Essay on Noah the Film

The film Noah depicts an overview of the incident of flood in the biblical account of Noah and the ark. Darren Aronofsky, the film director, unfolds the story of Noah and the ark as a relationship story. The filmmaker elaborates about the relationship between Noah and his father where he is seen giving his blessings to Noah before his death. Noah travels in search of his grandfather, Methuselah, to seek for interpretation of his dreams and visions. Methuselah recognizes Noah who introduces his son Shem which overwhelms him. The film unveils the love relationship between Noah and his wife and among his sons and their wives. The relationship between the Watchers and Methuselah unfolds when they easily bond with Noah and helps in the building of the ark (Aronofsky, 2014). Darren defers with the biblical events when he tells about the interaction of Noah and Methuselah who died before the flood. Noah’s sons wives in the Bible have not been unveil as per the film. Director Darren illustrates the social aspect of human beings portraying the nature of humanity. The paper address the similarities and differences unveiled in the film and the biblical story and features any changes, additions, and deletions made in the film.

The filmmaker deliberately omits details stated for the biblical story. The film does not tell the length of time, the flood lasts although an estimate of 270days can be depicted. The Bible states that the flood lasted for 40 days and nights or 150days depending on the version of reference. The film does not tell the age of Noah and his sons when the flood occurs while the Bible says Noah was 600years and his sons were about 100years. The biblical story mentions that the animals entered the ark “two by two” while the film does not mention only when Noah said that the doves were female and male. Along the film, God is not mentioned. The Bible tells that Noah was instructed by God to build the ark to save mankind and animals and He helped Noah in the construction of the ark (Baden, 2017).

The filmmaker makes the choice to add significant incites to the film to mark its stand which contradicts with what the Bible reinforces. The film presents Watchers, fallen angels, who assisted Noah in the construction of the ark. The Bible states that Noah constructed the ark with the help of God. The film reveals that the animals were put asleep the entire flood period which eliminate the thought of how the animals refrained from consuming each other, the budget of gathering the feeds for the whole population, and where the waste produces were kept. In the contrary, the bible unveils that Noah brought food for the animals while the ark must be noisy and smelly. The Bible tells that Noah’s sons’ wives accompanied them into the ark while the film unveils how the sons acquired their mates to reinstate how the Bible narrates (Greydanus, 2021).

Numerous incidence in the film portrays a different aspect from the biblical story. The film begins by stating that in the beginning there was nothing but from the Bible begins that at the beginning God created heaven and earth. In the film, the ark takes 10years to be built while the Bible says it takes 7days for Noah to construct it in help of God (IMDb.com, 2021). God speaks to Noah about the occurrence of the flood, and guide him on what to do in the Bible while in the film, Noah have dreams and visions which he seeks for their interpretation from his grandfather. The order of events in the Bible is not followed where Noah sends the bird to look for a dry land to settle before the ark comes to a halt, but in the Bible Noah’s son sends the birds after the ark stopped by the mountain. The filmmaker does not state the sacrifices that Noah offered after the flood nor does is state whether he did not offer as portrayed in the Bible (Greydanus, 2021).

When the flood comes God closes the ark’s doors to ensure that nobody comes out while the film unveils that Noah closed the doors after everything got in. Noah blesses his sons instead of God.

Despite lengthy differences between what the film and what the Bible unveils, the filmmakers tries to keep into account what the story narrates. In both instances, the floods occurs due to the evil and wickedness in the earth. The flood destroys everything outside the ark while Noah’s family acts as the beginning of mankind. God chooses Noah and save him from the floods for he is depicted as righteous in His generation. Noah receives revelations on God’s intentions to destroy the earth. A rainbow appears at the end of both phenomena to illustrate that God will never destroy life using water. Just as flood, the rainbow is perceived as a heavenly sign rather than a natural occurrence (Greydanus, 2021).

The film unveils the account of Noah and the ark and visualize the scenes to enhance more understanding. Aronofsky narration points out what happened during the Noah’s flood in the bible. The information kept across structures each verse in the bible despite the filmmaker adding more details to set the film plot. Scenes such as the source of the flood waters from the heavens’ openings, presences of birds to find dry land, and Noah getting drunk and his sons covering him revealed in the film corresponds with biblical scenes (Aronofsky, 2014). Aronofsky accomplishes his intentions to unfold what the bible portrays in Noah’s flood phenomena.

References

Aronofsky, D. (Director). (2014). Noah 2014 [Motion Picture].

Baden, J. (2017, April 14). Daily Beast. Retrieved from ‘Noah’: The Bible vs. the blockbuster: https://www.thedailybeast.com/noah-the-bible-vs-the-blockbuster

Greydanus, S. D. (2021). Decentfilms. Retrieved from The Noah controversies: questions and answers: http://decentfilms.com/articles/noah-controversy

IMDb.com. (2021). IMDb. Retrieved from Noah(2014) Plot: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/plotsummary