NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The Disney Company, by sidestepping a film belittling the Catholic Church, has evidenced a glimmer of moral/religious concern for the third time in less than five months.
Disney’s Miramax subsidiary is dropping a film titled “Dogma,” according to reports in Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and numerous other media April 8. By several assessments, the film promises to offend Christians as deeply as the 1988 film, “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
Disney has been associated with the film’s production for several years, noted Donald Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
The dropping of “Dogma,” Wildmon said, is another evidence “that the boycott is having an impact,” through the efforts of numerous evangelical groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“Disney could have done this a long time ago. They elected not to. The only reason they’re doing it now is they know it will further fuel the boycott. And they don’t want that,” Wildmon said.
“Dogma” includes:
— a Skee-ball-addicted “God” played by pop star Alanis Morissette, who, according to the Catholic League, is “known for her nude videos and songs about oral sex.”
— a Jesus who, according to the New York Post, is “an updated Christ who no longer hangs from the cross but instead offers a thumbs-up salute.”
— a foul-mouthed 13th apostle who, according to the Catholic League, “resembles Howard Stern,” the radio personality seeking to make a name for himself via moral depravity.
— a story line in which one of Virgin Mary and Joseph’s descendants becomes a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic.
Disney, in addition to dropping its involvement with “Dogma,” has twice acknowledged problems with its fare in the past five months:
— At the beginning of the year, Disney announced its first-ever video recall — of 3.4 million copies of the animated “The Rescuers” — stemming from two frames, among 110,000 in the film, which showed a photo of an unclothed woman. The costly recall stood in contrast to previous Disney denials of objectionable images in various films, including “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
— Disney Chairman Michael Eiser, in a three-page letter to the company’s shareholders, reflected on Disney’s disappointing 1998 box office: “… in too many instances, profits did not materialize from the revenues achieved by our films. Stated more bluntly, either the films and marketing cost too much, or the audience rejected our ideas. Whatever the reason, we’re glad fiscal ’98 is over in this area.” Additionally, Eisner was quoted in media reports as saying Disney plans to release more family oriented films in 1999.
Economically during fiscal 1998, Disney’s net income rose only 4 percent and its stock fell 5.6 percent, according to Bloomberg Business News, and Eisner’s bonus for 1998 of $5 million was pared from 1997’s $9.9 million, a subject Eisner did not address in his letter to shareholders.
“Dogma,” which includes a cast of such prominent stars as young actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and comedians Chris Rock and George Carlin — will still make its way to theaters.
The heads of Miramax, brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, have personally purchased all rights to “Dogma” for a reported $10 million or $11 million, with plans to sell domestic distribution rights to an unrelated company.
The arrangement likely will become a way by which Disney and other major studios attempt to minimize their involvement with risky films, according to one report.
“Stick a different label on it, create a new company, put it out under that and create a shield for the parent company,” Hollywood Reporter executive editor Stephen Galloway told the business news program “Marketplace” on public radio April 8.
“And, I’m sure that’s what you’re going to see happening from now on,” Galloway said.
Catholic League President William Donohue, in an April 8 news release, said his organization now will target the Weinsteins and whichever company “is dumb enough” to handle the distribution of “Dogma.”
Donohue recounted, “In December, Playboy commented on ‘Dogma’ by saying, ‘If members of the Catholic League don’t picket this one, they’re comatose.’”
Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he is “appalled that any major film distributor would make and distribute a file as blasphemous and as deliberately inflammatory toward people of religious faith as ‘Dogma’ is. … This movie will outrage Roman Catholics and will severely dismay Christians of other faiths.
“What I find very interesting about this episode,” Land noted, “is that in the past when complaints were made about earlier Miramax films such as ‘Priest,’ an extremely controversial and offensive film about an homosexual Catholic cleric, Disney executives claimed they had no editorial control over Miramax. As far as I know no formal change has taken place in the corporate agreements between Miramax and its parent company, Disney. In other words, Disney could have acted to distance itself from these earlier films if it had chosen to do so.”
Miramax, in a statement quoted by The New York Times April 8, said “Dogma” “should be taken as a whole: a satire from a film maker who himself is a practicing Catholic with a solid foundation of love and reverence to faith.”
The film’s director, Kevin Smith, told The Times his film was “from first to last always intended as a love letter to both faith and God almighty.”
Donohue told The Washington Times, meanwhile, “This is not a love letter — it’s hate mail.” He added, “If Jews can complain about [Palestinian sympathizer] Vanessa Redgrave in movies playing Jews, we can complain against this.”
The Catholic League launched its Disney boycott in 1995 over Miramax’s “Priest.” In 1998, the organization revved up again against the Disney/ABC show “Nothing Sacred,” which featured a priest with an array of liberal views at odds with the Catholic Church.
The American Family Association also began its Disney boycott in 1995, citing a decline in moral and family values at the entertainment conglomerate from the days of founder Walt Disney. The boycott has since been joined by the Southern Baptist Convention (in 1997), Focus on the Family, the Assemblies of God, Concerned Women for America and other religious groups.
Last fall for the first time, Disney’s involvement in the nation’s largest soft-core pornography cable channel, Viewer’s Choice, was revealed in a new book, “Disney: The Mouse Betrayed.” Husband-and-wife authors Peter and Rochelle Schweizer reported Viewer’s Choice officials would not disclose Disney’s ownership status, but the officials said no other company holds a larger stake in the channel.
Among earlier concerns raised by proponents of the Disney boycott are the Disney-owned ABC initiative to make “Ellen” the first sitcom with a lesbian lead character on network TV; films of objectionable violent and/or sexual content, such as the Miramax subsidiary’s “Pulp Fiction” and “Kids;” cooperation with homosexuals holding “Gay Days” at Disney theme parks; extending health benefits to partners of homosexual employees; and the Hyperion subsidiary publishing of books promoting homosexuality, such as “Growing Up Gay.”
The SBC boycott resolution in 1997 noted, “… this is not an attempt to bring The Disney Company down, but to bring Southern Baptists up to the moral standard of God,” because: “Everything Christians possess of time, money, and resources is given to them by God as a stewardship for which they will give an account before a holy God … .” The resolution urges “all Southern Baptists to graciously communicate the reasons for their individual actions to The Disney Company and other companies,” noting Disney “is not the only such provider” of morally objectionable movies and televisions programs.
