Dogs and Sodomites

My wife has been telling me to write a post on Dogville, a Lars von Trier movie from 2003, so I might as well oblige. You might not want to read this if you haven’t seen the film and want to; I’m going to try to avoid spoiling too much, but might not succeed. This was a weird movie, with very minimal scenery, hence often looking more like a play than a film. Buildings were simply outlined and labeled, with occasional furniture shown inside.

The plot involves a woman named Grace, played by Nicole Kidman, who visits the isolated town of Dogville. At first it appears to be a friendly, idyllic small community; but the townspeople soon turn on Grace. She is chained up, made to perform slave labor, and raped repeatedly. Without giving too much away, I will say that in the end she exacts a brutal revenge, so that nobody ends up looking good. Was that the whole point of the movie? I don’t know. I did think there was a lot of influence from the Biblical story of Sodom, and I know I’m not alone in thinking this. Part of it is that the King James translation of the Bible tends to use “Sodomites” and “dogs” interchangeably. The way I see it, it has to do with the way dogs hump each other to show dominance, which is reflected in how the people of Sodom used rape to put strangers in their place. The fate of Dogville is also quite similar to that of Sodom. I also saw some possibility that it was at least partially a comment on the need for authority and a proper justice system. While located in Colorado, Dogville was so out of the way that its citizens didn’t bother voting and the police only came around on rare occasions. It didn’t help matters that Grace had reason to be afraid of the police, which allowed the townspeople to do anything they wanted to her with no repercussions. When they finally do get their comeuppance, it’s at the hands of gangsters, and quite horrific. There was no real sense of justice that I could see. Overall, this was a brutal movie, but it apparently got me thinking, and that’s usually a good thing.

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