By Julia Kelm
Dogma, released in 1999 and directed by Kevin Smith, tells the tale of an abortion clinic worker, Bethany, played by Linda Fiorentino. The Metatron — the archangel who serves as the speaker for God — calls upon Bethany to save the world and entire human existence from being destroyed by two renegade angels, Loki and Bartleby, who are trying to exploit a loophole so they can return to heaven. Bethany goes on a quest to New Jersey, forming a group of unlikely characters to stop these angels.
This religious satire is an entertaining, unique, clever, and hilarious film that pokes fun at Catholicism in a way that hadn’t been done before. Cast names include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Chris Rock, and even Alanis Morissette makes an unexpected appearance in this film. My only gripe with the movie is that it’s a tad outdated, with a few unsavory jokes that I could do without.
However, even with everything the film had going for itself, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the film even before its release. The Catholic League, an American Catholic organization, found out about Smith’s screenplay for Dogma after it was leaked online. The Catholic League thought Smith’s script was unattractive, to say the least, and voices from the organization went to work on bad-mouthing a film they hadn’t even seen.
Because of this, the film was almost canceled. Originally, the film was supposed to be produced by Disney, but CEO Michael Eisner was afraid of offending The Catholic League and planned to shut Dogma down. However, an infamous Hollywood producer swept in to save Dogma.
Even with the bad press, Smith was determined to get his film to theaters. He even poked fun at the protesters, showing up at one of the meetups to bash the film alongside them. Despite Catholic boycotting, the film received fairly positive reviews and made $44 million dollars at the box office.
Unfortunately, Dogma is not on streaming sites or available to purchase anywhere, and it probably will not be for a very long time. Your best bet in finding a way to watch Dogma is by pirating it off a website or buying a bootleg DVD.
There are a few sites where you can look for this film, although I would recommend looking for a version of the film off of YouTube. Pirating movies online can potentially lead to getting viruses on your computer, so be careful and maybe look into a vpn before watching.
Now, how did this happen? Why can’t we watch Dogma normally? An interview done by The Wrap with Director Smith shined a light on this dilemma.
“In order to tell the story, unfortunately, I’m gonna have to say the name that nobody wants to hear anymore,” Smith said. “But of course, Harvey Weinstein figures into the story.”
The gist of the situation is that Smith worked with Miramax, a television production and distribution company that was notoriously owned and founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Because Harvey Weinstein came in to save Dogma when he did, he personally owns distribution rights to the film and is not allowing the film to be bought, rented, or streamed digitally, for whatever reason. Smith has tried to make offers to sell the rights back to him, but Weinstein always declined or asked way above a fair price.
So now, Dogma sits on the metaphorical shelf of films that will collect dust and ultimately be forgotten. It makes me upset when I think about all the lost media out there. All the faces, voices, and stories that will fade away because nobody will remember them. I think of the times I searched for a movie on Amazon and it said something like, “This title is not available right now,” and I just stared at the screen in dismay wondering what had happened. This is why I’m a big advocate of buying physical media whenever possible. Owning physical media is the only way to ensure it stays and doesn’t get forgotten. Plus, buying DVDs, CDs, vinyl, 8-track tapes, or whatever, often pays your favorite artists more than streaming does.
So next time you’re at a thrift store, take a minute to look at the stack of dusty DVDs and see if you can find a copy of Dogma. Or, better yet, some other movie you almost forgot about. Don’t let media be forgotten; keep it alive and let those stories be replayed forever.
Julia is a journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt. She loves film and is a regular on Letterboxd. To quote Robin Williams in her all-time favorite movie, Dead Poets Society, “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”