Why I'm Not Seeing the Noah Movie

[Captain_America]

Money and Time. Movies cost a lot of both. . . why go to see something with a patched-together narrative?

I dislike what I have read about the script’s weirdnesses. It’s a turn off. Jack with the Noah story. . . then jack with the Job story. . . then jack with the Christ story.

I’m just tired of the blinders on corporate Hollywood studios. They’re SO out of touch with reality.

The fun left the movies once they started to use them to trumpet (often bludgeon) we poor suckers in the seats with various political notions. Hollywood’s about propaganda anymore.

And I’m skeptical enough of these folks to just set this movie aside.

 

[TRH1292]

Okay, then don’t see it.

 

[TK421]

Did you see it TRH? Did you mind its spin? I haven’t watched it yet.

 

[TRH1292]

Did you see it TRH? Did you mind its spin? I haven’t watched it yet.

Yeah, I went and watched it in the theater.

I liked it a lot. If you approach it for what it is, then you should enjoy it quite a bit. It isn’t really supposed to be a Sunday school version of the Noah story. It is taking the Noah story and using it as a allegorical human tale. A very common thing to do in Literature, and now in film. It uses the Noah story, which is a story very imprinted on mankind, to explore not only contemporary issues, but the idea of Mercy verses Judgement, The worth of Humanity, Evil, The Silence of God, and the existential struggle. It is a morally complex film that really takes you for a ride, it’s all quite somber and serious. If you look with the correct eyes and see the message of the movie, you will see something I consider to be very positive and well crafted.The message it portrays overall, when all is said and done, is something I consider to be very powerful and positive.

 

[Elizium23]

Perhaps if atheists are going to make up a cool action flick they should make up new names to go along with it instead of trying to retread a beloved Scriptural narrative and cash in on a ready-made Christian audience who may not be entirely clued-in on Hollywood’s hostility to the faith.

 

[RPRPsych]

Yeah, I went and watched it in the theater.

I liked it a lot. If you approach it for what it is, then you should enjoy it quite a bit. It isn’t really supposed to be a Sunday school version of the Noah story. It is taking the Noah story and using it as a allegorical human tale. A very common thing to do in Literature, and now in film. It uses the Noah story, which is a story very imprinted on mankind, to explore not only contemporary issues, but the idea of Mercy verses Judgement, The worth of Humanity, Evil, The Silence of God, and the existential struggle. It is a morally complex film that really takes you for a ride, it’s all quite somber and serious. If you look with the correct eyes and see the message of the movie, you will see something I consider to be very positive and well crafted.The message it portrays overall, when all is said and done, is something I consider to be very powerful and positive.

Now you’re making me have second thoughts. I’ve always avoided Aronofsky like the plague (Requiem for a Dream, anyone? ) but if this really addresses mercy vs. justice (one of my favourite fictional themes), I might just have to watch it.

 

[Deus_tecum]

I’m not seeing it for the same reason I would not pay to see Titanic. I know the whole story and how it ends; plus the idea that an atheist would not make a Biblical movie without some sort of ulterior motive, which I am not interested in being subjected too.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

Its just a movie, but what it does make you go read about Noah in the bible…
if thats all it does, then that make it all the worthwhile .

 

[TRH1292]

Now you’re making me have second thoughts. I’ve always avoided Aronofsky like the plague (Requiem for a Dream, anyone? ) but if this really addresses mercy vs. justice (one of my favourite fictional themes), I might just have to watch it.

Mercy Verses Justice is definitely definitely definitely the biggest theme in my view, and it comes across pretty hard midway through the movie until the end. It explores that pretty forcefully.

I have no idea about the directors other movies, I haven’t seen or really heard of any of them, but I saw this one and liked it a lot.

 

[TRH1292]

Perhaps if atheists are going to make up a cool action flick they should make up new names to go along with it instead of trying to retread a beloved Scriptural narrative and cash in on a ready-made Christian audience who may not be entirely clued-in on Hollywood’s hostility to the faith.

We don’t have to address everyone as part of a larger group. Using “beloved Scriptural narratives” in various ways in literature and now in film is about as common as they come and is a testimony to the foundational place of the Bible for all mankind.

The movie is not hostile to the faith.

 

[Robert_Sock]

How likely would it be for this film to positively affect Atheists to the point that that start to look deeper into the Jewish/Christian faiths?

 

[Peter_Plato]

We don’t have to address everyone as part of a larger group. Using “beloved Scriptural narratives” in various ways in literature and now in film is about as common as they come and is a testimony to the foundational place of the Bible for all mankind.

