Positive (Christian Even!) Things I Got from Noah

It has been a really long time since I have posted anything on this blog, which is sad for me because I really enjoy writing for it…and if you happen to enjoy reading it, then…it’s sad for you too. I feel bad for us. 

I recognize the lameness of returning to writing to give a review of a movie, but it has been something that has been on my mind the last few days, and I think that there are lots of opinions flying about and I thought it would be interesting to add mine to the mix. I also felt like sharing my thoughts before the whole thing goes the way of “That Movie Which Shall Not Be Named” when people are just tired of hearing about it. If you are already tired of hearing about this movie…its cool…please come back for the next post :)

This weekend I went to see the movie Noah. After seeing the previews I was really excited to see it (which if you know me very well, you know that this is sort of unusual as I tend to make snap judgments about movies from previews and am stubborn about seeing them if I didn’t want to from the beginning). I really liked some of the actors in it and I thought it would be really interesting to see a high budget movie take a stab at a biblical story that, let’s face it, does not give a ton of detail, at least not enough that you could make into a movie strictly from the Bible information.

Knowing that the Bible story doesn’t have an entire scripts-worth of information on the topic, I went into the movie recognizing that they would be taking extreme poetic license and kind of just coming up with their own version of things, which I was ok with, because after-all it’s a movie, not Sunday School.  There were points while watching the movie that I thought “Whoa! This is a crazy take on things!” and if it had ended 20 minutes before it did, I would have maybe felt that it had a super-extreme environmentalist perspective and made God out to be kind of awful. Luckily, as with most movies, watching it to the end gave me a different view. (Best example of this, by the way, is the movie Waitress. If you stop 10 minutes before the end, you would think it was awful, but in the last 10 minutes everything gets made right…but I digress). 

There is a lot of opinion out there that the movie was horrible and ruined everything that is good about the Bible story. I don’t think that opinion is stupid, I just think that opinion went to the movie expecting Sunday School and were disappointed when it wasn't. There are complaints that it was really super dark. Well…you remember the story, right? The entire earth’s population is killed because they are wicked. They drown to death in a torrential rain. That’s dark my friend! I’ve heard frustrations that they refer to God as “The Creator” and not “God.” This seems odd to me because isn’t there a lot of scripture that refers to him as The Creator? Wouldn’t people, especially at the time of Noah, kind of see the Creation as the biggest and greatest miracle to have happened  on the planet at that point, why is “The Creator” demeaning at all? People all over the world call him different things, but it’s still God. 

Here are a few positive (Christian, even) lessons that I gleaned from the movie:

1. Extremes are Evil. I felt like the movie did a good job at portraying Tubal-cain (the leader of the wicked) as obviously bad. The character talks several times during the movie about how men decide their own destiny and that The Creator can basically kiss off if he thinks he is going to destroy us. This kind of “man is greater than God” thinking is portrayed as obviously crazy and bad.  In the movie, Noah slowly goes to a crazy extreme as well (the artistic license part that people really don’t like). He starts out doing the will of God, but gradually takes the idea to an extreme, assuming that God wanted ALL men destroyed and to be on the earth no more. He is convinced that he must kill off his family and that the animals will take over the earth because all men are pure evil. As Noah becomes more and more convinced of this being The Creator’s will, the movie has him appear more and more disheveled, distant, and...crazy. To me, this speaks to the varying extremes we have in the world today ranging from anti-religion to zealous actions in the name of God. To me, people who picket funerals with signs saying “God Hates Fags” is not any less evil than someone who demands that God doesn’t exist and that we shouldn’t teach our children about him. Extremes, on either end, are not Christ-like or good. Noah makes that pretty clear to me. 
2. The role of women in God’s work is imperative. Essentially, without the influence of the women in the movie, everything would be lost and no reasonable perspective could be attained. Noah was called by The Creator to build the ark and it required faith on his part to go through with such a “crazy” idea, but without the influence of his wife and daughter (adopted daughter to get technical) he would have missed the whole point. It was love, the love most able to be communicated and shown by the women in the movie that ultimately made the will of The Creator known and carried out. 
3. The Creation of the world was amazing! Sometimes when I think about the genius and creativity that went into creating the world, I am seriously overwhelmed. The movie, in a sequence in which Noah is telling his family about the creation of the world, it is very beautifully and amazingly displayed. I have read some critics’ feelings of horror that the movie may have been suggesting and promoting evolution as opposed to creationist views. To me it maybe suggested that The Creator (dare I say it?) may have used evolution as a tool to create...but it was still clearly his tool.   
4. With only the Old Testament to tell you about the nature of God, you don’t get the whole picture. This movie made me really grateful that I have more than just the Old Testament to let me know about the nature of God. Ever since I was little, stories from the Old Testament made me scared of God. I think that the interpretations of these stories were written by men who either didn’t fully understand the nature of God or just didn’t have the language to write about it and so it is important to get information from other places as well. To me, Noah talked like the Old Testament. His family talked like the New Testament or the Book of Mormon. Showing that God is a God of justice, but he is as equally a God of love and mercy. 

I have read lots of complaints that the movie is pushing an environmentalist agenda. To me...it kind of seems like the original story does that enough on its own. I mean, you are aware the most of the passengers on the ark were animals, right?  Last time I checked I think Heavenly Father wants us to be good stewards of the earth and to respect his creations, and I don’t that thats an evil message to send.  If you are concerned that it is in fact an evil message...I would refer you back to my feelings about extremes. 

Am I going to show this movie the next time I’m asked to teach a lesson about it in a primary class? No. I also wouldn’t show the Prince of Egypt to tell the story of Moses...because guess what...Moses’ wife may not have been super-sexy, and there for sure weren’t any whales in the Red Sea. Do I decide that the movie is trash because it doesn’t follow the story exactly how it’s written in the scriptures? No...it would be weird of me to assume that a Hollywood movie whose aim is to make money would stick with the simplicity of how it is written in the Bible. 

If you’re going to Noah for a Sunday school lesson about Noah...don’t go. But I feel like it is the same with anything else: You find what you are looking for. If you are looking to be offended by how off they are on the story...you will obviously find that. If you are looking for awesome effects and an intriguing story-line, you’ll find that too. I just wanted to throw out the option that if you are looking to get something positive from it...it’s possible to find that as well. :)