Review: "Noah"

I am not very good at keeping up with this blog, but I update it when I see a movie that I can't shake. Noah is one of those movies.

Noah preaching to the people

Full disclosure: As a Mormon, or member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I had my preconceived notions about who Noah was before I saw the movie. I believe he was a prophet of God, and that he was commanded to preach repentance to the people of his time. Most ignored his warnings, and in the end only his family was saved from the Flood, which was, in essence, the Earth's baptism by water, preceding it's future baptism by fire, that will happen at Christ's Second Coming. (Genesis 5-9). For a deeper understanding of those events, read The Pearl of Great Price, Moses 8. (additional volume of holy scripture espoused by Latter-day Saints).

First, let's talk about the director, Darren Aronofsky. Jewish by birth, atheist by declaration, I always find it fascinating when he explores the spiritual in his films. The Fountain (2006) is a film that shares many similarities with Noah. Both films explore spirituality in a way that is completely absent in his darker, more nihilistic films (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan). He is a true auteur, or a director with a particular style. His films are generally very dark, and the messages are heavy-handed.

In The Fountain, the concept of the fall of Adam and Eve is explored similarly as in Noah. In The Fountain, it's explained that through the fall (or the eating of the forbidden fruit and expulsion from Eden) death is introduced to mankind. The protagonist in that film works to find a cure for death, what he calls a "disease." In Noah, the fall of Adam and Eve introduces sin into the world. I believe Adam's transgression brought about sin and death, as explained in both films.

Noah has caused a lot of controversy among religious people. Glenn Beck said the film was "terrible," and many Christian viewers have denounced it as Hollywood environmentalist propaganda. Most have complained the film is not accurate to the Bible story of Noah.

I don't see it that way at all.

I reread the story of Noah in Genesis and in the additional scriptures that we use in my faith. I believe modern revelation teaches that Noah preached repentance to the people, and tried to get them to turn from their evil ways or else they would be destroyed.

The Genesis account, however, mentions nothing of Noah's preaching; in fact, it never even mentions that he tried to get the people to repent. He just said "bump y'all," essentially, and got on the boat with his family and the animals. It also says that it "repented the Lord" that he had made made on the earth, giving the impression that God made a mistake in creating man in His image. 

I personally take the Genesis account with a grain of salt. Most traditional Christians, however, do not. Neither do the Jews, who regard Noah as a failed prophet because he they believe he did not try to save the people from the flood. This is why he is largely an afterthought in Jewish teachings and is not counted as the father of Judaism. That title belongs to Abraham, whose posterity God covenanted He would make as numerous as the "sand which is on the sea shore." (Genesis 22:17) With Noah, God made a covenant for the earth's sake, that he would never destroy it by water again. (Hence the significance of the rainbow at the end of the film-see Genesis 9:13-16). He did not make a direct promise to Noah. 

Many have dismissed Noah as inaccurate to the Bible's version of events. While artistic license is definitely taken (especially with the Tolkien-esque Watchers, or giant rock monsters who help Noah build the ark), the film remains true to the essence of the Genesis account. The Bible does say there "were giants in the earth," (Genesis 6:4, Moses 8:18) and the Watchers are Aronofsky's weird, yet functional interpretation of that passage. Russell Crowe's Noah never asks the people to repent of their wicked ways, and he is really only concerned with saving his own family. Sounds like the Bible account to me. 

So what's the problem?

I think Christians and biblical fundamentalists bashing this movie need to reread Genesis 4-9. They are so ready to strike when someone not of their faith or ideology takes on a project like this. The story is very dark, and somewhat vague concerning the events surrounding the Flood. God hates the people's wicked ways, and warns Noah that he is going to destroy the world, because it grieved him that he even created man. The account never mentions how Noah feels about all this, a question which I think the film does a great job of confronting head on. The Bible account shows a Noah who is unquestioningly loyal to God's will. The film shows a Noah tormented by the screams of the people drowning outside the ark. Why can't he let them in? Because God said so. 

I personally believe in a more merciful God than the one depicted in the film and in the Genesis account. I believe that God gave the people a chance to repent, and they rejected Noah as a prophet. Their punishment was heaped upon them after multiple warnings. 

OK, enough scripture study. 

The movie: Dark, edgy, melodramatic, powerful. It doesn't know what it wants to be in the first half-hour. Then it becomes an entertaining and thought-provoking study on obedience to God, faith, a crisis of faith and the importance of love and compassion in a world seemingly devoid of it.

The most entertaining section of the film was the second act, where Noah completes the ark, and the animals obey the Lord's command to enter. We are also introduced to Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone, who was added to the film very late in production), a character not in the Biblical account, who serves as the movie's villain. He and his people want in on the ark, but Noah will not allow them. So they try to take it over. The rains come, and the Flood begins. Amazing visuals and very melodramatic scenes make the Flood sequence very powerful, if heavy-handed. (There is a shot where the ark is floating in the background on the stormy sea, and in the foreground you see screaming men, women and children clinging to a rock that has not been submerged. Like something out of a painting. Very Cecil B. DeMille.) There's a horror to that shot that stays with you.

The third act is where many viewers just had enough. Some have likened it to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Ila (Emma Watson), who is Noah's barren adopted daughter, becomes pregnant after Methusaleh (Anthony Hopkins) uses his priesthood to make her fertile. She and Shem (Noah's son- it's unclear if they are married) are ready to raise the child in this post-apocalyptic world. Noah believes God commanded him to let humanity be exterminated, and means to kill his own family. When he discovers Ila is pregnant, he vows to kill her baby as soon as it is born. Very gnarly stuff, not at all in the Biblical account. Noah's wife (Jennifer Connelly-who deserves award consideration for her role here) pleads with him to spare his family. Noah basically goes insane, and his son Ham (Logan Lerman) has had enough, and there's a full on mutiny on the ark.

OK, I loved the third act. It's nowhere in the Bible, but so what? In DeMille's The Ten Commandments, Nefertiri (fictional) loves Moses. That's not in the Bible. Joshua has a love interest. That's not in the Bible.

Get over it, folks.

Noah has a brutal spiritual wrestle with God in this section of the film. The world has been destroyed, and he wants to die with it and bring his family with him. Who's to say the real man didn't feel that way? If you were living in a post-apocalyptic world, wouldn't you experience some sort of faith crisis, and possible insanity? Noah goes crazy, and without spoiling too much, he redeems himself (sort of) in the end.

I thought this was very gutsy filmmaking. A very hard story to tell cinematically, Aronofsky pulls it off in a respectful way, especially considering his atheism. The name "God" is never mentioned in the film. "Creator" is the term used throughout. Another point of controversy.

Christian Bale as Moses, Exodus

Who cares? Creator, God=tomato, tomahto.

I, for one, am glad that movies based on scripture, even loosely based, are being made. It's a return to very old school filmmaking. In December, Ridley Scott's Exodus will be released, starring Christian Bale as Moses and Aaron Paul as Aaron. Can't wait to see the eyebrows that raises.

If you liked Noah, I definitely recommend The Fountain- Similarly frustrating, challenging and beautiful. Gorgeous score by Clint Mansell, who scores all of Aronofsky's films.



I give Noah 3 out of 4 stars. A good effort by Aronofsky, who is known for challenging, thought-provoking and sometimes frustrating films. Safe to say he achieved that.  This is not the cute Sunday School Noah with all the fuzzy animals you learn about in church. Aronofsky introduces us to a very conflicted character. Noah is a film that deserves to be viewed with an open mind, no matter your beliefs.