I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

If you've not seen Dogville, and you have a few hours to immerse yourself in attempting to understand the depths of humanity, or alternatively, the violent shallowness of it, then let me openly recommend Dogville. It starts Nicole Kidman, and is out on DVD. Fair warning, it is a foreign film, though it is "set" in America in the 1930's. The theatrical set might upset you at first, but what is really happening is that the minimalist scene and props make the acting have to grow in order to compensate. That happens wonderfully here. The final scene is well worth the 2 hour 45 minute (!) wait. It's a stunning climax, and quite different than one would imagine. Sort of the direction Christ might have taken had he been pushed any further.

I enjoyed it thoroughly, and found it an apt discussion of the human state. It's also well done, well shot, and well thought out. It gets a bit long in places, but you realize that this is actually necessary for the way the plot is sewn up at the end.

Here's an interesting thought. Nicole Kidman plays Grace, who comes to Dogville to escape gangsters. This is all we know. The town begins to project itself on to her and we begin to see its very dark shadow emerging. Having some acting background, I put myself in Grace's mind for a while. What would it be like to turn up on the set for 4-5 months and face a daily thrashing of abuse? Admittedly it's acting, but acting is real, in case you didn't know. The emotions captured on camera are real, which is what makes you watch. So I wondered at Kidman's mental state. How must this have felt to her, to receive the sort of torture Grace undergoes on a daily basis?

Damned awful I should think.

There's a saying in myth that you shouldn't undertake journies for which you are underprepared. It's fine for the hero(ine) to go off into the wild, conquer her demons, inner and outer, and return with the boon. But if you are underprepared, the results can be fatal. I am sure Kidman is a better person, actually, for what she went through, but the time spent in the Underworld or Underbelly of those characters can't have been anything but gruelling for her. Even the conclusion couldn't render one free of what had occured. Some scar would remain and move forward with the individual. So I admire her all the more for taking it on, and surviving it.

Go see the movie.

Learn about the human condition. You live in it. Might as well understand the terrain as completely as possible.