Christians Upset over Noah’s Creative License

"Does anyone else find it fascinating that Son of God got little backlash, because it was marketed to Christians & churches, yet Noah isn't marketed to the Church and is getting a ton of backlash? Even though both took substantial creative license," Tweeted Christian author Jefferson Bethke last Monday.

According to the Christian Post, the upcoming Noah film by Darren Aronofsky has stirred up considerable controversy among faith driven audiences. Prominent critics of the film include conservative radio host Glenn Beck, evangelist Ray Comfort, and creationist Ken Ham. The heart of the matter appears to be the creative license Aronofsky used in his interpretation of the events in Genesis. Some Christians have even accused the movie of being a Hollywood creation aimed at secular audiences, rather than a Christian movie that adheres to scripture. As Bethke pointed out though, the recent film by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, Son of God, took similar liberties with its story.         

Aronofsky himself responded to these criticisms in an interview with Religion News Services by stating,

“Where are there liberties? Find me a contradiction in there that can’t be explained. Of course there’s liberties, I mean, we’re making a movie here. If you read the four chapters that the Noah story takes place in, Noah doesn’t even speak. How are you going to cast Russell Crowe and not have him talk? Noah’s wife and his sons’ three wives aren’t even named in the Bible.”

“If you read the story of Noah, it’s very straightforward. The character of Noah just builds the ark and collects the animals. But the struggles, the effort of building an ark, of being responsible for all those animals, being responsible for your family, it’s not explored at all. So how exciting to actually say, ‘Oh wow, here’s this great story, how do we put human emotion into it?’”

Noah is set to be released in North American theaters on March 28. It stars Russell Crowe alongside Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, and Jennifer Connelly.

*Published 3/26/2014