Some longer-than-I-expected thoughts on NOAH. Short version: It’s excellent. Go see it. - When thinking about a film, we have to evaluate it first and foremost AS a film. What is the film maker trying to accomplish? What’s he trying to say? Is that a worthy goal or a true message, and how well does he accomplish it? I think Aronofsky is trying to get us to grapple with the tension between, on one hand, the awful reality of sin and the horrible rightness of judgment, and on the other hand the real dignity and goodness in humans and the beauty of mercy and grace. These are core biblical themes, and it was wonderful to see them so clearly and movingly treated. - “Is it faithful to the Bible” is a good question to ask, but it’s a secondary question that comes after we evaluate the movie on its own merits. There were some significant departures from the Genesis narrative, and some of them made it a weaker film than it could have been. Others were not as bad – for instance, Aronofsky’s Noah is weak, sinful, violent, prone to doubting God at times and all too quick to assume he knows God’s will at others. This Noah doesn’t (yet) know God’s plans to save him and his family. But this Noah is much more interesting *as a film character* than a Noah who knew God’s plans to establish a covenant with him and had nothing but serene trust in God’s salvation. Again, that’s just thinking about it as a film character, as opposed to a Bible character. They’re two different things. - The creative liberties Aronofsky took with the story made me realize just how scant Genesis is on details about the Noah story. The way the film used the various characters and framed the cultures of the time was pretty neat to see. And, where some found the rock-men Nephilim silly, I thought they were no more so than some of the creatures Christians love from Lord of the Rings. - There is a definite tension between justice and mercy and between goodness and evil in this film that is left pretty much unresolved. The way the film invites us to grapple with them through the tension between Noah and his wife felt like a very Jewish way to deal with those themes – they stay in unresolvable tension, and the response is basically to throw up one’s hands and walk away. As such, I think this represents a fantastic opportunity for Christians to talk with friends who’ve seen the movie about how the Bible actually resolves the tension between those things: they find their resolution and their answer in Jesus. He’s the answer to how God can be both just and merciful. He’s the way God can punish sin and yet preserve men who are made in his image.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 01:55:46 +0000
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