The movie was Smith's fourth in just five years, after making a splash with his low-budget debut Clerks in Dogma reunited Matt Damon and Smith's frequent star Ben Affleck, who also appeared in Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl, as a pair of fallen angels who set off to exploit a loophole in Catholic dogma that would get them back into heaven. Despite being considered one of Smith's best movies, combining his trademark stoner comedy with an interesting plot and solid performances, it isn't available to stream online, or buy physically due to an outdated distribution model that won't be renewed because of the Weinsteins.
Alanis Morissette also makes a cameo as God in the film's final scene, but it turns out her role might once have been much larger. Metatron comforts Bethany as she copes with this revelation, and the group ponders who orchestrated the angels' plan. Metatron explains that God went to Earth in human form to play skeeball and has gone missing; apparently, someone knew enough to incapacitate God, leaving Him alive but unable to return to Heaven.
The group deduces that Lucifer has as much to lose if Bartleby and Loki succeed as anyone else. Arriving at the church, they fail to persuade Cardinal Glick George Carlin to cancel the celebration. When Bartleby and Loki reach the church, Bartleby begins massacring all in attendance. At a nearby bar, Azrael captures the heroes and explains 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.
Silent Bob kills Azrael with Cardinal Glick's blessed golf club; Jay, Rufus and Serendipity kill the Stygian Triplets by dunking their heads into sinks filled with holy water sanctified by Bethany. The heroes reach the church before Bartleby and Loki enter.
Loki's wings have been torn off by Bartleby; he is now human and decides to help the others. Bartleby kills Loki and fights off Rufus, Serendipity and Bob. Jay mentions John Doe Jersey Bud Cort , a comatose patient in a hospital across the street who was attacked outside a skeeball arcade and is being kept on life support. Hoping 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, allowing God to escape while inadvertently killing Bethany as a martyr. In the form of a woman, God Alanis Morissette manifests at the church before a remorseful Bartleby, and kills him with the power of Her voice. Silent Bob shows up with Bethany's bloodstained corpse. God resurrects Bethany and conceives another Scion inside her.
Smith also received over 3, pieces of hate-mail. This resulted in Disney-owned Miramax washing their hands of Dogma , selling the rights to the Weinstein brothers. However, those extremists fail to see the questions the director raised. He says that people should be less obsessed with believing in something and more interested in exploring ideas. Smith is asking for an understanding of not just faith and religion, but everything. Especially the functioning of all the religions. Such as the year gap between Jesus being told he was the son of God, to him being crucified.
Just look at the Platypus. In Clerks the camera stays static throughout the many periods of dialogue. Smith never uses his tool to amplify the storytelling visually. Working with Rushmore cinematographer and frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Robert Yeoman, Smith overcame several of his problems as a visual storyteller.
Composition wise, Dogma contains standard shot-reverse shot patterns that rarely push the boundaries, but the most strikingly staged sequence appears in the pictures opening scene…. As Bartleby and Loki are walking through an airport, Smith utilises the moving camera to his advantage.
In a well-choreographed one-shot, the director captures a variety of humorous activity in the background. Along with the two main protagonists providing an exposition. After all, it takes Catholic theology absolutely literally, and in such detail that non-Catholics may need to be issued Catechisms on their way into the theater not everybody knows what a plenary indulgence is. Sure, it contains a lot of four-letter words, because it has characters who use them as punctuation.
But, hey, they're vulgarities, not blasphemies. Venial, not mortal. Sure, it has a flawed prophet who never gives up trying to get into the heroine's pants, but even St. Augustine has been there, done that. They hear about a trendy bishop George Carlin who wants to give the church an upbeat new image. Anyone entering the cathedral will get a plenary indulgence which means that if you are in a state of grace, all temporal punishment for sin is remitted, and you can enter directly into heaven.
Bartleby and Loki see the loophole: Walk through the church's doors, and they qualify again for heaven. There is a problem with this plan apart from the obvious one, which is that church rules govern men, not angels. The problem is explained by Metatron Alan Rickman , an angel who appears inside a pillar of fire in the bedroom of Bethany Linda Fiorentino. After she douses him with a fire extinguisher, he explains that if the angels re-enter heaven, God will be proven fallible--and all existence will therefore end.
He tells Bethany that she is the last surviving relative of Jesus on Earth, that two prophets will appear to her, and that she must follow them in order to stop the angels and save the universe. Fiorentino is a laconic, edgy actress with an attitude. That makes her perfect for this role. In an earlier draft of Smith's screenplay, the character was a bimbo, but she's much better like this, grown-up and sardonic. It's fun to watch her handle the prophets, who turn out to be a couple of slacker mall rats Jason Mewes and Smith himself.
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