Noah
An Analyses
Noah is a great movie, but it is not a literal adaptation of the Biblical story.
It is my understanding that most people do not want literal adaptations of Biblical stories to begin with. They want Jesus on a cross. Heck, they celebrate his birthday December 25th. They surround his resurrection with eggs and bunnies. So, why anyone would be up in arms because this movie has taken liberties with the Deluge story, is a conundrum to me.
That said, Noah takes a great story and retells it with rather interesting twists. Noah is a good movie. It works on many levels, and the one word I came out repeating to myself is human. The story portrays a fundamental human struggle, spirituality in its many facets, in a comprehendible manner. Noah is faced with an inordinate task from the Creator. The task is overwhelming, but there are miracles to prove the veracity of its originator. These miracles, the fallen angels, and the dark overtones of the wicked all give the movie an element of fantasy. I felt that Elves, Orcs, and Hobbitses would not feel unwelcome in this land of Noah. Then again, much of Tolkien’s fantasy was inspired by Biblical elements.
The fact that the struggle between good and evil is not painted black and white is also very human. Noah is consistent, but has faults. He does not understand the needs of his family. His sons struggle with basic human needs—to reproduce for example—and Noah is less preoccupied with these than his mission. Sure his mission is from Creator, but isn’t the Creator also a parent? Noah’s other recurring flaw is that he does not seem to understand his Creator’s explicit wishes. While he communicates with him, the communication is by no means direct and therefore there is a lot of room for interpretation. Noah just doesn’t seems to understand what it is that the Creator wants from him or his family. He is more concerned with the fate of the innocent animals than with humanities fate. Noah understands that men in their wickedness have destroyed the Earth, but he does not know if the Creator has decided to destroy all of humanity. Ultimately, this question is the one which propels the story along. Who survives? Well, we know the story, so there has to be some sort of plot twist, right?
I will interject here, among the movie’s real faults is a lack of Black, Latin, Native-American, and Asian (Indians, Chinese, etc) characters. I understand, that this could become a racially insensitive movie quickly—what with that ignorant interpretation of the curse of Ham—but I live in a very multi-racial community, I’d expect the same in Noah’s community. I mean, this whole thing is supposed to have occurred thousands of years ago, why does everyone have to be white. There is even a reference to biological diversity when the movie introduces the hunt of a dog-like creature with scales. As opposed to whitewashing the movie, why wouldn’t they add different human ethnicity that could have been lost with the terrible flood?
Overlooking those issues the movie still has strong emotional candor. Jennifer Connelly does an amazing job portraying broken loyalty. The overarching environmental themes give us pause as to our current role as keepers of this planet. Those who are not religious can experience a fantasy, and those that are, can view yet another interpretation of spiritual themes. These themes, faith and our limitations as imperfect human beings, are, or should be, important to any person, no matter the creed.
