I went into Noah expecting...well, not a lot. Darren Aronofsky is my favorite director, but I couldn't really see him willing any good in making a Biblical movie. Plus he outright said it wasn't biblical, so I was really just expecting it to be a bad spiritual movie AND a bad Darren Aronofsky movie, and I wasn't psyched about seeing either when I really thought about it.
I was pleasantly surprised. I think this is my favorite Biblical movie. And I think the people who were offended and writing scathing reviews either 1) haven't read their Bibles lately, and so were genuinely forgetting a lot of what goes on in that story, OR 2) are afraid of the way the Bible relates to a spectrum of people and experiences differently. In other words, afraid of the myth in the Bible--afraid of the idea that one person's reading and interpretation of a story can be different from theirs...and maybe true.
On an unrelated note, I really loved the fact that the costuming was somewhat modern. I mean, it was all natural fibers and there were a lot of unfinished edges, but they were fairly modern cuts, and people were wearing shoes with soles etc. I thought that served the part of the story that dealt with the human condition as a whole...the part of the story that was myth. Keeping the costumes out of loincloth and animal skin territory did a lot to allow me, as a viewer, to insert myself into the story without hitting me over the head with that goal.
I didn't really mind any of the things that Aronofsky added to the story, but I am still wondering why he chose to portray Noah and his family as an isolated unit rather than as part of a community. I think the beginning of Noah's story, the part where he's the CRAZY GUY for years upon years, getting mocked and scorned by his neighbors, is so powerful, and I don't think it conflicted with any of Aronofsky's messages. So I'm curious as to why he cut the community.
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