A long post about Noah, because I Facebooked and Tweeted a couple of things and Sam asked me to blog it. Sorry it's so long. I won't be offended if you don't read it.

SPOILER ALERT

I'm not especially interested in picking apart all the ways 'Noah wasn't biblical'. That bores me, in the same way that picking apart why anyone who complains 'the book wasn't like the movie' does.

I'm also not all that interested in that kind of easy Christian 'worldivew critique' that basically consists in a doing a biographical study of the artist, finding their worldview and therefore getting all 'discernment-dismissive' on the artist – Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon therefore Twilight is bad sort of stuff. But then I find it boring when Penguin Classics spend their entire introduction giving a biographical sketch of the author too.

I've read a review that argues that Noah is deeply Kabbalah, and then halfway through starts saying it's actually Gnostic and it had some sort of ok points. But I think there's so much space to interpret and respond to the film in different ways.

So want I'd like to talk about is what I enjoyed about Noah, and how I experienced and interpreted and interacted with it from m Christian point of view. I also want to share the interesting things I it got me pondering.

1. Does total depravity lead to misanthropy?

One of the great themes of the film, is the question of whether human beings are beyond hope? Would God's world be better off without us?

By using the disaster movie trope of 'tragic but inevitable disaster we unwittingly brought upon ourselves', the film helps us make emotional sense of 'How could a loving God send a global flood (or send people to Hell)?' It is an awful inevitability.

But all the way through this point is made in a variety of ways: the constant almost-mythical repeating of the Origninal Sin and the fratricide of Cain. Noah's portrayal as such a flawed character. The post-apocalyptic decay that the sinful city-builders inflict on God's good planet demonstrates the appalling and destructive wickedness of sin. And in one scene, Noah seing himself in the repulsive and terrifying slums of Tubal-Cain's cities. 

This theme reaches a sickening climax in a variation on the Abraham-Isaac theme in the on-ark drama, as Noah contemplates the need to kill his newborn grandaughters. It is a disturbing extra-bilblical addition. But it is a believable possiblity. And although it is this part of the film is where the film drags the most, that very drag is made more unpleasant by having to ponder Noah's horrid plan for so long.

The film so successfully portrays total depravity, that these misanthropic explorations are understandable. And yet it doesn't leave us there. Through a whole range of characters, from Methuselah, the rock transformers and Shem and Noah's wives we pulled back from this outlook.

2. The rock transformers were cool

A lot of people didn't like the Rock Transformer fallen angels. I did actually. They were some of the most complex characters in the film, with a genuine character arc. And they provided a means for vividly demonstrating some powerful themes of the film:

  • They had a complex love-hate relationship with humanity – pity, outrage, despair, conflict
  • They vividly demonstrate the tragic perversion and debasement of sin – by refusing to accept God's ways, they plunge into a fallen world, become frustrated and crippled. They are tragically disfigured and disabled. I found that watching them walk was touching.
  • The LOTR-style last-battle scene gave great visual drama to the spiritual conflict taking place between God's plans and a sinful, desperate humanity.
  • Their salvation doesn't grapple with the need for the incarnation or atonement – but it is another exploration of hope in the midst of judgment.

They also raise an intriguing thought: must be think of all angelic sin as malicious and sinister? Is it possible that angelic sin could have been tragic and misguided as portaryed in these characters? It reminds us that the fallen angels WERE good and fell from something special.

In a simlilar vein, the snakeskin that the demonic serpent sheds in the Garden of Eden becomes a relic for the gody line of Seth. Perhaps this was the 'good' skin the serpent shed when he 'fell'?

3. Divine guidance and human decision

The way God's revelation is portrayed in Noah is sub-Christian, because he is overall a distant God who seems to leave Noah guessing of his intent. But this cannot be overstated – God does send visions, work miracles, and (it seems) give the Genesis 1-4 tradition.

More positively, I found myself pondering the role of human decision in following God's guidance. At the close of the film, Shem's wife counsels Noah that perhaps God left Noah free to make a decision based on love for the human race. Now Christians could scoff at this as a 'love conquers all' sentimentality. But we do need to remember that this is a film that graphically portrayed the devastation of a global flood! 

This got me thinking that God works often in and through the conscious deliberations and desires of the people he speaks to. Human decision making sometimes does have an important role in divine guidance.

4. Emotional Life of Biblical Characters

Noah really sucked me into the emotional world of his characters. You really felt for them. There's many powerful scenes where Noah's wife comforts or confronts Noah, such as when she stands on the ark, and she says something along the lines of 'You have been carrying a great burden, you can put it down now'.

You feel Noah's distress. It makes sense of the biblical 'heroes' as real people. And it makes sense of their flaws and failures. In the flow of the story, Noah's post-diluvian drunkness make sense.

5. The different-ness of the pre-Fall and ante-diluvian world

I like the many ways the film reminds us 'Things before the Fall were very different to now' and even, 'Things before the Flood' were very different to now. Were they different in the ways this films shows them? Probably not. But were they different? Absolutely!

6. Two takes on the Image of God

Another major theme of Noah is: 'What does it mean to be in the image of God?'

Tubal-Cain has one answer: to control, to kill, to dominate. This is a good portrayal of how human beings do indeed abuse their God-given power and privilege.

Noah and his family have another answer: to care and nurture and cause to flourish. This is shown to us in beautiful ways. It 'makes sense' that human beings ruling the Earth in God's image could be a good thing.

7. The explanatory role of the Genesis narrative

I liked the stylistic choice to tell the whole film in a 'fantasy' style genre. This allowed the power of the story to do its work, without a tiresome 'explaining away' or deconstruction of the story.

It also allowed us to see that the stories in Genesis function as a sort of primal history that serves some functions of aetiologicaal myth – 'here's how we explain who we are and where we have come from'. Genesis 1-4 are visually and verbally used multiple times to help us make sense of the world of the film.

Especially interesting is when Noah recounts Genesis 1, while the time-lapse visuals gently imply big bang and evolutionary cosmology. This shows how the Genesis story could be understood from a theistic-evolution point of view.