Sunday, March 30, 2014

Noah - The Movie Review

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, and Japheth’s wife 'Adatanesesoch. In the movie, Shem’s wife had twins; however, even though it wasn't mentioned in the Bible, twins are common and could easily have happened.
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, in the movie, were Noah, his wife and sons, Shem’s wife, and a stowaway named Tuball-Cain, who was the king of the land. The Bible states that only Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives were on board. It never mentioned Tuball-Cain or anyone else. Another problem is that Noah was most likely born after the life of Tuball-Cain, which makes this guy even more out of place. Of course, the animals found their place on the 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.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the movie review. :) I like what you wrote.

    ReplyDelete