I haven’t even seen the movie so I hesitate to even write a blog about it, but I must I must I must! Because what I am going to say is more about the controversy surrounding the movie than the movie itself. And I plan on seeing it this weekend, so I may share more thoughts following the viewing.
The reason I feel so compelled to write about the new big screen movie,
Noah, is the Evangelical Christian Community which I am a part of, although not always proud of that, are having a hissy fit over it. And I must share my Evangelical Bible Believing thoughts so people can know we are not all alike in our views and judgment.
First, I do not remember hearing Darren Aronofsky, the film’s creator, ever mentioning that he is attempting to tell a Biblical story with absolute accuracy, except that the title of the film is a character name from the Bible. He hasn't said, to my knowledge, anything about trying to adhere to the scriptural text of the Christian Faith that I and so many others hold dear. It’s a movie. Just like Chronicles of Narnia which was awesome, but not a story you can follow along with in your Bible. It’s a movie for entertainment.
I've read blogs from various Evangelicals who are screaming,
“Aronofsky is planting a deeper hidden message … deception, deception, bla, bla, bla!” It reminds me of the early 1980’s cassette tape burnings we had in church youth group because the devil was in the Rock Music … backward masking! The hidden message in all the Rock Music when you played it backwards. Ha ha! Funny really, cause I never listened to Rock Music backwards until that time! I so wish I had all those cassette tapes, they’d be worth a lot of money today!
The bottom line for me, a movie lover, is that I do not go to movies to develop my Biblical perspective. I do not go to the movies to learn about stories in the Bible. I do not go to movies to be discipled. I do not go to movies to find out how God created this world, or how He worked through one man and his family to save the world. I know this already from Biblical study, I don’t go to a movie to teach me Biblical truths. I go to movies to be entertained, amazed, captured, touched, carried away, and to escape into an unknown world (and other reasons I can’t think of right now.)
I think that had Darren Aronofsky entitled the movie,
Timmy, he wouldn't have had any problems from the Evangelical Community, though I would have been thrilled. He is a smart man, lots of buzz surrounding his movie that he didn't even have to pay for, like this post right here!
My advice to the Christian, just watch
Noah like you do every other film you go see, without thinking you know how it should be, or how it should end, or if it aligns with your Biblical knowledge of the actual story of Noah. Just watch it for what it is ... a Hollywood Movie entitled,
Noah. Enjoy!
