Chloé Kent - IN-CLASS MOVIES #3 – Noah

In the opening weekend of the 2014 film Noah, I found my Facebook page inundated with blog posts on blog posts with opinions on this now controversial film. Many of the posts from my religious friends were bashing the film, encouraging fellow Christians not to go see the movie because it deviated from the Bible. I did my best to go into the film letting go of any expectations of how I thought it should be, and try to forget for the moment the Biblical story and just view the film with an open mind. This was definitely easier said than done, as I kept hearing a nagging voice in my head at any point something came up in the film that didn't match theology, but I tried to ignore that and just enjoy the film. Once I let go of my preconceived notions about how this film should go, I found the film had a really interesting take on the Biblical story of Noah. There was definitely a different take on the story of the cleansing of the world than found in the Bible. In this film, Noah believed that God was hoping to purge the world of humanity entirely, and he built the ark only with the hope of saving the plants and animals, not to preserve life. His sons were without wives and his adoptive daughter was barren, so he planned for his family to die out and humanity would cease to exist. I found this interesting, it bothered me in a sense because the Bible says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he was aware of him being rescued from the flood. However I still couldn't look past the whole, Noah wanting to kill his grandchildren thing, that is not representative of a man who has found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Overall the film may not be an exact replication of Biblical truth, but rather is an artistic expression of how one man viewed this passage and God himself and should be appreciated from that standpoint alone.