It was a very kind gesture of Kevin to take the time to sit and watch the flick with us, and to allow us to view it in such an early state, and we thank him again very much for the opportunity.

DOGMA
First Test Screening
December 15, 1998
OUR Dogma (3+ Hour Cut) Review…
The Intro: Dogma. You’ve heard the title whispered around the net and especially this site. You MAY have even (shame on you) read the script. You’ve seen the cast list, and been impressed and intrigued. You know the director (Kevin Smith) and love his past work. You know it’s supposed to cause a stir amongst organized religion. But what’s behind all the hype, the secrecy, and the controversy? Let’s dive in by slicing some of the major elements of the flick into pieces for analysis:
The Cast: The cast is superb all around. Though Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) is the film’s “main” character, the script allows the entire cast to share screentime quite nicely with each other. As the film progresses through its various segments. In fact, there ARE no minor characters in this film. You’ll get to know them all, and EVERYONE plays a critical role as they’re weaved together into the intricate storyline. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon completely take their onscreen chemistry in a TOTALLY different direction as fallen angels Bartleby and Loki. Alan Rickman brings a humorous, sarcastic life to Metatron that has to be seen to be appreciated. Any Monty Python fan would be proud. The beautiful Salma Hayek seems perfectly cast in her role of Serendipity, and George Carlin is better than ever…Again, an outstanding casting choice. Chris Rock drops in just in time to share some memorable dialogue with Jay & Bob. Finally, speaking of the duo, Jay & Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) give their largest, best, and most memorable performace (so far!). Affleck, Damon, Lee, and Rickman all take on roles unlike anything we’ve ever seen them perform before. The remaining cast members play the more standard part that you’d expect; not that this is a bad thing, it’s just a good way to get the point across, we think. And hell, it doesn’t hurt to see our silly selves walking through the scene early on in the film.
The Style: Like “Chasing Amy”, Dogma represents a departure from Smith’s past work, allowing him to expand onto bigger and better things (action, more camera movement, and special effects? You bet!), while maintaining that brilliant, insightful dialogue that makes his films so memorable. Speaking of dialogue, the film’s long running time has been brought up on many occasions; the cut we saw ran over 3 hours in total. The fact is, while Dogma contains a great deal of action, plenty of time is allowed for the many characters to talk, joke, tell stories, and the like. Whether all of this is essential or not seems to be the question. We say YES. Which leads us to…
The Length: This seemed to be the major problem of many of the test screeners. The version WE saw was even longer than the version screened last night. The new snipped running time clocks in at 2:30. Kevin cut lines of dialogue here and there, little by little, to get down to this time without sacrificing important scenes or plot points). Honestly, we can’t imagine it going any less. There’s a lot going on, and plenty of characters to keep track of. Part of the feel of the film is the involvment of ALL the players in the plot. To accomplish this without feeling rushed through it all, you gotta take the time. Dogma follows about 3 times the amount of characters as MOST other flicks. When you think of it in those terms, the 2:30 seems to make more sense. Still, we’re confident that Kev & Scott can trim some more bits here and there to help the pacing even more. In short, if you’re a Smith fan, you wouldn’t want ANYTHING cut out, but for mass consumption, the flick could probably stand for a little trimming. It’ll ALL be back on DVD though.
The Music: The version we saw was fully temp-tracked. Kevin told us that very little of the stuff we’d heard would actually be in the final flick, though we hope the “classic” tune that blasts during the strip club scene can stay intact. It’d make for a great soundtrack piece. Shame about the original composer being lost due to a conflict. We hope the replacement will be as good. The flick was great WITHOUT music, so we can only imagine what the right stuff in the right place will do to enhance the experience.
The FX: All the makeup effects were in place in the cut that we saw. We’re not sure if they will be touched up at all, though if this is possible we believe that they might be. Kevin pointed out all the places where digital effects would appear, so we had an idea, but none were even started at that time. Studio X (The Titanic guys) should have no problem getting what they want into the flick though, especially with the generous timeframe.
In parting….What’s Dogma like? Well, first, it’s FUNNY. VERY funny. This film contains some of the biggest laughs that we can ever recall (A diner scene between Jay, Silent Bob, & Bethany even outdoes the classic Chasing Amy/Silent Bob diatribe). We found ourselves laughing so hard that we had to do our best to make ourselves stop so we can hear the subsequent dialogue. Dogma also has the bravery to mix the humor with moments of great drama (a very memorable scene a bit over halfway into the film between Loki and Bartleby in a parking garage comes to mind). We hope that the test screening audience was a good, fair one, and that Dogma will remain the unique, entertaining, and epic picture that we saw a few short months ago. Any way you slice it, you’re in for a real treat this fall. Expect a film like you’ve never seen before.
