The impressive box office haul for Son of God, a spiritual film culled from footage already broadcast on the hit miniseries The Bible, should bode well for Noah.
Director Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming adventure film is the latest Hollywood project with Biblical roots.
Yet buzz continues to leak from early screenings suggesting the film cares more about sending an environmental message than highlighting the spiritual lessons from the Bible tale.
Aronofsky previously labeled Noah the “first environmentalist,” and a theologian who screened Noah suggests that philosophy is a key part of the film’s narrative.
Jerry A. Johnson, President & CEO of National Religious Broadcasters, rounded up a list of five good, and not so good, elements from the film opening March 28. The theologian’s negative list includes his description that, according to Noah, man’s greatest evil is its “abuse of the environment” courtesy of “primitive industrialization.”
This environmental theme reaches a “preachy” level that secularists would mock if applied to some evangelical doctrine in any other movie … ]To the contrary, the words in Genesis 6 used to describe the sins of Noah’s generation are: wickedness, imagination of the heart on evil always, corruption, and violence. The textual emphasis is on “violence.” Not a word about hunting or mining; knowing this, the environmental agenda feels phony.
Johnson does say the film takes “some key Gospel doctrines seriously” and follows the basic plot points of the original story.
Press reports indicated different cuts of Noah have been screened in recent months to gain feedback on the final product, in part because the studio doesn’t want to offend religious audiences which could make Noah a mega-hit. It remains to be seen if the version Johnson critiqued will be the same one hitting theaters later this month.
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