10. DOGMA- Kevin Smith’s raw, thoughtful look at Catholicism, this films controversial bombast (and the protests it caused)can’t obscure Linda Fiorentino’s excellent performance. Capsule Review- Howlingly funny movie about 2 angels who find a way to end their banishment from Heaven. Directed for maximum shock value by Kevin Smith. The slams at the Catholic church could offend some.

Kevin Smith became an instant indie darling with his wittily vulgar debut, ‘Clerks’, only to promptly fall off his pedestal when he went mainstream with ‘Mallrats’. He returned to favor with ‘Chasing Amy’,but is now dividing critical and public opinion with ‘Dogma’, a hot potato of a comedy that points out the failings of established religious institutions, in particular the Catholic Church. Disney washed its hands of the project when it seemed to conflict with its wholesome family image, passing it on to Miramax which then hand edit to another distributor in America. Smith himself is a staunch Catholic, and Dogma is unmistakably pro-faith, but that has not protected him from attacks by the right-wing Catholic League who picketed cinemas in America and crucified Smith in the press.

Stephen Applebaum talked to the writer/director about coming under siege from the God squad.

Kevin, is it true that you picketed your own movie?

When the movie came out in my town, I read in our paper that there was going to be a protest of 500 people. Now 500 people for a big city I can kind of get my head around, but 500 people for the suburbs? I wanted to see what was on their minds because I was really mystified by the whole thing. So my friend came with me and my wife, and we made up these signs saying ‘Dogma is Dogshit’ and ‘To Hell with Dogma’. When we got there,there was only about 15 people. And we had the best looking signs. Itwas really sad.

Did any of the protesters recognize you?

Their median age was about 55 to 60 and they wouldn’t recognize me from a hole in the wall. But it was really funny, because kids would periodically drive by and they’d be like: ‘Silent Bob!’

What do you think of the protesters?

I can’t really feel that bad about them because they remind me of my grandmother. I was just a little disappointed that there was no coffee and doughnuts. As much as they sat there demonising me, I couldn’t really be like: ‘Ooh, jerks!’ If that’s the way they feel about it,that’s the way they feel about it. They were acting out of ignorance.

Miramax wasn’t, it knew what it was getting and dropped the film….I was always a little disappointed that Dogma wasn’t going to have aMiramax logo on it. But at least Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought the movie. I just saw this weird fate with my film ending up on the back shelf with a great cast [Alan Rickman, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Linda Fiorentino] and nobody ever seeing the damn thing until it came out on video a few years later. They kind of treated it like a bastard orphan. But instead of giving it to an orphanage, they made sure we got to the right foster home.

One of your casting coups was Alan Rickman, who plays an angel. What washis feeling about wearing a prosthetic that rendered him sexless? He seemed to go down with it quite well, but I think he found the part where they had to measure him for it awkward. He says it’s like the opposite of the Boogie Nights prosthetic. Whereas Mark Wahlberg gets the long fake dick, he got the no fake dick at all. The worst part was the mechanical wings. They weighed about a hundred or so pounds, and they jerked him back and forth as we opened and closed them. He put his back out and had to lay up in a hospital for a while. I felt really bad about it. I mean here’s the dude working on the movie for scale, and then to boot we threw his back out and removed his dick. It was one indignity after another. Welcome to America!

Have any of the letters you received from people about the film disturbed you?

The only one that I will take to my grave was the letter that said ‘You Jews had better take that money you stole from us and start investing it in flak jackets, because we’re going to come in there with shotguns’.Most of the mail was dripping with anti-Semitism. It was really hardcore.

Did it make you feel uneasy walking around?

There was a point in the office when we couldn’t open any packages. It was a little disturbing for a while to think: ‘God, we’re not opening our mail because we made a movie about faith’. I now realize that America is such a hypocritical country. They talk about how free we are,and look at Europe and the rest of the world and go: ‘We’re so civilized; we’re so far advanced’. Meanwhile, this year, I received death threats for a movie about religion. Yeah we have more TV channels than you guys [in Britain], but that doesn’t make us any more civilized or any more advanced.