No, Nowhere, Noah

Cause: a principle, aim, or movement to which one is committed and prepared to defend or advocate.

The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of our past.

Unknown

Committed: pledged or bound to a certain course or policy; dedicated.

Fate is nothing else but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My pal Jeff knows how to get stuff done. Me, I often doodle. A bit of work here, some over there, seldom will I sit down, do only one thing at a time and finish it. Don’t get me wrong, I do get stuff done, but I’m all over the show. Not Jeff. When he takes on something new, no matter what it is, it’s as if this spell comes over him. He has the focus of twenty bulls all gunning for the same red flag. Nothing unsettles him until his goal or the desired results are achieved.

I admire that. But, there have also been times that Jeff is so focussed on the task at hand, that he has little or no room for anybody else’s input. It makes working with him, especially under pressure, often very awkward.

Too much of a good thing - isn’t a good thing.

After some thought and analysis, perhaps this is the only substantial point one is forced to deduce from the latest ‘Noah’ movie. In it, Director Darren Aronofsky tells the tale of a man who will stop at nothing to fulfil the task set before him, come hell or high water. (Mmmmh) 

Noah was the man God commissioned to build an ark before He was going to wipe out mankind with a huge flood because of all their wickedness. In choosing Noah, He had the perfect ally to see the job through, a man He could trust to stay committed to His cause. But when you observe Aronofsky’s interpretation of Noah and the times leading up before the great flood, you have to gasp at the realities he tries to sketch to his audience.

His Noah (Russell Crowe) comes across like a man possessed, blinded by some twisted idea of what it means to show your spiritual loyalty and devotion. In fact, his reasons for doing what God told him to do seems very much his own and hardly divine.

There are many inconsistencies in Aronofsky’s version of events. Inconsistencies that he tries to cover up with CGI stunts and tricks, he even offers a 3D experience of this absurd historical account of his. But I put it to you; no amount of colourful tailoring to any version can influence a bad story enough to make it seem true. 

Noah starts having these visions or back flashes, as if he is on some psychedelic trip – which mind you, according to Aronofsky, is quite likely how Noah got some of his answers. During a visit, his great grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) promptly serves him up a natural mind-bending substance, and off Noah flies, zonked out of his skull. (Got to wonder about this family)

God spoke to Noah. He never had visions, especially not on some ancient form of dope anyway. All of them, both Noah and his sons, already had wives, too. Not according to this movie. It therefore doesn’t come as much of a surprise that God is silent in this film, a silence which at times is deafening.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Noah, it’s easy to simply go read all about it in Genesis 6-9. Basically, the Earth and all its inhabitants were so evil and corrupt that God was sorrowful for creating man, ‘And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart.’ (NKJV)

God had enough and decided to destroy everything and everyone He had made, but Noah found favour. When you watch ‘Noah’, you can’t help but wonder why? For instance: Upon learning of his son’s girlfriend’s pregnancy, (that’s all she is in the movie), he bluntly says that if it’s a boy, the baby can live, if a girl – she has to die.

Besides making history for being the first person ever to suffer from major cabin fever, Noah is also a drug taking fanatic and the ultimate chauvinist to whom female life has little or no value; hardly befitting of a man who was chosen to rectify the crimes of our past.

The simple truth obviously just isn’t entertaining enough, perhaps why the creators of this story try to take it to a completely new level. In between, Aronofsky tries to portray Noah as a man deeply tormented by what he has to do and tries to convince us that his character’s actions stem from human error and fallibility, almost as if he trying to set the tone for his own directional and storytelling imperfections, while trying to find forgiveness and redemption from us.

Ordinarily, creative license inspires, it offers something fresh. In this instance, it hopelessly fails.

‘Noah’ is a soulless journey, by soulless people in a soulless world who by virtue of inference suffer under a soulless God. With so much soullessness in this movie, you can’t help but wonder about the director – you surely don’t have to wonder about the message or the film.