Engaging with 'Noah' – GBC Bulletin Column #47

Despite its awesomely epic (and incredibly deceptive) first trailer, Darren Aronofsky’s telling of Noah is both horribly bad and hilariously bizarre, but I don’t think we should ignore the film. Here’s why.

‘Noah’ occasionally gets the biblical story right. In fact, I dare-say that broadly speaking, the film has more in common with the much of the spirit of the story than many ‘Christian’ portrayals of the biblical account. Empire magazine wrote that it is “a far cry from the sappy Sunday school take on these verses from Genesis.” I have heard Noah described as “brutal” and “disturbing” – which is exactly how it should be; there is, after all, nothing cute or kid-friendly about God saving eight people and an ark-load of animals while the rest of the world drowns. Three scenes stand out in my mind. The first of these is when Noah (a suitably grim Russell Crowe) goes to the city to find wives for Ham and Japheth. It is a scene cloaked in darkness contrasted only with flickering flame that symbolically seems to rain down on the city at its conclusion. Chaos reigns and viewers understand what Noah’s grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) meant when he said ‘Man corrupted this world and filled it with violence, so we must be destroyed.” The second of the three goes beyond the horror of man’s sin to its horrific consequences before the Creator.  Noah and his family sit on the ark as the rains pour and the waves crash. The noise of the waters is outdone only by the screams of the drowning world outside, some of whom are shown desperately clinging to a mountain peak in a vain attempt to survive. The scene is sad, sobering, and potentially soul-shaking.  The third scene is after the flood, when a PTSD Noah finds some grapes and drinks himself into a naked stupor on the beach. We already know it (especially due to some highly questionable extra-biblical stuff that happens on the ark), but this movingly reminds us of Noah’s human frailty and total depravity.

‘Noah’ often gets the biblical story wrong. Looking from the big picture of the film into the details, there is much that is problematic – I can hardly skim the surface of the issues that come up in the movie. The film owes more to Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism and rabbinical midrash than to the biblical texts and corroborative Judeo-Christian tradition. Rock-encrusted fallen angels help Noah build the ark (demons helping someone obey the Lord!? That's a first), a bad guy (Ray Winstone) hacks into the ark and hides before ultimately attempting to kill Noah, who is tormented by the delusion that the Creator really wants to save only the animals therefore humanity MUST die out…leading him ultimately to charge around the ark with a knife trying to kill his newborn granddaughters. Totally weird. I didn’t even mention the Satanic magic serpent skin relic that gets passed around as a symbol of covenantal blessing! As an allegory of what humanity is capable of (yes, even ‘righteous’ Noah), the film is admittedly an at times fascinating study that also demonstrates the consequences of reading more into God’s plan than what he has revealed. But that raises more problems – Noah goes psycho because God’s revelation, given in the film through drugged-tea induced hallucinations, is not clear enough to him. In the Bible, God is very clear. Also, the Biblical story of Noah is not allegory. It is history. 

‘Noah’ provides gospel opportunities. “Everything that is good and perfect, we shattered”, movie Noah says. The people around you know and feel this truth. Through his visit to the city, Noah is forced to confront the sin in his own heart, and in his family in a sort of ‘there is no one righteous, not even one’ moment. The movie answers the absence of works-righteousness with…more works-righteousness. The demon rock monsters are received back into heaven after helping and protecting Noah and his family. After his odd foray into slasher-flic villain mode comes to an end with a grandfatherly kiss, Noah also finds redemption: his daughter-in-law has a heart-to-heart with him in which she reminds dad-in-law (and by extension, the audience) about the natural goodness in us all. Those who recognise the complete shattering of humanity’s perfection can spot the contradiction. We don’t have the ability to pick up the pieces and heal ourselves. Jesus does, and he goes beyond restoring what was broken: he creates a new person in his righteousness (2 Cor. 5:17, Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10). At the end of time before the beginning of eternity he will judge the world, and all who are not counted righteous before the Lord will be eternally punished, and all who are counted as righteous by grace through faith in Christ will be eternally rewarded as they dwell in a new heaven and a new earth.

Evidence suggests that Noah, while dreadful as a biblical adaptation, has people reading, thinking, and talking about biblical things. Let’s join the conversation, and let’s bring the truth about God’s revelation, creation’s corruption, man’s redemption, and the beginning of a new earth with us.

This was printed in the worship bulletin of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) on 13 April 2014.