“Noah” Movie

So the Noah movie came to town this weekend and a few of us decided to go see what the fuss is/was all about.

After seeing it, I can perfectly understand the terrible comments directed toward it. Using the Genesis text as the standard of judgment, it could be said there really isn’t much in the movie that keeps to the text. Criticism is way to easy and far too obvious.

I was more interested to see if I could identify with the perspectives of the positive reviews that I read about the time when the movie first came out (March 28, 2014). I did have to look past the mediocre elements of the portrayal. And I had to consciously set aside the idea that I was seeing a Bible Story. But then I could identify with many, though not necessarily all, positive reflections on the movie.

Here I provide a list of some of the ones to which I refer. (No point in listing negative ones since, ahem, it doesn’t take much thought to come up with them.) I suppose, not surprisingly, the positive reflections are from progressive Christianity and Jewish sources.

• 'Noah:' Deeply, Passionately Biblical (Sojourners.net, Cathleen Falsani)
• A Biblical Review Of Noah (HuffPo, Rev. Otis Moss III)
• “Noah” in a nutshell: Watchers lose, love wins (Unfundamentalist Christians, Patheos, Dan Wilkinson)
• Movie Review | Noah: A Very Jewish Retelling (FinkOrSwim, Eliyahu Fink)
• Noah: Christian Film Review (Dr. Shawn Anderson)
• The Faithfulness of the Noah Film: Writer Ari Handel on God Learning From Humankind, Vitriolic Christians, & Midrash (Progressive Christian, Patheos, David R. Henson)

The Noah movie is at its strongest when it is working through the psychology of Noah carrying out what he absolutely believes to be a divine command, no matter what that means, even if it means murder in the name of God. It is at its weakest when it is trying to advance the narrative.

Communication is much more than words

The girls and I just returned from a showing of WALL-E. Elise is working so she couldn't make it. Tonight was the only night available for the girls since we are going to campmeeting tomorrow and the girls will be staying there next week for their camp.

Anyway, for those that haven't seen it yet (which is probably less than 1% of the American population...) much of the movie is without what could be called dialogue. Communication, both between the characters in the movie and the movie to the audience, takes place. Pixar did a great job with their animation, using visuals much more effectively than words could have expressed.

The theme of the movie (according to my view) is an exploration of a response to the question, "What does it mean to have life and live?" The movie suggests a number of related responses that might be surprising and very thoughtful.

It was well worth the price of admission. Be sure to stay and watch the closing credits. The story doesn't end with the final scene -- there's an epilogue in the credits.