Posted on 04/01/2014 3:26:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
It wasn't so long ago that conservative Christians believed Hollywood to be evil and some preachers instructed their congregations not to go to movies lest they be tempted beyond their ability to resist. Now Christians are debating film content. That's progress of a sort.
The main complaint from critics of the film "Noah," which opened last Friday with an impressive opening day take of an estimated $44 million in ticket sales, is that it doesn't accurately reflect the rather slim biblical account in Genesis. Here's some breaking news for the critics: Noah didn't speak English, as Russell Crowe does in the film, so right there we have a departure from biblical accuracy. One should not turn to Hollywood for theological truth.
In his book "Hollywood vs. America," critic Michael Medved refers to the film industry as "The Poison Factory," not the "dream factory" it likes to call itself. There is plenty of evidence -- and he includes it in his book -- to support that conclusion, but there are also many independent films being made today that act as antidotes to that poison if people seek them out, buy tickets and spread the word.
"Heaven is for Real" is one such film. Based on the best-selling book by Todd Burpo, the movie was directed by Randall Wallace, an evangelical Christian who also directed "Secretariat" and wrote the screenplays for "Braveheart" and "Pearl Harbor."
Back to Noah. I asked Michael Medved about the film. He emailed me that while he believes the film is "surpassingly strange ... On balance," he says, he's "glad they made the film; unlike so much puerile pabulum from Hollyweird, this serious and seriously flawed offering gives thoughtful movie-goers plenty to talk about." He might have added that controversy also sell tickets, sometimes more than newspaper ads and movie trailers.
As for the storyline (the real one), what we know from Genesis is that God considered Noah a "righteous man." For that reason Noah and his family (and the animals) would be spared so they could repopulate the Earth after the flood. God's reason for wiping out what He had created was because "every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5). From there we get a weather report of rain for 40 days and 40 nights, the opening of the Earth's floodgates, a dove going out to see if the water had receded and God providing a rainbow as a sign of His promise never to flood the Earth again. That's it at warp speed.
While dramatic enough, there are not enough additional details to sustain a movie plot long enough for people to finish their overpriced candy bars, tubs of popcorn and supersized Cokes or justify the obscene ticket prices ($16.50 in NYC). Some critics claim there is a heavy environmental message in the film, which undercuts the power of the real story. Aren't there subtle and not so subtle messages in most films?
After decades in which Hollywood mostly ignored or stereotyped faith, Christians should be happy they have gotten the film industry's attention. Successful films like "The Passion of the Christ," "The Bible" and "Son of God" prove that such stories "sell." Instead of nitpicking over "Noah," the Christian community should not only be cheering, but buying tickets to encourage more such movies. Hollywood may not always get it right, but that's not the point. They are getting something and that sure beats not getting anything, or getting it completely wrong as in Martin Scorsese's blasphemous, "The Last Temptation of Christ."
Besides, after some see "Noah," they might want to visit the "original cast." The next time a rainbow appears might be the right occasion to begin a discussion.
Actually, that’s Tubal-Cain, the bad guy of the film, the meat-eating, gun-toting, property taking, murderous scum; and note he has Satan’s shed snakeskin on him.
good list but you left out the best review ever of noah:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3138965/posts
I was there on that thread ... so I don’t know how I left it out. I’m adding it to the list ... :-) ...
Here is a list on Free Republic, too about NOAH ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/noahthemovie/index
Here are some references to this ...
Matthew 24:37-39
37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
—
Luke 24:
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”
27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
...
44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
—
And also, the prophetic Word from God, in the Garden of Eden about the coming one who is to provide salvation to the world and to all of creation ...
Genesis 3:14, 15
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Yeah, that will happen....lol. People don't research anything...they believe Hollyweird blindly....
What He did was “once for all” - his death for our sins. I think that’s what the OP is referring to.
Christianity differs from all other religions in the difference between the words “do” and “done”. All others are about what you “do”; Christianity is about what Christ has “done” for us.
The studio and the director made a liberal, leftist, ‘green’, global warming and enviro-whacko PROPAGANDA HIT PIECE against the foundations of Christianity and the Bible — and instead, sneaking in their enviro-whacko IDEOLOGY as the basis of the movie!
Dennis Prager, in the following Freeper posting, explains what is going on, in our culture. This movie NOAH is a prime example of how that works.
Judaism, Christianity, Environmentalism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3139589/posts
that was insane thread . totally unexpected.
LOL ... I’m still on it ... just getting ready to do another reply ... :-) ...
"This was a thoroughly pagan retelling of the Noah story direct from Kabbalist and Gnostic sources," Mattson writes.
Mattson reminds that the "subject matter" of Arnofosky's debut film, "Pi," was Kabbalah, so it makes sense that he was already familiar with it. Moreover, a number of moments in the film that at first seemed like artistic flourishes -- a glowing Adam and Eve, the serpent skin Noah wraps around his arm -- all have a basis in either Kabbalah or Gnosticism:
The world of Gnostic mysticism is bewildering with a myriad of varieties. But, generally speaking, they hold in common that the serpent is “Sophia,” “Mother,” or “Wisdom.” The serpent represents the true divine, and the claims of “The Creator” are false.
Years were lots shorter then; orbital speed was much higher until the near collisions with...slowed it down. It also caused the flood and a later pass caused the plagues of Egypt.
Worlds in Collision, Velikovsky, 1950.
In reality, John Chapter 1 is its real begining.
Was the Kabbalah really part of Jewish history though?
In “prophecy” yes. The real start of the Christian faith is John 1.
Yes, like "Hey, Bob, did you know Noah wanted to kill his grandchildren, and there were rock people?"
If that isn't "Hollyweird", I don't know what is. If people are going to talk about Noah, it should be for the right reasons. Without a single mention of God in that movie, conversation for the right reasons will be very difficult.
Genesis 1:26 contains the first reference to Christ, indirectly, as God refers to Himself in the plural:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
As for the first Christians, Acts 11:26 is the first reference to Christians actually being called by that name, at Antioch.
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