Why Won’t You Answer Me? I lined up with a lot of people to catch the first night’s showing of the movie, Noah. Sure, this was against the advice of pop culture’s moral barometer Glenn Beck but let’s just keep this between you and me. Hollywood sensibilities plus an atheist director – what could possibly go wrong? So did it go wrong? Spoiler alert – if you have never heard the story of Noah and the Ark, you really need remedial VBS training and maybe a tract or two. I can ship this to you immediately – I know people. I didn’t go expecting a Cecil B. DeMille rendition of the Biblical story of Noah. I don’t want to spoil it for someone who actually wants to see it by describing scenes – not why I’m writing. Aronofsky takes many liberties with everything from the scriptural narrative to even Noah’s character. I will say that if you are a vegan environmentalist member of PETA, you’re going to love the look and feel of this movie. I felt a little tinge of guilt eating a hamburger today although not enough to cower in human-hating guilt by the salad bar. For an atheist, you get the feeling that Aronofsky spent a lot of time studying the Bible for context. You have to have read scripture to create your own translation and interpretation of it. Even if you don’t mention God by name, are you really fooling anybody by calling Him “Creator” instead? Granted, the Noah of this film feels a little more like Jack Nicholson than Charlton Heston – not exactly Hebrews Faith Hall of Fame material. But, there is no arguing that Noah is clearly chosen to give mankind a second chance for his faithfulness to the Creator whether this Noah recognizes it or not. I walked out behind a couple that was discussing the movie from a Christian perspective. One of them said, “this kind of Hollywood trash just causes more questions than answers”. I thought to myself “now, there’s an ironic blog topic”… In this movie, the Creator doesn’t do a lot of answering, at least to the satisfaction of the characters. He uses signs, visions and dreams (He also uses strange rock characters but that’s for another analogy) and these guys spend a lot of time screaming at the sky in wonder. In some ways I wonder if this is ever the case with Aronofsky in his real life. I don’t think Christians should feel threatened by the questions generated by this movie. Throughout the history of mankind, man has tried to understand and explain God and His ways. The Bible is really a chronicle of the relationship between God and man. If we are indeed created by a Creator, would there not be a natural desire to question and seek? Why would a God who can create something from nothing be threatened by His creation’s attempt to understand Him? Maybe if I feel threatened by questions it’s because Im not completely sure that I will know how to answer when Im asked.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 03:16:54 +0000
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