One of director Kevin Smith’s most beloved – but also controversial – movies, Dogma, has seemingly vanished. The film, which remains his highest-grossing domestic release (by just a few hundred thousand dollars), was a considerable DVD hit back in the day, noted for its wildly un-PC commentary track where, amongst other things, Kevin Smith took aim at the film’s leading lady, Linda Fiorentino. It got a Blu-ray release, which is now out of print, but ever since then the film has been MIA, with it long unavailable on streaming, while old copies of the film cost a pretty penny if you can find them used. WTF Happened?
In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, we dig into all things Dogma. We explain how the film was a religious hot potato that the Disney-owned Miramax films refused to release theatrically, leading to the Weinstein Brothers, Harvey and Bob, buying back the rights themselves, which they still control. With Harvey likely behind bars the rest of his life, no one involved with the film wants him to profit from an eventual re-release, so this one is likely to stay buried for years to come, making it a movie that, for the time being, has gone underground. In the end, this might be a cool fate for a movie that was always pretty edgy and remains one of Smith’s most ambitious efforts.
In this episode, which is written by Bryan Wolford, edited by Cesar Gabriel and narrated by Mathew Plale, we also dig into how Smith assembled a dream cast that included Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, and even Alanis Morissette (as God) in a film that the Catholic Church once deemed an attack, but seems almost quaint and inoffensive nearly a quarter century later.
Do you think Dogma hold up? Should it be re-released even if Weinstein profits from it? Let us know in the comments!