Noah

Noah:  it's the film that has divided Christians, has delighted critics, and has intrigued movie goers.  When I first heard of it, I was skeptical to say the least, skeptical that it would actually follow the true Biblical story of Noah.  With actors such as Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, and Jennifer Connelly, none of whom I have ever heard claim to be Christians, I doubted that anything good would come from this film.  When I heard that the director, Darren Aronofsky, was an atheist and had claimed that Noah would be the "least Biblical film ever made", I was even more suspicious.  And for my part, I think I was correct.  Nearly everything I have read points to the fact that Noah strays as far as possible from the actual story while leaving in just the bare minimum of truth so as to be able to call it the story of Noah.  The Matt Walsh Blog gives a well thought out and fairly detailed synopsis of the movie from a Christian point of view.  I would check it out before reading the rest of this post.

So, my issues with this movie?  Primarily the fact that it strays so far from the Biblical account, adding in villains, taking out characters, and generally throwing in a bunch of extra "stuff" to make it more interesting.  But more on that later.

My other major issue is the fact that the critics are loving it.  Movies that truly follow the Bible and tell the story correctly are rarely praised by critics.  But this is the kind of movie they're supposed to like.  Its controversial, its directed by a man who's become popular over the years, and its got some big name actors in it.  It makes the audiences curious too.  The trailers I saw showed scenes close enough to the true story to make it seem like it was going to actually follow the Biblical account, thus drawing in Christians.  They also showed some fight scenes and threw in other little discrepancies that made it look more interesting and attracted the interest of non-Christians as well.

One thing that has also been rather disconcerting is the way the movie has divided Christians.  While many have called out the movie for straying from the original story there are others who support it and justify their support by pointing out the few parts of the movie that do actually go along with the Bible.  However, as far as I have seen, this division has only served to confuse and perhaps even push away non-believers who might have been interested in learning about the true story.

But perhaps what I have found most disturbing is the fact that there are Christian industries supporting the movie rather than standing against it.  Focus on the Family stands out as one of these, with Jim Daily claiming that Noah is "a creative interpretation of the scriptural account that allows us to imagine the deep struggles Noah may have wrestled with as he answered God’s call on his life. This cinematic vision of Noah’s story gives Christians a great opportunity to engage our culture with the biblical Noah, and to have conversations with friends and family about matters of eternal significance."  From several of the detailed synopses I have read about the movie by Christians, like the one above, my impression is that this movie, far from being a creative interpretation, is nothing short of blasphemous.  The idea that the movie can serve as a conversation starter with non-believers because it got a few parts of the story correct seems dangerous to me.  Satan often deceives with half truths and this movie is full of those along with many outright lies.  Leaders like Jim Daily should be warning people about the dangers of the film rather than endorsing it, using their influence to point out the many extreme errors in it rather than brushing them aside and calling it creative interpretation.

Plugged In, a site well known by many Christians for its movie reviews, also gave the movie a fairly good review, seeming, in my opinion, to note the issues in the movie and then promptly try to overlook those by pointing out a Biblical way of looking at another part of the movie.  This point of view though is not something a non-believer is going to catch onto, its something that only a Christian would catch and even that's a bit of a stretch and seems to be more of an attempt to try to find some good in the movie.  I will say that it did a good job of outlining a number of the issues with the movie, but again, in the end it seemed to mostly dismiss those and say the movie was okay to watch.

So back to how the movie strays from the Biblical account.  Here are some of the more disturbing issues and deviations from the Bible that I found:  1. God is never mentioned, only the "Creator" which is fairly ambiguous to say the least.  2. When Noah tells the story of creation he switches what happened on what day a few times.  Time-lapse photography is used to tell the story and shows a combination of the Biblical account and evolution as animals change into other animals.  Also many of the animals on the ark seem to be evolutionary forebears of the ones we see today.  3. Tubal-Cain, an essentially made up character, is the main villain and sneaks aboard the ark and plans to kill Noah and his family with the help of Noah's son, Ham.  4. Methuselah, Noah's father, has some kind of strange power that allows him heal wounds though it is never explained if this power is from God or some form of sorcery.  5. Rather than God telling Noah to build the ark, in the movie Noah has two confusing visions and Methuselah gives him a seed, supposedly from Eden, which turns into a forest overnight, providing Noah with all the necessary materials to build the ark.  6. Tubal-Cain and his people fight to board the ark.  7. Noah believes that he and his family are not meant to survive and when he discovers Shem's wife, Ila, is pregnant, he tells them that if the child is a girl, he will kill the baby.  When Ila has twin girls, Noah nearly kills one before stopping himself.

Those are the issues that jumped out at me but there are numerous other, smaller ones that are scattered throughout.  Essentially, this is not, in my opinion, a movie that Christians need to see.  Regardless of whether or not you want to use seeing it as an opportunity to speak with non-believers, look at it this way.  The director, the actors, the film company, the movie industry, etc. aren't going to see that you don't fully agree with the movie, that you find it wrong and controversial, what they're going to see is that you paid money to see it and to them that is as good as supporting it.  So think about that before going to see this movie.  Is it really a movie that you want to support, that you want them to make more of or ones similar to it?  Is there really a point in seeing a movie that twists God's own Word?  Is it really worth it?