Noah

Noah 2

The entire story of Noah and the monumental events that washed away the antedeluvian world are told in only three short chapters of the Old Testament. There have been several attempts to depict this story in a motion picture, beginning with John Huston's The Bible . . . In the Beginning, from 1966, which is more of the Sunday School version of this story, with live animals, flocking to the Ark in droves in a relaxed manner, because the Lord had placed knowledge of the flood within them, and all involved seemed to have a surplus of time to prepare the enormous vessel for the rains to come. The concept of the Ark in Huston's film was elaborate and highly detailed, with stables, pens, perches, nests, and stores of food for all species. The animals were shown to be alert and fully aware through the entire forty days of the downpour.

All of this is in high contrast to Noah, the 2014 version of this same story. No Sunday School tale this time, and which, at first glance might seem to be something akin to Transformers Meets Lord of the Rings, due to certain plot devices and visuals, and of which you might think, "Oh, Brother," . . . but I would advise hanging in there, because some things depicted here, whether true or not, begin to make sense further on. Also, the Bible does tell of giants in that epoch, and also of angels that fell to Earth, so keep that in mind. This movie is filmed in primordial Iceland, in unsaturated dark color, with its impending sense of doom, in a world filled with violence and complete disregard for the Creator. The line of Cain has descended into thousands of peoples in cities, whose industrial skills are mainly in weapons manufacture, marauding in packs, pillaging what they will and killing anything that stands in their way.

Only Noah, a direct descendant of Adam's third son, Seth, is found worthy in the eyes of the Creator, whom he acknowledges and obeys. And between them, it is understood that the Creator now looks upon the world with complete disdain and has repented of even creating Man, and informs Noah that the world will be flooded and washed clean of all of the works of humanity, and of all humans, a factor which weighs upon the conflicted Noah throughout the remainder of this story. Did the Creator intend that ALL humans be destroyed and only the animals be saved . . . or what ? It is an interesting and perplexing dichotomy, which plays out to the end of this movie.

Only the animals are found to be innocent and exempt from this decree, and the Creator wants their kind to be saved from what is to come, and instructs Noah to build a great ark, large enough for all species of animals to be contained and saved from the impending flood. And the concept of this ark is most likely closer to the actual vessel than any we've seen in story books, or previous films, more like a huge wooden building, square on the side, made from logs, caulked with pitch. . . a totally plausible and credible craft, with the volume and watertight integrity necessary to endure its purpose.

We see huge flocks of birds circling the completed ark, and at the appointed moment, with foreknowledge, they all fly into its gaping entrance to take their place in their perches. We see vast herds of land animals also arriving in great haste, and boarding the Ark, as well as all creeping things. And that is the end of it for this movie anyway, for Noah's wife anesthetizes all the creatures into deep hibernation with herbal smoke, thus virtually eliminating them as a factor in the remainder of this film.

Though the construction of the actual ark took 120 years according to Genesis, time is compressed here, so that we can see just how evil the world was then, and how dangerous it was for someone to have prepared his family to survive the literal end of the world, when all the thousands of peoples in the area had scoffed at Noah and squandered their time and efforts, until they realize that their only hope is the Ark, and they lay seige to it.

Russell Crowe portrays Noah, and is adequate to the task -- not bad for a man well over six hundred years old . . . a family man, singled out by the Creator to either save a remnant of mankind, or destroy it.

Noah 1

Anthony Hopkins is Methusela, a fitting casting choice, as Hopkins has played Ptolemy, Nixon, Richard the Lionheart, Hannibal Lecter, John Adams and Colonel Ludlow-- a range of personalities sufficient to represent all that was good and evil in the antedeluvian world as well. . . a man who carries remnants of Eden within him, with enough wisdom and power to solve a major problems for construction of the Ark . . . and for Noah's sons.

The story then turns to the last few desperate hours as the rains begin to fall, and the fountains of deep are loosed, and flood encircles those inside and outside the Ark. And as I watched these scenes, I was reminded again and again of Matthew 24: "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man." And no matter what you may think of what Hollywood has done with this story, THAT is the value of this motion picture.

--Thomas Ormsby