Scoopers…
Well, I just have to say one thing WOW. That movie was so great in so many ways. I can’t wait until June when it is finally done and all the sound is corrected. I noticed one part that the movie went blank and then there was no sound. I wasn’t sure if it was the theater or the movie. But besides that, I really didn’t notice that it wasn’t done. I did notice that near the end when Bartelby and Loki are going to the church, that when the camera pans out, Bartlby is talking but his lips don’t sync up. Also, when he is coming down from the sky, you can see the rope bringing him down. Its kind of funny. I loved the movie. I was even part of the special discussion group afterwards. A lot of people didn’t like the strip club part because of the gang members. I loved that part. I was almost tempted to stand up and yell black rage. My friend and I were thinking the exact same thing. Well, I think that is all for now. I just couldn’t wait to tell you guys about this. But you already know. Can’t wait for the final release. [Anthony Dal Ferro]
Well, I made it in and did indeed love it. It’s definitely a departure from Kevin’s previous movies. The theater was full and I think 20 people were invited to a discussion after the film. Unfortunately, I was not one of them.
The plot summary posted at your site captures the essence of the film, but with all of Kevin’s movies it’s the dialogue and character devolopment which make them great. Jay and Silent Bob clocked the most on-screen time yet and really stole the show, with some of the funniest lines and moments. Overall the acting was very good, and I was especially happy to see Jason Lee again.
This was a rough cut of the film, and many of the special effects were not added yet. I hope the shit monster sees some rework. I’m afraid that it was a interesting concept not executed properly. It came off a little too corny.
The movie did seem a little long, however, it didn’t really drag at any point. I assume they are going to try and edit it down after the test screenings, but its hard to imagine what they are going to cut out. Maybe the shit monster? Hopefully they won’t drop the boardroom killing spree or the Fat Albert song. Both were hilarious.
I can’t wait to see the final cut when it comes out. [John Alessandro]
Kevin’s Take On The Event…
Too Verbose
That’s your’s truly.
So we had a test screening last night, and overall I was ecstatic with the audience reaction. Everyone seemed to be with it, and the scores – while not record-breaking – were cool to me. We made a challenging little film, and only 4% didn’t like it (put into perspective, that’s the lowest percentage for ‘Poor’ we’ve ever had on one of our flicks).
But the overall consensus was that it was too long.
So back into the editing room we go, for some further judicious cutting (which means an even longer DVD supplemental section down the road).
My thoughts on last night: it was nice to finally hear strangers reacting to something I wrote oh so long ago. Five years is a long time to wait for a reaction, and I was happy as hell with what I heard. Listening to the audience, I got to find out what was working and what wasn’t, and using that info, Scooter and I will be able to pull out some more stuff, and craft a better flick for the world to see.
The focus group was, as per usual, eye-opening. For those who don’t know, the ‘scores’ are cards that’re filled out by all in attendance (357), and then twenty cats are kept behind for what they call a ‘focus group’, wherein the person on charge asks a slew of questions about what people liked, didn’t like, what they thought about the actors, the story the length, the pacing, etc.
Everyone in the focus group thought it was original and dug the story. Of the actors, Ben and Mewes scored the highest, closely followed by Linda and Rock (I was lumped into the ‘Jay’ character, as we are – more or less – one guy, apparently). More cats thought the pacing was dead-on perfect, than not paced well. Mercifully, only one gent seemed confused by the plot. Some girl thought Silent Bob was too ‘bright’ (from my ‘rosey cheeks’ to my coat). Of the twenty, twenty thought it was excellent or very good.
But when it came to length, only six or eight folks thought it was perfect in length. The rest thought it needed to be ‘trimmed’, not cut to shreds, thankfully. So trim we will, I guess.
Overall, no surprises, really. We knew going in that there were cuts to be made still, and now we know what those cuts are.
But now I can’t wait for this puppy to hit theatres. If what we heard and read in the scores is any indication, it’s going to do some business and hit with audiences.
Vincent’s Take On The Event…
Having sat through the test screening last night, I think I can SOMEWHAT appreciate the purpose of test audiences – I don’t think it’s so much to SPECIFICALLY dictate what stays and goes from a film, but rather to get a feel for how the film plays overall to an audience. In the end, you are making a work of art that is to be seen by an audience – it’s not going to be locked up in some museum only to be seen by few. It is in essence POP ART, and after spending 5-6 months cutting the film in a digital format and watching it on low-resolution videotape by yourself or with maybe a few associates and co-workers, it kind of becomes hard to be objective. Having watched the film myself several times, scenes that seemed to go TOO QUICKLY on video played entirely different up on a big screen on film in front of an audience – in several places, I didn’t necessarily see lines or scenes that needed to be cut, but I did notice many cuts between SHOTS that could be trimmed – that is, the specific edits connecting the shots themselves could be tightened up. I think this type of editing alone will help clear up many of the ‘pacing’ issues brought up in those AICN reviews, without losing actual content. I think that’s the real value of test audiences – not listening to individual people telling you how best to make it the perfect film for them SPECIFICALLY, but seeing how the film actually plays on film in front of an audience.