Should
you see this film? Should you not see it? I think the only thing I can
positively say is: Don’t see it with your grandmother.
Darren
Aronofsky ruffled feathers by proclaiming his new movie Noah the “least Biblical Biblical film ever made.” This is true, if
your definition of “Biblical” is “stars Charlton Heston and has an
anti-Communist agenda,” as The Ten
Commandments did (it’s notable they both have subplots which didn’t occur
in the Bible). Noah breaks numerous
Bible movie conventions, and though its iconoclastic bent can be over the top,
it effectively utilizes this alienating tactic to shock the audience into
seeing the story with new eyes.
First
thing to go is the traditional flamboyant Middle-Eastern attire, replaced by dull
tunics of animal skin right out of either the Paleolithic era or a modern
dystopia. I incline towards the latter, because the film lacks a real dimension
of age. The world doesn’t seem young (should it?)—but rather old and
decrepit and empty. It’s a bad sign when the majority of the striking visual
shots can be contained in a film’s trailer.
