Religion is a subject that I tend to avoid, more of a live and let live policy. I am agnostic about religion, but I won’t begrudge you for your beliefs. As long as you don’t impose upon me your religious beliefs, everything is copacetic. There is something rather interesting about questioning a person’s religion and their belief structure. Often it is met with a defensive nature, at least in my experience, but often you get to see what makes the person tick or what makes them, well, them. There is a way to approach this subject of challenging and questioning religion that doesn’t really offend, but then I don’t like subtlety and eggshell walking, so why not just mock religion as a whole to get to the truth of it all.
Boy was I disappointed with this movie when it came out. It made itself out to be this epic action adventure with the focus of the story being on the crusades. Instead, I get truncated story about the crusades in order for the medieval action to become the set piece in a beautiful looking movie. Listen, I love action movies. There is nothing better than watching some medieval ass whooping with guys in armor and broadswords being swung like sticks with the intent to kill. If you are going to make a movie with incredible actors and place them in the setting of The Crusades, then there better be a story. If I wanted battles, I would go play Civilization or Rome Total Empire. I can get my fix that way.
So it my initial thought about the movie was that Ridley Scott is finally getting back into some epics. It looks great, I was pumped to see the cast, yes even Orlando Bloom, and it had the backdrop of the crusades to give us some historical perspective. The theatrical release was a mess and it wasn’t until the directors cut of the film that let me give it a second chance. What a vast difference the original intent of the movie had.
I was once a practicing Catholic. Actually let me rephrase that, I was once sent to Catholic school for 8 years of my life and the worse class that I performed in was Religion. My dad found it ironic that they sent me and my siblings to get a catholic education and failed the class that we should theoretically ace. I understand their reasoning for sending us there. They wanted to raise us right and having a strong relation to the faith will provide us a sense of guidance in life. As a child I was fascinated by the faith and much like the other children, I accepted what was taught to us, even if it might have been a bit ridiculous. In some instances, now that I am older and maybe wiser (not sure on that) I can look back on my time learning about the faith as a preparation for what lies ahead of me. I understand the faith and what it wants from me, but it ultimately isn’t for me. I lost the faith a long time ago and it was more a conscious, deep decision that I live with and don’t regret. I am happier in life knowing that there isn’t some form of unseen control and that I am the person who shapes my life.
So with a long winded explanation as to why I don’t practice the Catholic faith, which ultimately could have been summed up by saying I like my Sunday mornings to sleep in, I can get to the reason why I choose Dogma. Not only is it a fantastic movie, but it is a movie in which it looks the dogmatic practice of Christianity. It aims to not lampoon the faith, but present a story that challenges the belief of those that practice the religion.
