concept of free will and the inevitable differences that arose when God created angels and humans. Watching Bartleby grapple with the knowledge that God gives humans much more leeway than He ever gave angels lined up with Milton's analysis of Satan's character, and the events that might have driven Lucifer to rebel against heaven. Ironically, the Bartleby and Loki have very human emotions, motivated by an "it's not fair" ideology.