{"id":16075,"date":"2014-03-23T20:14:21","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T03:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=16075"},"modified":"2014-03-29T19:40:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T02:40:22","slug":"is-god-missing-from-darren-aronofskys-noah-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/03\/is-god-missing-from-darren-aronofskys-noah-please.html","title":{"rendered":"Is “God” missing from Darren Aronofsky’s Noah<\/i>? Please."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Reviews of Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Noah<\/a><\/i> have been trickling out for a few days now \u2014 you can read my own first impressions here<\/a> \u2014 and one of the more puzzling remarks I\u2019ve come across so far is a bit from Todd McCarthy\u2019s review<\/a> in The Hollywood Reporter<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Specifically, McCarthy, who likes the film, asserts in passing that Noah<\/i> \u201cwill rile some for the complete omission of the name \u2018God\u2019 from the dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n

When I first read that, I wondered who McCarthy could possibly be referring to. Who, exactly, would be so easy to offend, so eager to nitpick the smallest detail, so ready to assume the worst about this movie that they would live up to the stereotype invoked by McCarthy and actually make an issue of this?<\/p>\n

Enter Breitbart News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Big Hollywood \u2014 the Breitbart website that has been hostile towards Noah<\/i> ever since it published a critique<\/a> of an early draft of the script<\/a> in October 2012 \u2014 devotes only a few sentences to this bit from McCarthy\u2019s review. But devote them, it does, quoting that one line and commenting that the absence of this word \u201cmight make the movie a harder sell to its intended audience\u2013faith-friendly viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

To which all I can say is: Please.<\/p>\n

First of all, even if Big Hollywood had nothing to go by but McCarthy\u2019s review, they would still know that Noah and his grandfather Methuselah \u2014 and presumably other characters as well \u2014 do address God, but they call him \u201cthe Creator<\/a>\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

Second, it should be pretty obvious from everything that has been said and revealed about this film so far that God is a major part of it. Sure, maybe no one calls him \u201cGod\u201d per se<\/i>, but who else is sending the Flood, the visions and the animals?<\/p>\n

Third, calling God \u201cthe Creator\u201d underscores our relationship to him as part of his creation. The creation of the world is a major flashback sequence in this film, and the memory of it hangs over everything else that happens here \u2014 so calling God \u201cthe Creator\u201d keeps that element foremost in our minds. It also has implications for our stewardship of the environment in a way that a word like \u201cGod\u201d does not.<\/p>\n

Fourth, I just generally like it when a movie that takes place in the distant past has the characters speak in something other than modern colloquial English. (See, e.g., how Ben-Hur<\/a><\/i> screenwriter Christopher Fry changed lines like \u201cHow was your dinner?\u201d to \u201cWas the food not to your liking?\u201d) Giving God a slightly different name like \u201cthe Creator\u201d helps Noah<\/i> to feel like it takes place in another time, another place.<\/p>\n

Fifth, in the Jewish tradition at least, to avoid using the name of God directly \u2014 whether by writing \u201cGod\u201d as \u201cG-d\u201d or by calling him something else like \u201cHaShem\u201d (which is Hebrew for \u201cThe Name\u201d) \u2014 is actually a sign of respect.<\/p>\n

Finally, the biggest problem with the claim that the film \u201ccompletely omits\u201d the word \u201cGod\u201d is that the movie does not, in fact, completely omit it.<\/p>\n

There may be other counter-examples, but the one that stands out to me, because it\u2019s written in my notes, is a scene in which Tubal-Cain calls himself a king, and Ham replies, \u201cMy father says there can be no king. The Creator is God.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t just take my<\/i> word for it. My friend Steven D. Greydanus wrote that line in his notes, too<\/a>. And we saw the film at different screenings, a week apart.<\/p>\n

So, please, enough of this meme.<\/p>\n

March 29 update:<\/b> A few sources now report that what Ham actually says is, \u201cMy father says there can be no king in the Creator\u2019s garden.\u201d So take my final point with a grain of salt. But even if I\u2019m wrong on that one detail, my other points still stand.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people are spreading a rumour to the effect that the word “God” is never used in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah<\/i>, as though that were a strike against the film. Here’s why they’re wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[362,1786,1251,58,55,63,2002,173],"class_list":["post-16075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ben-hur-1959","tag-christopher-fry","tag-ham","tag-methuselah","tag-noah","tag-noah-2014","tag-todd-mccarthy","tag-tubal-cain"],"yoast_head":"\nIs "God" missing from Darren Aronofsky's Noah? Please.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some people are spreading a rumour to the effect that the word "God" is never used in Darren Aronofsky's Noah, as though that were a strike against the film. 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