Noah
Warning: the following review contains spoilers.
A few short
months after Kirk Cameron told students at Liberty University that no one
wanted to make a movie about God destroying the world, TriStar Pictures
released a movie about God destroying the world. Featuring an all-star cast and
backed by a big budget, Noah is the
first major motion picture to focus on the iconic biblical hero.
While some
may think Noah a “Christian film,”
director Darren Aronofsky ensures that few will make such a mistake. He makes
good use of the producers’ $125-million-deep pockets: most of the visual
effects are excellent and cinematography is on par with that of films of
similar size and budget. Money attracts, as is evidenced by the film’s
acclaimed cast, which includes Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and Anthony
Hopkins—all Academy Award winners whom no Christian production studio could
even dream of casting. The text from the trailer erases any remaining doubt
that viewers might have about Noah’s
Christianity: “The story is more than you imagined.” And Aronofsky’s story
certainly is.
The story of Noah can be found in
Genesis 6-9. Although the film portrays the biblical account of the great
boat-builder, it is far from a perfect portrayal. If you want the unblemished
biblical account of the great boat-builder, you should open your Bible, not
your wallet. Noah includes much more
material than is found in the biblical account. While this was the case with popular
biblical movies like The Ten Commandments
and The Prince of Egypt, some
moviegoers that enjoyed those classics may take issue with Noah. The film references the extrabiblical Book of Enoch, drawing
characters and names from the book that never made it into the Bible. Some more
conservative Christian viewers might call this sacrilege; however, just because
a book was rejected from the biblical canon does not mean that it does not
contain truth. No one knows what parts of the Book of Enoch are true and what
parts are false, so the extrabiblical information in Noah may very well be true.
The
Watchers, led by one Samyaza, are fallen angels mentioned in the Book of Enoch.
Glenn Beck took issue with these “giant rock people,” as they are depicted in
the film. The explanation for their abnormal appearance—given in the film—may
be a bit of a stretch, but it is not a serious issue. Genesis 6:4 references
“Nephilim” and “sons of God” living on the Earth in the days of Noah, so
perhaps these Watchers are merely a creative take on an extremely vague
biblical description. The real issue is not the Watchers’ appearance, but the
assistance that they give Noah in building the ark. Despite the Bible’s lack of
clarity on the time that it took Noah to build the ark, the common belief is that
the ark spent about 100 years in the construction yard. Answers in Genesis says
that the actual number might be as low as 75.[1]
However, on the big screen, Noah had the help of the Watchers, and it took only
10 years. In Genesis 6:18b, God tells Noah that “you shall come into the ark,
you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” Clearly, Noah’s sons
were married when God told Noah to build the ark, and, using Answers in
Genesis’ low estimate of the ark’s build time, must have been almost 100 years
old when the ark was finished. On screen, however, Noah’s oldest son is no more
than twenty-five, with his youngest still a teenager, when the rain comes. Only
Shem, the firstborn, has a wife, and Noah does not even take on any young girls
to marry his younger sons in the future. Such a contradiction to the biblical
text is sure to upset most Christian viewers.
The most
blatant instance of biblical ignorance, however, is a certain stowaway, an
extra passenger on the ark. Tubal-Cain, the leader of the army that attempts to
hijack the ark, manages to climb aboard unnoticed after his entire army is
wiped out. Despite his (obvious) failure to kill Noah, his survival of the
flood is a clear contradiction of Scripture that might put off even more
viewers than Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s marital statuses.
Glenn Beck
went to an early screening of Noah
and described the titular character as a “lunatic” who “tries to kill his own
family.” Beck is describing Noah’s
plight to build a better Earth: a world without man. “Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you
and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in
this generation.’” Unfortunately, Russell Crowe’s Noah did not get this
message. Believing that the only way to fully please God is to rid the world of
humanity, Noah refuses to bring aboard wives for his younger two sons. And when
Shem’s wife becomes pregnant, Noah vows to kill her child, should it be a girl
who could potentially serve as a wife for one of his sons. Beck’s distress is
understandable, but so are Noah’s on-screen actions. The film portrays the
depravity of man rather well, and had God not told Noah that he was the one
righteous man who would continue the race of Adam, his murderous intentions are
completely understandable. What conclusion should he draw but that man is
responsible for the utter corruption of God’s perfect Earth and that Earth
could be perfect once more if man were not a part of it? This is not an excuse
for Noah’s fictional sins, but merely an explanation for them.
The most
thought-provoking aspect of the film is its depiction of Noah’s drunkenness.
According to Genesis 9:21, “[Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk and lay
uncovered in his tent.” Most theologians attribute Noah’s drunkenness to a
celebration gone too far. Aronofsky, however, takes the road less traveled: on
screen, Noah drinks not to celebrate the new life that he and his family have
been given, but to temporarily forget the guilt of his aforementioned murderous
intentions. Although Russell Crowe’s Noah cannot curse Ham’s son Canaan, the
scene is a wonderful synthesis of Hollywood and Holy Bible.
One of my
favorite scenes in Noah is not revealed
in the trailer. The Christians that have expressed their distaste for Noah because of its inaccurate portrayal
of the Bible are sure to love this particular scene. It is easily one of the quietest
scenes in the whole film, a welcome respite from the noise and chaos of the
raging floodwaters. It is the story of Creation. Aboard the ark, Noah tells his
family the story of how God created the world. He paraphrases and summarizes
the whole of Genesis 1, taking his family through each of the six days of
Creation and telling them what happened on each day. Most Christians will
greatly enjoy the scene; though some may criticize it for not directly quoting
the Bible, they must remember that it was Moses, not Noah, who wrote the book
of Genesis, so it would not make sense for Moses’ ancestor to quote what had
not yet been written. If they can forgive the lack of direct quotation, they
will be able to appreciate the fact that the story of Creation appears in the
least likely of places: the big screen.
If you are
looking for an accurate, big-screen portrayal of the Bible, save your money. Noah is fraught with extrabiblical and
contra-biblical occurrences, and the titular character may have some viewers in
an uproar. However, Noah is still one
of the only first-rate biblical films to come from Hollywood. It is an
entertaining and thought-provoking work that will not please everyone who buys
a ticket, but may encourage some moviegoers to open the Bible and read the
story for themselves. And that is something that the vast majority of modern
movies cannot claim.
No comments:
Post a Comment