Director Darren Aronofsky discusses ‘Noah,’ staying truthful to Bible, using creative license
Christians may be a bit skeptical about the new film Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), which was initially described as “not a Biblical film.” Now Aronofsky talks with Rolling Stone about the film, detailing the adaptation, some changes which were made and why.
“When you do the story of Noah, you definitely need a big canvas. It’s one of the greatest stories ever told, and it’s one people that have been telling around the entire world since before recorded history. But when we first started working on the project, we were very clear not to have sandals and robes and long white beards,” Aronofsky says as he explains how the film will be different than many people expect.
“I think the Noah story has become a story for children, but it’s actually the first apocalypse story. It’s a very, very dark story. And it takes place at a time before the world had rainbows! A time when everything was miraculous. That allowed us to imagine big.”
The grandness of the film has been revealed in the trailers featuring Russell Crowe as Noah, Anthony Hopkins as his father Methuselah and a great cast which include Harry Potter star Emma Watson.
“…it’s the fourth story in the Bible, the first story being Creation, the second story being Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden and original sin and the third story being the first murder. Then it jumps forward ten generations and the entire world is wicked and the Creator is so upset with Man that he just wants to destroy it and start all over again. Everything is perfect and Creation is great, then one thing goes wrong and pretty quickly it’s all fallen apart and you’re willing to destroy everything to start again. That’s a pretty dramatic place.”
Obviously the scripture in Genesis is very short and Hollywood wants a film for the mass audience, not just for Christians.
“The hope is that the film is for everyone. The film completely accepts the text, the four chapters in Genesis, as truth – just like if I was to adapt any book, I’d try to be as truthful to the original material as possible. It’s just that there’s only four chapters, and we had to turn it into a two-hour long narrative film. In the Bible, Noah doesn’t even speak. So of course we’ve got to dramatize the story.”
Christians need to be prepared for changes and shocking visuals.
“We tried to remain truthful to the themes and the ideas that are written, but to create a dramatic story for a 21st-century audience. I think people who are believers will see the ideas and the values that they’re looking for represented in the film, and I think people who are non-believers, or come from different traditions, are going to be excited because it’s not your grandmother’s bible. It’s something new, something big and something different.”
There are comparisons to Middle Earth as the nephilim are described.
Check out the full interview HERE
Noah arrives in theaters on March 28, 2014.
[…] ‘Noah’ Movie review: As promised, it’s not a Biblical movie, but worse – it’s not a good movie (theglobaldispatch.com) Director Darren Aronofsky promised his film Noah would not be a “very religious story” and he certainly didn’t disappoint in that regards. Later Aronofsky attempted to clarify his statements, attempting not to alienate Evangelical viewers, saying “I think people who are believers will see the ideas and the values that they’re looking for represented in the film…” – more on that Here. […]
[…] Director Darren Aronofsky promised his film Noah would not be a “very religious story” and he certainly didn’t disappoint in that regards. Later Aronofsky attempted to clarify his statements, attempting not to alienate Evangelical viewers, saying “I think people who are believers will see the ideas and the values that they’re looking for represented in the film…” – more on that HERE. […]
I am glad this movie has some Jews in it (Logan Lerman, who is just Jewish, and Jennifer Connelly, whose mother is Jewish). As opposed to Ridley Scott’s Exodus movie, which somehow has no Jews at all.