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Review Of Movie Everyone Is Talking About
When Darren Aronofsky took a story about God’s mercy and instead made it about his wrath, when it substitutes God’s indifference for God’s intimate love, when it makes God out to be the villain of the film … THAT’S NOT JUST FICTION; IT’S EVIL.
Drew Zahn, WND — If you listen carefully to the emotional undertones of this weeks’ top box office movie, “Noah,” you can hear the voice of an angel – a fallen angel, that is – whispering a tune as old and familiar as the Garden of Eden itself.In a way, it’s comparable to a party game I learned years ago called “Two Truths and a Lie.”
The premise is simple: Players take turns telling two truths about themselves and one lie, in any order, and other players score points if they can correctly guess which of the three statements is the lie.
As much fun as “Two Truths and a Lie” can be as a party game, in the theological or worldview realm, it is one of the most dangerous “games” out there. Countless cults and heresies have sprung from its use, as false teachers and prophets have deceived the masses by boldly speaking evident truths, only to weave in the one subtle lie that ultimately ensnares. The heresy of universal salvation, for example, would teach that God is all-powerful (truth No. 1), and that God wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4, truth No. 2), therefore when Jesus died for the sins of the world (shoot, there’s truth No. 3), he saved everyone and no one ever goes to hell (oops, there’s the lie).
Pick a heresy, cult or divergent, pseudo-Christian religion and you can usually find its source is a single falsehood wrapped in a biblically accurate sugar coating. It’s one of Satan the Deceiver’s oldest tricks.
In fact, a careful examination of the first deception, that of Eve by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, reveals the “Two Truths and a Lie” principle at work.
The serpent tempted Eve in Genesis 3:4-5, telling her if she ate the fruit, her “eyes would be opened” (truth No. 1), she “would be like God, knowing good and evil” (truth No. 2) and that she “will not surely die” (oops, there’s the lie). On a deeper level, the serpent was implying God was keeping something (the knowledge of good and evil) from Eve (truth) and that God Himself possessed it (truth), but that God was being selfish in keeping this good and desirable thing from her (the ultimate lie).
Which brings us back to the film “Noah” – a movie that overcomes its very slow and somewhat cheesy first act to deliver a powerful, imaginative and even tear-jerking climax, a movie that scores some big points from an entertainment perspective, but a film that nonetheless falters by giving audiences “Two Truths and a Lie.”Now, every critic under the sun has noticed how much writer/director Darren Aronofsky strayed from the biblical tale. Some of the divergence was merely poetic license (Noah is portrayed as roughly 40 years old, rather than 600). Some was creative reimagining of the tale (making Noah and his sons the last of Seth’s line, which isn’t biblically likely, but not explicitly anti-biblical). Some was flat-out wrong (like making the angels who were cast from heaven into helpers for man, rather than hell-bound demons, as Scripture explains; or suggesting animals are “pure” and unaffected by the Fall; or making the “godly” characters vegetarians, when the Bible reveals Abel killed animals and Noah was instructed to bring “food” animals on the Ark and eat meat after they landed and … need I go on?).
Before the film even came out, several critics (myself included) warned that early versions of the script revealed a radical, environmentalist storyline that flatly contradicted the biblical narrative.
For the purposes of this review, however, I’m going to purposefully ignore lamenting over divergence from the biblical account and the details of Noah’s story – as if tale were based on a Greek myth instead of Scripture – and focus instead on whether this fictitious telling of Noah’s tale reinforces biblical truths or preaches another gospel.
And that’s where “Two Truths and Lie” comes in.
For “Noah” is actually built on three primary premises – sin, justice and mercy – all of which are foundational to biblical doctrine and form the backbone of the movie.
To begin with, “Noah” makes a fantastic case for the universal nature of human sin (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:10-12). Despite his wife’s pleading to “see the good” in his own family, Noah comes face to face, in heart-wrenching fashion, with the reality that the seeds of hate and murder and sin exist in us all and that left to their own devices, humans will fall into the worst of vices and shame. The movie should be commended for hammering home this biblical truth.
