The Case for Remaking Dogma
Feb. 10th, 2015 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastDogma is the movie in which Bethany Sloane, tasked by an angel, must stop two angels from returning to Heaven, thus proving God wrong, thus nullifying all of existence. It's an entertaining movie, but it wants to be deep and controversial, especially controversial.
One might take the fact that Dogma was picketed by the Catholic League as proof that Dogma, the movie, is, in fact, controversial. The fact that the protests were planned, for the most part, without even watching the movie would suggest any actual controversy is... not actually indicated.
Throughout Dogma, one can see pleas to find controversy within. It starts out with a comedic disclaimer, practically begging all viewers to see the controversy within. Bethany Sloane works in an abortion clinic (and may or may not be a doctor who performs abortions for a living). At the start of the movie, a priest makes a reference that indicates assisted suicide will make an important point later on.
Either one of these would be quite controversial, particularly in a movie about Christianity, except that they're not addressed. They're referenced.
Similarly, the angels are banished from Heaven due to their response to the 10th plague on Egypt. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is also referenced. Both of these would make a good opportunity to discuss and challenge the notion of Divine Command morality. That opportunity comes and goes with barely a wave.
The villain of the film, Azrael, identifies his desire to no longer suffer Hell as his motivation. If you've seen the movie, you'd know that his solution is both extreme and the only one available to him. The Problem of Hell doesn't even get a wave.
For all that Dogma wants controversy and courts controversy, it just isn't controversial. Its message is just a form of fuzzy, liberal Christianity with some nice feelings... and that's not even a sentence. It's just a sense. Okay, it's less cruel and restrictive than the public image that Christianity usually gets, especially these days. But, it's still just a sense.
Just as with Bruce Almighty, the answer lies in the concepts of Maltheism and Gnostic Heresy. And, it doesn't need to change much at all.
Remember that a part of the premise is that the underpinning of all reality is that God is all knowing. Therefore, proving God wrong undoes reality. There are two options here, neither of them would speak well of God.
Option 1. God lied. This, by the way, wouldn't be an unbiblical concept. The bible does refer to God sending prophets false visions to cause them to believe untrue things. What's more, Genesis arguably has God lying.
Option 2. God actually did that. Seriously. Consider that the stakes of the whole movie are based on God having effectively taken all reality hostage against the notion of God ever being wrong. And that is super-villain level evil... if you only separate it from the Jesus Problem*.
One easy fix would be having Bethany Sloane require a price for her service, back when she agrees to take on the task in the first place. This would have biblical founding, by the way. Abraham and Lot both argued with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses haggled over the covenant.
The second part of this fix would happen at the end. Bethany would pause things just before the total end and call in the price, the price would be holding God to task for this and other actions of God, established in the movie. It would involve taking God to task on behalf of the banished angels, on behalf of Azrael, on behalf of all reality.
That's easy for me to say as an atheist. But, God doesn't have to be wrong. There can be some totally satisfying reason... that Bethany gets but the audience does not. The point is to have God challenged in the first place and to have that challenge acknowledged as valid.
There are other changes I'd make to fix, but I don't want to spoil too much as Dogma is an entertaining film... and also because I still long for comments. So, please discuss the kinds of changes you might make in the comments.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/3214.html
One might take the fact that Dogma was picketed by the Catholic League as proof that Dogma, the movie, is, in fact, controversial. The fact that the protests were planned, for the most part, without even watching the movie would suggest any actual controversy is... not actually indicated.
Throughout Dogma, one can see pleas to find controversy within. It starts out with a comedic disclaimer, practically begging all viewers to see the controversy within. Bethany Sloane works in an abortion clinic (and may or may not be a doctor who performs abortions for a living). At the start of the movie, a priest makes a reference that indicates assisted suicide will make an important point later on.
Either one of these would be quite controversial, particularly in a movie about Christianity, except that they're not addressed. They're referenced.
Similarly, the angels are banished from Heaven due to their response to the 10th plague on Egypt. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is also referenced. Both of these would make a good opportunity to discuss and challenge the notion of Divine Command morality. That opportunity comes and goes with barely a wave.
The villain of the film, Azrael, identifies his desire to no longer suffer Hell as his motivation. If you've seen the movie, you'd know that his solution is both extreme and the only one available to him. The Problem of Hell doesn't even get a wave.
For all that Dogma wants controversy and courts controversy, it just isn't controversial. Its message is just a form of fuzzy, liberal Christianity with some nice feelings... and that's not even a sentence. It's just a sense. Okay, it's less cruel and restrictive than the public image that Christianity usually gets, especially these days. But, it's still just a sense.
Just as with Bruce Almighty, the answer lies in the concepts of Maltheism and Gnostic Heresy. And, it doesn't need to change much at all.
Remember that a part of the premise is that the underpinning of all reality is that God is all knowing. Therefore, proving God wrong undoes reality. There are two options here, neither of them would speak well of God.
Option 1. God lied. This, by the way, wouldn't be an unbiblical concept. The bible does refer to God sending prophets false visions to cause them to believe untrue things. What's more, Genesis arguably has God lying.
Option 2. God actually did that. Seriously. Consider that the stakes of the whole movie are based on God having effectively taken all reality hostage against the notion of God ever being wrong. And that is super-villain level evil... if you only separate it from the Jesus Problem*.
One easy fix would be having Bethany Sloane require a price for her service, back when she agrees to take on the task in the first place. This would have biblical founding, by the way. Abraham and Lot both argued with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses haggled over the covenant.
The second part of this fix would happen at the end. Bethany would pause things just before the total end and call in the price, the price would be holding God to task for this and other actions of God, established in the movie. It would involve taking God to task on behalf of the banished angels, on behalf of Azrael, on behalf of all reality.
That's easy for me to say as an atheist. But, God doesn't have to be wrong. There can be some totally satisfying reason... that Bethany gets but the audience does not. The point is to have God challenged in the first place and to have that challenge acknowledged as valid.
There are other changes I'd make to fix, but I don't want to spoil too much as Dogma is an entertaining film... and also because I still long for comments. So, please discuss the kinds of changes you might make in the comments.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/3214.html
