Noah, the movie 2014

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WilT

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I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
 
WilT said:
I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
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The director is an Atheist, we watched that movie and ended up walking out in the middle. For us, it was like Star wars mixed in with transformers, harry potter and then a tiny bit of the Bible. We did not enjoy it at all, its not an accurate recount on the story of Noah in the Bible. I would not recommend this being watched by kids as scenes become brutal and gives a whole different account on what really happened
 
Aaronofsky added those creatures, they are creations of his in response to his assumption that Noah couldn’t have created the ark on his own. Like much of the movie, it is made up, based on the concept of he story that he’s been nurturing and developing since he was in middle school.

Personally, I didn’t hate the movie. There was much of it that I enjoyed, and much of it that I didn’t. Overall, I tend to enjoy Arronofsky films, even if I can only watch them once.

However, I will say that I think the scenes of extreme brutality were really well done, and caused me to give thought to what the world must have been like for God to have basically hit the reset button. I feel that there were definitely positives in the movie, even if it wasn’t exactly a faithful recounting… I mean… what would be really? The Noah Epic is about fifteen verses long…
 
WilT said:
I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
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The Watchers are meant to be representations of the Grigori, which are a type of angel. This “Noah” movie took some inspiration from the Book of Enoch. In Enoch, they are angels dispatched to earth to watch over mankind. There are wicked and righteous Watchers.

I am not sure why the film decided to depict them as “Transformers” style rock monsters, but their presence is inspired by the roles they play in Enoch. The director did not solely use the Bible as a reference point since the details regarding Noak and the Ark are fairly scarce in Genesis. So he looked to extra biblical sources to provide more detail for the film.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Aaronofsky added those creatures, they are creations of his in response to his assumption that Noah couldn’t have created the ark on his own. Like much of the movie, it is made up, based on the concept of he story that he’s been nurturing and developing since he was in middle school.
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PaulfromIowa said:
Fictional, not in the Biblical account. Of course, we may wonder if God gave Noah some supernatural help in building the ark.
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Actually, while the director’s depictions of them may be fictional (rock monsters), the concept of the Watchers themselves come from the Book of Enoch as I described above. So not biblical yes, but they still are based off a type of angels described in an ancient Jewish source (written between 300 BC to the end of the first century BC).
 
WilT said:
I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
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I am amazed that you never read any reviews of the movie. Darren Aronofsky clearly stated that Noah would be the ‘least biblical film ever made’.

The American movie industry always takes artistic license…look at Cecil B DeMille’s masterpiece, ‘The Ten Commandments’.
 
Well…i had mixed feelings when I watched the movie.I think it was good, but could be better.
 
I saw it when it first came out and didn’t like it because it depicted Noah as a religious fanatic who would kill anyone he thought wasn’t righteous enough to be saved, and who thought God meant mankind to go extinct–that the humans’ only duty was to save the animals. This “humans are an irredeemable blight on the world” approach really turned me off. I have to wonder if the author isn’t suidical.

Anyway, the only good part was the sequence in which Noah tells the others on the Ark about the creation of the universe. I wish I could cut that part out and save it alone. As for the rest of the film? A big thumbs down from me.
 
UnumCorpus said:
Actually, while the director’s depictions of them may be fictional (rock monsters), the concept of the Watchers themselves come from the Book of Enoch as I described above. So not biblical yes, but they still are based off a type of angels described in an ancient Jewish source (written between 300 BC to the end of the first century BC).
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I saw your post and was unaware of that. Thank you, I love learning about stuff like that. ^^
 
WilT said:
I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
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They are meant to represent the Nephilim (giants), I think they just made them ‘rock people’ for a bit of extra CG effects.

I asked a very intelligent priest ( has a PHD), about the Nephilim once, he gave me a great explanation of them…in short, they were Satans first attempt at corrupting the human seed, so Jesus could not be born, back then, Satan went with brute force (giants), he would never do that today, as he doesnt want people to know what hes up to! In fact this is probably why we dont hear alot about the Nephilim, I went to catholic school up until 8th grade and I never heard them mentioned once??? Its just Satans efforts to fool people, trying to make them think the Nephilim were not real, or not real giants, etc. He is pretty sneaky!
 
UnumCorpus said:
I am not sure why the film decided to depict them as “Transformers” style rock monsters, but their presence is inspired by the roles they play in Enoch. The director did not solely use the Bible as a reference point since the details regarding Noak and the Ark are fairly scarce in Genesis. So he looked to extra biblical sources to provide more detail for the film.
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My guess is that they’re incorporating the golem, another well-known creature from Jewish mythology.
 
