I happened to be preaching Hebrews 11:7 this past weekend, so I figured this was a good opportunity to learn what the public was getting fed. I’ve pasted my review-ette from Facebook below. When I wrote it, I hadn’t put together the Gnostic pieces yet. When I saw the snake skin motif running throughout the movie, I thought in the back of my mind, “surely they’re not making the serpent of Eden out to be something good, are they?” And with that incredulous reaction, I thrust the idea aside.
Here’s the review I wrote Saturday:
A FLOOD OF INTEREST IN NOAH: I happen to be preaching Hebrews 11:7 this Sunday, so I thought I’d work on my opening illustration by seeing the Noah movie Friday morning. If you as a Christian are wondering whether to see it for your edification, don’t bother, and don’t take your kids. If you want to interact closely with others who’ve seen it, whether unbelievers or uninformed believers, you might find it useful to see it firsthand. But you’ll also find it disturbing. SPOILER ALERT. Here’s a SMALL list of disturbing elements. Noah turns out to be a conflicted man who’s not totally sure about what God’s revealing to him. He gets its right sometimes, other times not so much. He’s an innocent character in the beginning but very morally conflicted the longer the story goes on. God is portrayed as a confusing character who at times judges his creatures inscrutably. For instance, the Watchers are angels who came to earth to help Adam and Eve after their fall, but God judges them because their mission was unauthorized. God’s sending of the flood is more for man’s poor ecology more than anything else. Methuselah is a shaman who uses potions to help Noah hear from God. Shem and his girlfriend have sex (off screen) just before the flood, and we find out on the ark that she’s pregnant with twin girls who will become the spouses of Ham and Japheth. But Noah thinks God’s intention is to have him and his family die off after saving the animals, and that sends Noah on a bloodlust collision with the rest of the family. A number of the extra-biblical features are adapted from the Book of Enoch, but most of them come from the apocryphal imagination of the movie’s creators. There’s so much more I could critique. I left feeling disturbed, even offended in a sense. Of course, I didn’t expect it to be much otherwise. Aronofsky, the director, is an out-and-out unbeliever who bragged that this was the least biblical of all Bible based movies. I didn’t go expecting to get a visual commentary on the biblical text. They’ve treated it as a malleable legend and have reworked it much like a Marvel Comics story. Can this movie be a point of contact for Christian witness? Sure. But then again, just about anything can. Is it a positive thing in and of itself? No. I don’t fault it for every artistic license, but those who created this movie will have to give account to the Creator for the magnificent falsehoods they’ve presented.
Discussion
NewNow that's...
NewHas anyone on S/I seen the film?
Has anyone on S/I seen the film? And any observations?
Twitter
Jim's Doctrinal Statement
NewI made a choice
I was going to go see it but I decided to spend my money on pizza instead.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
NewReview...
This is the best review I have seen on the Noah film:
http://mennoknight.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/a-no-holds-barred-review-of-noah-the-movie-2014/#more-3803
NewAnother review
http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2014/noah2014.html
Twitter
Jim's Doctrinal Statement
NewI saw it Friday AM
I happened to be preaching Hebrews 11:7 this past weekend, so I figured this was a good opportunity to learn what the public was getting fed. I’ve pasted my review-ette from Facebook below. When I wrote it, I hadn’t put together the Gnostic pieces yet. When I saw the snake skin motif running throughout the movie, I thought in the back of my mind, “surely they’re not making the serpent of Eden out to be something good, are they?” And with that incredulous reaction, I thrust the idea aside.
Here’s the review I wrote Saturday:
A FLOOD OF INTEREST IN NOAH:
I happen to be preaching Hebrews 11:7 this Sunday, so I thought I’d work on my opening illustration by seeing the Noah movie Friday morning. If you as a Christian are wondering whether to see it for your edification, don’t bother, and don’t take your kids. If you want to interact closely with others who’ve seen it, whether unbelievers or uninformed believers, you might find it useful to see it firsthand. But you’ll also find it disturbing.
SPOILER ALERT.
Here’s a SMALL list of disturbing elements. Noah turns out to be a conflicted man who’s not totally sure about what God’s revealing to him. He gets its right sometimes, other times not so much. He’s an innocent character in the beginning but very morally conflicted the longer the story goes on. God is portrayed as a confusing character who at times judges his creatures inscrutably. For instance, the Watchers are angels who came to earth to help Adam and Eve after their fall, but God judges them because their mission was unauthorized. God’s sending of the flood is more for man’s poor ecology more than anything else. Methuselah is a shaman who uses potions to help Noah hear from God. Shem and his girlfriend have sex (off screen) just before the flood, and we find out on the ark that she’s pregnant with twin girls who will become the spouses of Ham and Japheth. But Noah thinks God’s intention is to have him and his family die off after saving the animals, and that sends Noah on a bloodlust collision with the rest of the family. A number of the extra-biblical features are adapted from the Book of Enoch, but most of them come from the apocryphal imagination of the movie’s creators.
There’s so much more I could critique. I left feeling disturbed, even offended in a sense. Of course, I didn’t expect it to be much otherwise. Aronofsky, the director, is an out-and-out unbeliever who bragged that this was the least biblical of all Bible based movies. I didn’t go expecting to get a visual commentary on the biblical text. They’ve treated it as a malleable legend and have reworked it much like a Marvel Comics story.
Can this movie be a point of contact for Christian witness? Sure. But then again, just about anything can. Is it a positive thing in and of itself? No. I don’t fault it for every artistic license, but those who created this movie will have to give account to the Creator for the magnificent falsehoods they’ve presented.
M. Scott Bashoor Happy Slave of Christ