Posted by Lucifer Lyndon Razoodock at spider-tr083.proxy.aol.com on November 12, 2000 at 16:30:26:
In Reply to: Lemme try and answer this. posted by Alferd Packer on November 12, 2000 at 09:59:05:
: From what I remember, they DID complain about it (check the IMDb daily news logs. Week of September 10th, '99, I believe).
Must've had some effect too since MGM has been floundering ever since.
They must've laid-down a curse...no, wait, curses aren't Catholic.
Heh, what am I thinking of?
: But, see, with Stigmata, it never really changed what they believed, so to speak. There was the corrupt Cardinal, or whatever the fuck he was, but he was punished, he wasn't glorified or viewed as a hero, and what was happening to Patricia Arquette was the work of JESUS!!
Forget the corrupt Cardinal!! What about his fey underling? In fact, I'd go so far to say that there are distinct similarities between Pryce's dotingly loyal bespectacled assistant priest and "Tom," Stellan's right-hand man in "Good Will Hunting." A reference to a Kevin Smith-related project?
Mm, I would rather venture that Rupert's fond of Gus van Sant's as a director.
: But in Dogma, while much, MUCH more adherent to the Catholic faith, they got to see something they never dreamt of: angels who kill and curse! Suggestions that Christ was black! God is a woman! A thirteenth apostle who wanted to fuck shepard's daughters! THE VIRGIN MARY IS NOT A VIRGIN! Etc. Etc. And while all this is explained in Dogma, they idiot Catholic league-ers found it as a fault that it was presented in the FIRST place, and while it didn't change anything their faith was based on (amazing to note that the prospect of a black Jesus really pisses people off, even though, given his location, he WAS NOT white), it questioned things they had believed in forever, and really made them mad.
I'd always found it ironic that "short-haired" conservatives have since time immemorial worshipped a man who, dark or light-skinned, was essentially a long-haired hippie who was all about the transcendent peace and love.
You throw the black angle (black angel, heh) on top of that, then you've unearthed a complete paradox between the so-called spiritual beliefs of the white right...and their stubbornly unresolved social prejudices (which, forgive me Bush-mongers, continue to underline the "conservatism" of the hard-core Republican representatives).
Trying getting thyself to late-morning mass with all that on your noodle. It's not unlike chewing two aspirins at once with a Sunday morning hangover.
: Stigmata may have been an outright blasphemy, sure, but Dogma really made them think, and closed-minded religious zealots HATE to think.
"DOGMA"'s prime example of outright blasphemy is the amourous black apostle decreeing: "I just think it's better to have ideas."
The lack of applicable ideas shows "Stigmata"'s underlying devotion and the reverse shows why Kevin Smith transcends his white forebearers.
God forbid the young Christian intellectuals begin to have ideas.
Of course, God in whichever Form would never forbis such a thing.
I'm going to get back to my sketch now of the big bang exploding from within the lower half of a beatifically-blissed looking Alanis Morisette. You know, a piece of art for my parish.
--tom