Dogville

I recently started a Faith&Film Fest at church where we are exploring the ideas of judgment and grace.  A few people have asked me to blog on the films, since they were not able to make the event.  So, here goes.

The first film we watched was Dogville.  If you have not seen this film, I *highly* recommend it - even though it may be one of the most difficult films you ever watch.  Just a little info on the film before I reflect.  What makes this movie so fascinating is that Lars von Trier does not use a traditional set - instead the whole film is shot in a chalk-outlined town.  The props are few and far between, and the actors open and close imaginary doors.  Additionally a mild voiced narrator walks you through the film - and his voice remains mild, even when it does not fit the action that is going on in the screen.  Some view the artistic choices as pretentious - I see them as brilliant.

The film is all in all entirely fake.  So in that way it lures you in, allowing you to believe that what will unfold will not disturb you because it is so obviously not real.  But that is the irony of Dogville - while it is all fake on the outside it is a film that crawls under your skin and sinks deep into your bones.  You cannot just pop this film in and sit back - you journey with this film.

Dogville centers around the character of Grace - who comes to the town of Dogville under mysterious and seemingly dangerous circumstances.  What happens when Grace comes to town?  Well, everything changes.  At first it seems to go well, but by the end of the film - with just gradual changes in the characters and relationships - you have found yourself in such an unimaginable mess that you do not know how you got there or how to get out.  The end leaves you more torn than any film I have ever seen.

Okay - so that's all I'll say about the actual content of the film - since I really do want you to watch it.  But the thing that we explored together as a group was grace without judgment.  Often we think that grace means we let people off the hook - we tell them that a wrong done against us is not a big deal.  We in a sense martyr ourselves because we want to be merciful and kind.  

But this film exposes that when we seek to extend grace without truly acknowledging the wrong we are not being graceful at all - we are being arrogant.  In our attitude we are in a sense saying to the one who has wronged us, "I will not hold you to my standard - there is no way you could be as good as me.  So, I'll just let it slide since you can't do any better."  This grace allows us to maintain a stance of superiority over others while feeling like we are sacrificial and selfless.  

But true grace exposes the wrong - it brings it into light.  Not to punish the wrong, but to truly be reconciled in it.  Where the film leaves you torn is that Grace leaves the town - reconciliation does not happen - vengeance does.  In this film Grace and judgment cannot live together.  And I would argue apart from the Cross it does not happen in our lives either.  The cross is the movement towards true grace - for when we all look upon it we are all found guilty - and yet we are all found forgiven, loved, and accepted.  The cross is not about the wrongs, but it does not over-look the wrongs.

God's stance of grace towards us is not about letting us off-the-hook.  It does not excuse our sin simply because we cannot do any better - after all we're just human right?  No - the cross acknowledges that we are meant for more - and that sin is not acceptable.  God does not lower God's standard for what it means to be human - God does not allow humanity to be equated with sin.  God enables us to achieve a divine standard through the grace of the cross.  The cross exposes our humanity - by inviting us out of the standard we hold ourselves to and enabling us to become a human as God would have us be.  This is why we return to the cross over and over again - because we continually need to be lifted up to God's divine standard through God's endless grace.

So, what Dogville shows us is that grace and judgment are not opposite.  There is no grace apart from judgment.  But judgment does not mean vengeance - or at least not in God's ways.  Judgment must happen for us to receive grace - otherwise we are mere victims of our circumstances.  Grace does not remove our ability to choose - it honors it.  And judgment does not remove our need for mercy, it exposes it.  Judgment and grace - at least in God's world - go hand-in-hand.