"Noah" Or "The Adventures of the Attractive, Well-Groomed Biblical Figures"
Connor Strange
Staff Writer
It’s a story familiar to pretty much everyone: the tale of Noah and his family constructing a great vessel to outride a cataclysmic flood. Though the story is simple enough (and run into the ground sufficiently), director Darren Aronofsky succeeded in fleshing it out into a gritty, enjoyable film.
The central plotline doesn’t stray too far from the ark story, but some things were tacked on to spruce the whole affair up a notch, one of which are the “Watchers”. They are strange-rock monster-angel thingies, which seems a tad fantastical for a recounting of a book in the Bible, but actually has roots in religious text. In the Book of Enoch, which is not exactly part of scripture, the great stone monstrosities are described in detail (though not very similarly to what the film represents). Though they are not part of the Bible, Enoch’s writings are thought to be penned by one of Noah’s ancestors.
Lineage from generations past plays a major role in the movie. Noah is a descendant of Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth, while the antagonist is a descendant of Cain (the first murderer, and Seth’s older brother). Initially, the strife between the two parties seems very black-and-white--Noah is definitely the good guy, while Tubal-Cain is an ugly, barbaric savage hellbent on destroying everything. However, hard decisions within Noah’s family are enough to bring his morality and faith into question.
“Noah” covers one of the darkest events described in the pages of the Bible: the death of everybody in the world but five-or-so people. Whether it’s truth or not, Aronofsky’s film makes no claims to it being an act of God’s love.
Those who are devoutly Christian may take offense at his portrayal of the great flood, and the creative liberties he took with the ancient text. However, it seems to me that there is an unbiased account of the supposed calamity to be found in the movie. Sure it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s also not a deliberate slight to Christianity or an in-your-face message to make sure everyone’s still a good, God-fearing Christian (cough cough “God’s Not Dead”). Both the positives and negatives of faith are showcased, and anyone who takes offense to the representation obviously isn’t very clear on the fictitious nature of movies.
Though the actors did justice to the script, and portrayed their characters very well for the most part, there was a very funny discord between the hygienic appearance of the actors themselves and the harsh roles they were playing. Some characters were far less interesting than others, like the oldest of Noah’s children, Shem (Douglas Booth). He seemed to occasionally do stuff now and then, but overall it was almost as if he was an extra.
There was no dearth of additional cast members, as the whole film was set to the theme of a biblical epic. The CGI, though used flippantly, was lifelike and impressive. Though the Bible is something many people feel the need to share with their children, it’s not wholly recommended to share this take on it, because kid-friendly isn’t an adjective that would fit “Noah” very well. Anyone anticipating this movie should keep in mind that it’s only a movie, not some affront to the “Christian foundation of America”.
It was a satisfying watch, and it managed to ride out the storm (the flood, even) of controversy surrounding its take on the Bible. The lesson to take away from this is that movies are movies, and there are some people (geriatrics, more accurately) who dislike tampering with the basis of their beliefs. Go figure.