WilT said:
I just finished watching this movie with Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and I was curious as the creatures called the Watchers. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show and these interesting creatures played a great roll in this cinematic show. I don’t recall reading of these creatures in the biblical story of Noah. Would have these creatures truly existed or was it a directors creative addition, I thought?
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Creative addition. He didn’t make them up, though; they’re from Midrashic folklore. The Midrashic folklore, in turn, took their inspiration from the ambiguous passage referencing the Nephilim, which is located in Genesis at roughly the same spot as the Noah story.
blujazz25 said:
The director is an Atheist, we watched that movie and ended up walking out in the middle. For us, it was like Star wars mixed in with transformers, harry potter and then a tiny bit of the Bible. We did not enjoy it at all, its not an accurate recount on the story of Noah in the Bible. I would not recommend this being watched by kids as scenes become brutal and gives a whole different account on what really happened
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(a) Fr. Barron disagrees. See here (video) or here (text) for his illuminating analysis of this excellent film.

(b) Why do you say it’s “not an accurate recount” of the Biblical story? The Biblical story is sparse on details, which the filmmakers filled in with their imaginations, but they technically never contradict the Biblical text.

The fact that it challenges people’s sanitized, pre-conceived notions of what the Noah story is, is laudable and good.

(c) I agree that Noah would be a bit brutal for kids. Again, even without Aronofsky’s elaborations, it’s a brutal story if you think about it. We shouldn’t just assume that Bible story movies are kid-appropriate. Much of the Old Testament isn’t kid appropriate in the 21st century, helicopter parent sense of the word “appropriate.”
PaulfromIowa said:
Fictional, not in the Biblical account. Of course, we may wonder if God gave Noah some supernatural help in building the ark.

Steven Greydanus on Noah:

decentfilms.com/reviews/noah

ncregister.com/blog/steven-greydanus/chill-out-about-noah
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Those are great reviews.
Della said:
I saw it when it first came out and didn’t like it because it depicted Noah as a religious fanatic who would kill anyone he thought wasn’t righteous enough to be saved, and who thought God meant mankind to go extinct–that the humans’ only duty was to save the animals. This “humans are an irredeemable blight on the world” approach really turned me off.
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I thought that was quite reasonable characterization that took seriously man’s iniquity. Again, if we were so bad that God’s decision was to kill most of us off, we must have been really awful. Aronofsky’s Noah’s misanthropy is perfectly understandable in context, since he (and his family) alone was righteous in his generation.

Also, Noah doesn’t end with this misanthropic view in the movie. His journey as a protagonist is from that attitude to one in which he sees the value in human life, through his granddaughters.
 
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ve enjoyed Fr. Barron’s and Steve Greydanus’ reviews of the film. I like that Greydanus is very clear that this movie is definitely not for everyone. And it is not without its weaknesses. But it does do some interesting things.

As others have said, the “Watchers” in the move are based on the “Nephilim”. This is the only mention of them in Scripture:

Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, as well as later, after the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.

You can see how there isn’t much detail and the reference is somewhat mysterious.
 
Fone_Bone_2001 said:
I thought that was quite reasonable characterization that took seriously man’s iniquity. Again, if we were so bad that God’s decision was to kill most of us off, we must have been really awful. Aronofsky’s Noah’s misanthropy is perfectly understandable in context, since he (and his family) alone was righteous in his generation.

Also, Noah doesn’t end with this misanthropic view in the movie. His journey as a protagonist is from that attitude to one in which he sees the value in human life, through his granddaughters.
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I lost all sympathy for Noah when he let that one poor girl die. It made God out to be an indiscriminate monster in his destruction, as if Noah making the Ark hadn’t prompted some people to think a bit. In saving Noah’s family he was giving humans another chance, after all. Besides this , all of Noah’s sons were married before they entered the Ark. The whole idea that humankind was meant to die out after Noah’s family was ridiculous, besides denying God’s promise to Adam and Eve that he would send a deliverer. It didn’t wash with me nor was it true to Scripture. Sure, I can see Noah having some doubts about the future of humanity, but his “zero population growth” concept isn’t a godly one, it’s straight from the pits of hell. As for his relenting and not killing his granddaughters, they played it as a failure to keep to God’s command to wipe out humanity. Noah gets drunk because he supposedly failed God. Ham leaves in disgust that his father is still clinging to the “humanity is totally bad” idea. I left disgusted too.
 
The movie does send an underlying message; God is cruel, mankind will always be evil, parents don’t know anything, rebellious teens and their desires rule over all. That’s the entertaining message I pulled from it.:o
 
WilT said:
The movie does send an underlying message; God is cruel, mankind will always be evil, parents don’t know anything, rebellious teens and their desires rule over all. That’s the entertaining message I pulled from it.:o
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Indeed. It was a terrible film–a huge waste of my time and money.
 
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