Noah Movie Review
My oh my…where do I begin?
For those that have not seen the
movie – spoiler alert!
First off, let me say that I’m not a movie reviewer. I have
written, three books on Shem and Noah, and through the process of research have
gained enough information to be a critic of the movie’s Biblical
accuracy. I must remind everyone that both the movie and my books are the work of
fiction. However, even in fiction, there are three basic elements that establish
a credible expansion of a Bible story:
1 It must have correct Biblical information.
2 It should have good historical information.
By history I mean past data from archaeology, geology, atmospheric, anthropology, etc.
3 It may have elements of fiction to expound on the story.
The movie had several fantastical components to it that stood out from the Biblical story. These are:
The Watchers, Noah’s relatives, the occupants
of the ark, the geography of the land, and annoying details.
The Watchers. The movie depicts them as disobedient
angels that God turned into rock creatures. Watchers are briefly mentioned in
the Bible’s Book of Daniel, but more likely come from the book of Enoch
(another Jewish writing, outside the mainstream culture and written around 300
BC). The book of Enoch describes them as angels who copulated with human women and fathered the
giants called the Nephilim...not rock beings. I’m assuming the rock creatures come from the
script writer’s imagination…which makes for bad reality but great action
Hollywood entertainment. More detailed information on watchers [B]
Noah’s relatives could have been many, but the movie
chose to identify only Noah, his wife Namaah (her name comes from Jewish
tradition - not the Bible), and their three sons.
At the beginning of the movie, when Noah was a child, his
father Lamech was murdered, but his grandfather Methuselah still lived. Without
getting into too many details, (if we take the years literally) the Bible did
not have Lamech die until about 5 years before the flood. Whether or not he was
murdered or not is up for grabs.
Methuselah died at the year of the flood, so the movie is
in-line with the Bible’s strict chronology.
The movie indicated that Ila was Shem’s wife, but the Bible had
no name for her. The Book of Jubilees (another Jewish
writing about 200 BC) names Shem’s wife as Sedeqetelebab, Ham’s
wife as Ne'elatama'uk
The movie does a decent job at portraying the characters of
Shem and Ham....but got their age order mixed up. The Bible indicates that Japheth was most likely he
oldest, then Shem, with Ham being the youngest. [A]
The occupants on the Ark Ark , which I presume was orchestrated by God’s direction.
The geography of the land was described as a barren wasteland in
the movie, and that mankind had misused nature – cutting too many trees down and
generally destroying the land and killing all types of animals with disregard. Noah is described as the guardian of nature. After Noah realized God was to
wipe-out mankind with a flood, Methuselah gave Noah a seed from the Garden of
Eden to help him build the Ark. Noah planted the seed and it sprouted a
fountain of water that grew a forest within a day. Other than watching over the animals and land the Bible says only that man is evil, but nothing about
the land or animals being misused or of sprouting forests.
Annoying details: The two main themes in the movie
were that mankind should care for nature, and that God did miraculous things in
magical ways. I believe, credibility in a Biblical story is diminished when it intentionally
seeks to go beyond the elements of reality. The story could have held its own
without the rock creatures and the instantaneous growing forest. This is where
it moved from Biblical to something akin to the world of Elves and Hobbits.
First, I didn't like the idea of the movie showing
the ark as a big block of wood. If there was technology to make iron tools, so
too should there be advancements in shipbuilding. I believe Noah used not only his sons, but boat
builders to help him design details within the parameters that God provided. [C]
The boat could easily have had a keel and stabilizers to keep it from bobbing
and getting tossed erratically by the winds. I also disliked the flat and irregular roof.
With constant rain day after day, water would create pools between the roof log squares and
leak down into the hull where the occupants lived.
Second, the idea to put the animals asleep with special smoke was a fun trick for the movie but not based in reality. The most obvious
problem is that the humans are animals too…and would fall asleep.
Third, the land gave no indication of flocks of sheep or fields
of plants; so the question of how they made their clothing comes to mind.
Forth, Noah was given the dream about the flood to
save his family and the animals…water being the method, because it cleanses.
Yet, the movie story later decides to abandon women for Noah’s sons? The story is
then stuck without a way to repopulate mankind. To resolve this, the writer depicts Noah as uncertain whether man should survive at all. Noah suddenly comes to the
conclusion God only wants animals to survive. In other words, God gave Noah a
dream to save his righteous family then reneges. At this stage, the writer is too clever by half. In the end, all this was superfluous, for the obvious solution is in Genesis 7:7. The Bible
clearly states that Noah’s sons and their wives entered the ark.
Final note. The story was heavy on action and light
on character development. I would have enjoyed more characters like Methuselah, the clever berry-loving Yoda like man who (if you'll allow me to mix my space lore) could put his great grandson to sleep with some sort of Vulcan mind touch.
Lastly, I have to say that no one today has any proof about the movie's content. Therefore, any of it - as wild and crazy as it seemed - could have happened. In many ways it's strange enough to even discuss the reality of an ark and a flood. My objection is not that it wasn't a good action flick. My objection is that the movie included just the core of the Bible story, and strayed or even outright ignored scripture accuracy. Paramount said it wanted to make Aronofsky's film Noah "as Biblically accurate as possible." I and many other would say, only in Aronofsky's mind is it accurate.
[A] This link explains the ages of Noah's sons.
[B] Andrew Collins’ book, From The Ashes of Angels, ventures
into minute detail regarding the sources of the Watchers. He speculates that
other than a myth or actual angel beings, they also could have been a long lost
race of people from our past.
[C] Tim Lovett’s book, Noah’s Ark ,
explains a practical and logical design of Noah’s ark. Here is a picture of
what I think the ark could have looked like. This
ark in not unlike smaller vessels in ancient times.
