Posted by Baby Dave at 98ce92b3.ipt.aol.com on November 16, 1999 at 20:37:23:
Dear Mr. Smith, I am a huge fan of yours (not the sci-fi breed, but rather fan of funny shit) and, like everyone else, an aspiring filmmaker.
Most importantly though, I'm a 16-year old religeous Jew.
Seeing DOGMA for me more was an experience in great filmmaking, the evolution of a filmmaker (and his plan) and the hope that it reaches other the way it did my friend... Well, more about that:
A very good friend of mine (who will remain innamed) is a *HUGE* fan of yours, and to him your flicks might as well be holy. I recently found out that he's an athiest, something I don't condone among the general public, but for some one like him with such an upbringing it's really been bothering me. What it basically came down to was me saying, "you don't BELEIVE that God exists; I do KNOW he exists," and him calling me closed minded because my beleive preached the falsity of his (as is so often true iwth the right and left sides of any issue.)
So this Sunday was another dude's birthday, so a LOT of us went to see DOGMA (excellent flick, by the way.) We practially bought out the show there were so many of us.
The film touched all of us, and although I may disagree with the symantecs of, let's say, the way you treated "free will" and God with Bartleby, the fact is that what is the BASIS of the arguments in the film -- the givens, that is -- all become accepted by the audience.
ie: the Truth of faith.
At the john after the flick, I asked my freind, "so are you still an athiest," I asked jokingly.
"I've actually been thinking about that..." He said, becuase the inevitable conclusion had reached him as it had us -- DEAL with it; your anger or denial of God's reasonings for things. Accept his role in your daily life and the world.
Therefore I thank you, Mr. Smith, from the bottom of my heart and every person on this earth, for planting in the mind of one person the seed of possibilty towards faith. That alone accomplished, you can finish it all up a made man. You started the process in him, and that's a glory worth more then any man can say.
(And I loved the bit where Jay gets the "Holy Bartender" joke, too.)
-R
P.S: (In response to a subtle theme in DOGMA,) as a child I DID question my faith. I asked my father, "how do whe KNOW that we're right. Because everyone else, they also think that they're right." He just said that that's how it is, and also that any religieon that beleives in 1 God also beleives in Judaism. I didn't get it.
A few years ago, I began to. And my friend ("D") just did. Sorry for babbling, but I hope that this gives you the juice to make another equally finely developing set of films.
Best of luck with the kid,
Ronen.