MovieChat Forums > Dogville (2004) Discussion > This film is not Anti-American

This film is not Anti-American

posted 8 years ago by Beehat
1 reply | jump to latest

It's not an anti-American film, it's a critique of Western civilization as a whole which uses America as its template. The credits aren't wholly a dig at America, it's saying that the problem the film sees in the Western world comes from the ground up.

Now, what is the film trying to say? It's trying to say that there is a fundamental problem in the Western philosophical thought that is the foundation of our societies, namely any philosophical thought that is influenced by the New Testament views on forgiveness.

If you look at the film it's basically the retelling of the New Testament but inverted.

The city = heaven, Grace = Jesus, mafia boss dad = Old testament God, Dogville = humanity, Chuck - Satan (comes from the city, intimately linked with apples ect.)

Basically it's the story of "Jesus" changing her mind from universal salvation through forgiveness to Old testament "fire and brimstone" punishment.

Now if the film is right or not is debatable but it's main take away point is that Christian thought on forgiveness, mainly that anyone and everyone can be absolved of their sins, fails to hold to account the evils humans are capable of and that this failure is extremely damaging to our societies.

The films message is applicable to all Christian influenced Western civilizations, it's just that America was the canvas.

[–] bpollen 7 years ago

It's about humanity's nature. Not about western civilization.

It's not religious, unless a viewer is religious and wants to see it that way.

It's not so very different from, say, what happened in pre-WWII Germany with the Jews. Or what happened in America with slavery. What would a group of people do, the movie asks, if it finds it has a person, or people, at a disadvantage? How far would it go?

History has shown us how far humanity will go. But I think that not all humans will be that way, and history showed us that, too. All Germans were NOT like the Nazi sympathizers. And all Americans were NOT in favor of slavery. In that sense, I disagree with the premise of Dogville that all inhabitants would act the same way. There will always be some that do not.