{"id":1011,"date":"2008-02-25T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-25T23:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/02\/year-one-sounds-even-more-biblical-now\/"},"modified":"2008-02-25T23:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-25T23:50:00","slug":"year-one-sounds-even-more-biblical-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/02\/year-one-sounds-even-more-biblical-now.html","title":{"rendered":"Year One sounds even more “biblical” now."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Last month<\/a>, it was reported that Olivia Wilde was going to star in the Judd Apatow-produced \u201cbiblical comedy\u201d Year One<\/a><\/i> as Princess Inanna, a love interest for the Jack Black character whose name, according to Wikipedia<\/a>, happens to be identical to that of \u201cthe Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, two weeks ago<\/a>, it was reported that Hank Azaria was joining the cast as a guy named Abraham. You mean, that<\/i> Abraham\u2026?<\/p>\n

Could be. Today, Wilde told the MTV Movies Blog<\/a> a little more about her character, and about the film in general:<\/p>\n

\u201cI play the princess of Sodom,\u201d she explained. \u201cMichael Cera and Jack Black go on this journey, and they are searching for the meaning of life, essentially; all these crazy things happen to them, and they meet all these characters you\u2019ll recognize from the bible. It\u2019s all these brilliant references to historical things that people will recognize, and some things from other films.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t up on their \u201cDavey and Goliath<\/a>\u201d reruns, the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah were two biblical cities destroyed by God because of their rampant sexual activities and immorality \u2013 needless to say, a concept rife with comedic possibility. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be really interesting to see the way they set that up, how much we use the Sodom and Gomorrah feeling that they\u2019re completely wicked places; I\u2019m really excited to see Ramis\u2019 vision for that,\u201d she grinned, getting ready to rule over such an orgy of excess. \u201cThere\u2019ll be a hint towards [the lead characters falling for me], then Jack Black and I come together. It\u2019s really funny what we do, and what happens next.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the film features a character named Abraham and<\/i> it features Sodom and Gomorrah, two towns that were rescued from a foreign invasion by the biblical Abraham (Genesis 14<\/a>) and eventually destroyed by God during the biblical Abraham\u2019s lifetime (Genesis 18-19<\/a>)? Okay, that would seem to settle it. This movie almost certainly will<\/i> feature biblical characters and perhaps even biblical plot points, even if they are kept to the margins like the biblical elements were in Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian<\/a><\/i> (1979).<\/p>\n

Oh, and about the reasons<\/i> for Sodom and Gomorrah\u2019s destruction: Those two towns have certainly long had a reputation for sexual impropriety, mainly because a mob there tried to gang-rape a couple of visiting angels. (It\u2019s not just the rape that was bad; sex between angels and humans was a big no-no for the Hebrews too, and was likely one of the reasons the Flood was sent in Noah\u2019s day, as per Genesis 6<\/a>.) But the one time the Old Testament spells out what, exactly, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was<\/i>, in Ezekiel 16<\/a>, sex doesn\u2019t enter into the picture, at least not explicitly:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some have suggested that the word translated \u201cdetestable\u201d here may refer to certain kinds of sexual activity, and that is certainly possible; but Ezekiel uses that word to refer to a lot<\/i> of things \u2014 such as idolatry \u2014 so it is by no means a foregone conclusion that he was only or even primarily referring to sex, there.<\/p>\n

But back to the movie. It would be truly impressive if Year One<\/i> reflected any awareness of the Ezekiel passage. But \u2026 I\u2019m not counting on it. Sex sells better than messages against pride and poverty, and it\u2019s easier to get a laugh out of sexual behaviour than it is to get laughs out of those sorts of messages, too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, it was reported that Olivia Wilde was going to star in the Judd Apatow-produced \u201cbiblical comedy\u201d Year One as Princess Inanna, a love interest for the Jack Black character whose name, according to Wikipedia, happens to be identical to that of \u201cthe Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.\u201d Then, two weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nYear One sounds even more "biblical" now.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last month, it was reported that Olivia Wilde was going to star in the Judd Apatow-produced "biblical comedy" Year One as Princess Inanna, a love interest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/02\/year-one-sounds-even-more-biblical-now.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Year One sounds even more "biblical" now.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, it was reported that Olivia Wilde was going to star in the Judd Apatow-produced "biblical comedy" Year One as Princess Inanna, a love interest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/02\/year-one-sounds-even-more-biblical-now.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-25T23:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R8PQ0KCogcI\/AAAAAAAABJ4\/GBCGWZAgbkc\/s400\/oliviawilde-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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