When it was reported on Monday morning that Rupert Wainwright's "Stigmata" had grossed $18.3 million during its first weekend, Kevin Smith — who had nothing to do with the film — didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"The last six months have been horrible," said Smith, in his hotel room overlooking this city, where his controversial new film, "Dogma," was shown during last week's Toronto Film Festival.

"'Stigmata' is just the latest thing to happen."

Smith has no beef against "Stigmata," its makers or the audience who turned out for it — even though he, as a practicing Catholic, sees it as a direct assault on the church and its moral integrity. What irks him is the silence with which "Stigmata's" success was greeted by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, an ad-hoc organization that intimidated Disney into ordering its subsidiary Miramax Films to dump "Dogma."

"I watched 'Stigmata' open to nearly $20 million this weekend and there's not a lick of protest," said Smith, the indie film maker best known for "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy."

'Dogma'

"Nowhere is [Catholic League President] Bill Donohue pounding on a desk, saying, 'This must be stopped!' That movie maintains that there's a conspiracy where the church doesn't want you to know there's a hidden Gospel in which Christ said we don't need a church. It has a cardinal who attempts to kill somebody. And nothing from Donohue!"

Actually, Donohue issued a statement before "Stigmata" came out, reacting to its trailer, which Donohue condemned for goriness, adding that it would die of its own accord because it's a "bomb." That's not very strong theological erudition, and it isn't much as film criticism, either.

Smith is quick to add that the Catholic League has no business attacking "Dogma," "Stigmata" or any other movie. But where's the common sense? Why do they give a pass to "Stigmata" and get rabid over a broad farce?

"Dogma" is a movie that — in addition to a black Thirteenth Apostle who drops out of the sky, a pair of conniving, vengeful angels, two clueless, babe-chasing prophets and the notion that God is a woman — features a demon who rises from the muck of a septic backup, only to be KOd with a spray of air freshener. .

Smith's film is a National Lampoon-style farce, whose religion jokes are to Catholicism what John Belushi's exploding zit impression in "Animal House" is to dermatology.

"Dogma" is classic college humor, irreverence for its own sake, and neither animals nor Catholics were harmed during its production. It stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as angels who were cast out of heaven for overzealousness while on assignment in Sodom and Gomorrah. They didn't fall as far as Lucifer. Instead, they were exiled to the cheesehead state of Wisconsin.

When they receive an anonymous tip about a loophole in God's law that might allow them back into heaven, they go on a mission that takes them to a church in Baltimore presided over by a priest played by (thunder clap here) George Carlin. Along the way, they run into the last descendant of Christ, a woman (Linda Fiorentino), and eventually face God herself.

Smith doesn't know whether the Catholic League has helped or hurt his film's fate. All most people have heard about the movie is that it got into trouble with an officious-sounding watchdog group and that Disney buckled and made Miramax chuck it.

In fact, Miramax chiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought "Dogma" themselves, reimbursing Miramax — i.e., Disney — for its costs. Then, they made a deal with the Canadian company Lions Gate Films to distribute "Dogma" throughout North America. (It will be open commercially in November.) When the deal was announced, Lions Gate was immediately attacked by a Canadian group for aiding and abetting blasphemers.

"People say, 'Don't worry about it, at least it's drumming up publicity for the movie,'" Smith says. "I would much rather pay for a commercial in prime time than take an inch more of this bull----. I know I made a pro-faith movie, a pro-God movie. I made a movie that, at the end of the day, is pro-Catholic.

"Still, they have to label me anti-Catholic, anti-Christian and anti-God. Next time, I'll just make a stupid stoner flick and leave it alone."

Of course, with his film opening in between 1,200 and 1,500 theaters, there's a good chance Smith may yet have the last laugh.

Original Publication Date: 09/19/1999

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