Dogma

by Kevin Smith

Book Overview

One of the major hits of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, a film that proved too hot for Disney to handle, Kevin Smith's ribald, revolutionary new film Dogma is a comic theological fantasy that is sure to be one of this fall's most provocative offerings. Two fallen angels (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), sentenced to eternal exile in Wisconsin, are trying to get back into heaven. A renegade cardinal in New Jersey (George Carlin), as part of his "Catholicism...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802136796
• ISBN13: 9780802136794
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Love it!

Love it

Extremely creative

The only thing better than the script was the casting. It still can't hold up against Raisin Arizona but what can? This comedy is also a thinker and gets into religion which smart authors avoid. But Smith can pull it off with his "don't take everything so seriously" attitude. The dialogue is witty and rapid fire. It sells itself, hence the reason this tubby lunch box was able to recruit such an all star cast. So all of that being said, what the hell was Jay and Silent Bob strike back? The only analogy I can come up with is Caddyshack and Caddyshack 2. I hope he has more movies focusing on storyline rather than characters in the future. The guy is obviously very talented to go from a clerk at Blockbuster 10 yrs ago to starring with Hollywoods elite. It's good to see someone make it on creativity and determination.

If you liked the movie....

... you'll like the screenplay. If you haven't seen the movie, you'll probably still really like the book.For fans of dogma, the best part of this book is the little bits of dialogue that were cut from the movie, but are still in the screenplay. I've found that this actually makes the movie just a bit better, as it allows you to get just a bit more insight into the characters and plot. It's also nice to be able to catch the couple of bits of dialogue that you may not have been able to catch 100% of in the movie.If you haven't seen the movie, watch it as soon as you finish the book. But on the plus side, the book is a laugh out loud funny read, with a great plot, characters you actually care about, and a message worth thinking about.

even better than the movie

This screenplay is the best that I have ever read. Kevin Smith does a masterful job of weaving religous fact and fiction into a story that's both funny and thought provoking. It is my opinion that "Dogma" is Kevin Smith's best work yet. The dialogue is great, and even though a lot of the more dense stuff ended up on the cutting room floor, it still didn't clutter up the screenplay at all. I wish that they would have kept Jay and Silent Bob singing the theme from "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" in though. Oh well, maybe in the special edition DVD. This is a great read for Kevin Smith fans, aspiring screenwriters, or just fans of movies in general. Hats off to Kevin Smith for writing one of the great screenplays of all time.

A wonderful read, provided you can stand gross-out humour.

I'm in the precarious situation of not having seen the film but having read the screenplay about four times through already. So treat this as a pure book review.Kevin Smith's writing is entertaining, often very clean (only seldom lapsing into the hyper-verbose ball and chain that many screenwriters like Shane Black fall victim to). Dogma may be one of the few screenplays which a non-film person will be able to read just as a dramatic work. The dialogue sometimes gets to be as dense as in a novel, which leads me to wonder how much of the script ended up on the cutting room floor, but the concepts are intriguing and the characters highly charged. Unfortunately the last portion of the plot is incredibly dense and hard to follow. But as befits a Kevin Smith film/screenplay, once you buy into his sense of humour, Dogma is very entertaining indeed, without the cranial deficiency that so many indie screenplays suffer from.

I wish I could give more than 5 stars! Dogma is EXCELLENT!

This is some of Smith's best work. If you like smart, intelligent films (as opposed to jim carrey saying "Allll-righty then" 50 times in one movie), then this is for you! Proposing interesting points about Lewis Carol and the validation of religion through his writings. As well as controversial issues towards the Bible (claiming Moses was a drunk, Jesus could hear Joseph & Mary having sex, the existence of a 13th apostle, and a BLACK Jesus). Don't buy this book if you don't have a sense of humor towards religion! Otherwise, you'll laugh your butt off! I can't wait for the movie to be released in late 1999!