When the opening credits rolled for
Noah, a woman in
attendance with me yelled “praise the Lord!”, which was then
inexplicably followed by cheers from the crowd. It was obvious that a
church group of some sort was in the theatre with me, made up of people
likely unaware of the abstract moral complexity that is typically characteristic of a Darren Aronofsky film. I suppose the presence of
Godly folk should be expected whenever one sees a movie based on a Bible
story. Luckily for this congregation, they picked a relatively safe
Aronofsky film to see, one that shies away from philosophizing about the
backwards ethics at the heart of this Biblical end-of-the-world myth.
Aronofsky succeeds in telling the story of the Great Flood in a way
which exposes its glorious absurdity. But he ultimately pulls his
punches, seemingly out of fear of offending the Christian masses who
will lead Noah to box office success. Inevitably, some of the
faithful are going to be offended by what they see here regardless, but
if the theatre I was in is any indication of how the public will react,
many of the God-fearing are going to feel vindicated by this holy
adaptation.