Furthermore, though it’s contested in the primary conflict at the climax of the movie, Noah fearlessly argues that God is both just and justified in bringing his judgment on all humanity – a point the modern church often shies from in its softened-up, watered-down version of a loving God. But the biblical story of Noah makes this as plain as the film: If it were not for the mercy of God, were God to give humankind what it deserves, we’d all be dead, and that would be that.
Truthfully, without this fundamental point of doctrine, neither Noah, nor Jesus’ crucifixion, nor the existence of hell, nor the claims of salvation exclusively through Christ make any logical sense. Christian theology completely falls apart. And “Noah” actually makes the case for this doctrine (truth No. 2).
But when it comes to mercy, the third primary premise, “Noah” gives audiences a version of “Two Truths and a Lie” in every bit as forked of tongue as the serpent gave Eve in the Garden. It’s insidious, it’s deceptive and – while I don’t know if I’ve ever said this about a film before – it’s flat-out blasphemous.
For the Bible is very clear from the first of Noah’s story that God established a promise (the biblical word is “covenant”) with Noah and his descendants, and even as He commanded the family to leave the Ark, God told the humans to be fruitful and multiply. Scripture says God was grieved with humanity, but Noah found favor in his eyes. The plan all along was for God to show mercy upon Noah and his family, to reveal God’s salvation from his own justice. It’s a story all about God – revealed through Noah, but still all about God.
“Noah,” however, cuts out the most important part of the story. In “Noah,” God announces not mercy, but judgment and judgment alone. Then He goes silent. He abandons Noah to decide whether humanity will live or not.
That’s great drama, but demonic theology.
SPOILER ALERT:
Then, in the critical moment, it’s not God who chooses love and mercy, but Noah. God is the bad guy in this movie, and Noah is the good guy. That’s just a wicked lie coated in the disguise of other truths.
And even though Emma Watson delivers a speech in the end that makes it appear as though God might be merciful in having chosen Noah for this task, she still reasserts it is not God who chose to save humanity, but Noah. As though God just abdicated his throne and delegated that critical call to Noah.
And even though Emma Watson delivers a speech in the end that makes it appear as though God might be merciful in having chosen Noah for this task, she still reasserts it is not God who chose to save humanity, but Noah. As though God just abdicated his throne and delegated that critical call to Noah.
Look, I don’t really mind fictionalizing the story and embellishing it with rock monsters and all kinds of other glitz. I’ll forgive straying from the details of the story to spice up the drama. But when Darren Aronofsky took a story about God’s mercy and instead made it about his wrath, when it substitutes God’s indifference for God’s intimate love, when it makes God out to be the villain of the film … that’s not just fiction; it’s evil.
Content advisory:
• “Noah” is rated PG-13, and I’m surprised it’s not rated R, primarily for brutal deaths, bloodshed and violence. Bleeding animals, scenes of warfare, hand-to-hand combat and the dead bodies of those killed in the flood are portrayed, which may not be as gratuitous as an R-rated action film, but is still intense.
• The film has neither profanity nor obscenity, though a character does speak several times about being “damned.”
• “Noah” has some minor sexuality, including kissing and a scene where Noah’s son and his girlfriend embrace passionately and begin to disrobe (implied sex, but no nudity). Noah appears face down, naked at one point, with male, rear nudity. A distant shot of Adam and Eve reveals them naked, but the lighting prevents details from being seen.
• The film is filled with religious content and many references to “the Creator.” In addition, there’s a beautifully artistic depiction of the Bible’s six-day creation, though at the same time, it shows a rapid, evolution-like process. Angels cast from heaven are portrayed as having been deformed into rock-like monsters. Methuselah is also shown as possessing magic-like powers.
About the Author
Drew Zahn is a former pastor who cut his editing teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today's professional journal for church leaders. He is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view."
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