The movie is not hostile to the faith.

How does portraying God as antithetical to human good (i.e., valuing animal life above human life) and disobedience to God as a heroic character trait in any way “friendly” to the faith?

 

[Peter_Plato]

Several thought filled reviews of the movie you might just want to read BEFORE seeing it.

scifiwright.com/2014/04/deluge-as-earthday/#more-10225

mennoknight.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/a-no-holds-barred-review-of-noah-the-movie-2014/

breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/03/28/Noah-review-brilliantly-sinister-anti-christian-filmmaking

In light of the reviews and seeing the Noah movie, it might be instructive to view The Magician’s Twin or read CS Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.

The insidious message of the movie would appear to be - but feel free to argue against this thesis with content from the movie - that God is a feckless and capricious deity who has an intense anger for humanity and disobedience (Noah finally acts against God’s will) of his capricious will is what will finally save humanity from God.

How is this at all supportive of faith in God?

 

[Peter_Plato]

The filmmaker of Noah is not Atheist.
He is not hostile to the Hebrew faith.

.

He is a self-professed atheist and secular Jew, meaning he need not be “hostile” to orthodoxy but certainly not endorse it. His belief system is clearly not theistic.

celebatheists.com/wiki/Darren_Aronofsky

It would be sporting of you to actually support your posts with something more than merely your desire to be contrary.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

I’ve always avoided Aronofsky like the plague (Requiem for a Dream, anyone? )

That film seriously scarred me, I couldn’t get some (awful) scenes out of my head for years.

But I’ll definitely see Noah. (It will have to be on DVD for me, or if I go abroad just to see it

I don’t understand the attitudes of many people who are raving against it. I seriously doubt that the director is aiming to cause damage to the Christian faith. As a Jew he probably has a different perspective, and as a non-practicing Jew he is using a story from his tradition to tell his tale of what is dark in humanity. I’m sure all people can understand that, regardless of religion. I’m just surprised that as a non-believing Jew he has left God in the story to the extent he did and he apparently does not shy away from talking about sin and justice. That is not mainstream, secular Hollywood.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

Fr. Barron has an interesting review. He is a very knowledgeable and orthodox priest and I tend to believe his judgement, even when it comes to popular culture.

He thinks the film is a post-modern midrash

youtube.com/watch?v=slg8CPwyCAY

 

[Elizium23]

Why do I feel betrayed by the trusted Catholic sources giving fawning reviews to this film? I feel like they are receiving kickbacks or payola in exchange for a favorable plug. The independent reviews have been so scathing that I am unwilling to pay theater-money to see this one. But the Catholic reviews have only confused me, and tempted me to pick this up on DVD to see what all the fuss is about. I do like the actors, but I have a fundamental revulsion to Aronofsky and his other films.

 

[Peter_Plato]

A desire to be contrary! You’re funny.
Sure, I’ll be sporting:
That quote you posted has Aronofsky saying he believes in spirituality and connection between people, and that the term “God” can be used for that. It may not be the same description or structure of God that you believe in, or many Christians believe in, but he is not ruling out the term “God” to explain what he believes.

Also, I have spoken to him on the topic and he has told me such.

.

His (and your) feckless readiness to play fast and loose with the word “God” reminds me of a paragraph from Eric Metaxas’ treatment of the DaVinci Code from the mouth of Screwtape.

… is seasoned with great steaming lumps of balderdash about Nature and “Mother Earth.” It’s a briliant connection. Men and women alike invariably eat it up with a spoon because it gives them a heady sense of being somehow “spiritual” without the annoying necessity of adopting all of those patriarchal “rules”! Never mind, Wormwood, that in this Nature goddess silliness they are worshipping deities that don’t exist! **The only thing that matters is that they are not worshiping the deity that does! ** How we accomplish that doesn’t matter a fig! And if we can give them a sense of their own superiority, a recognition of their sober respect for Mother Earth and against all senseless violence, and against all war and for peace and harmony and tolerance and recycling, well, all the better!

In fact, the way in which the movie Noah departs from the original story in Genesis reminds me of another paragraph.

That’s because it’s principle delight for our side is that in the tacky plastic shell of some below-average “fiction” the book parades as “fact” a veritable phalanx of practical propaganda and disinformation that would make our dear Herr Goebbels (Circle Eight, third spiderhole on the right) jade green with envy! Souls by the boatload are blithely believing almost all of the deliciously corrosive non-facts that are congealed everywhere in it, like flies in bad aspic, and it is that precisely which most recommends this glorious effort as worthy of our dedicated and especial study.